Ward Cleaver

The gas station that I've been using recently changed their premium gas to a 10% ethanol blend.
I used this website to quickly find two other gas stations in my area that sell pure, non-ethanol premium. I thought some of you might find it useful.
Just click on your state's initials at the bottom of the website and it'll bring up a list of gas stations selling non-ethanol fuel in your state.

I filled up at one of the stations this afternoon. They have a sticker on the premium pump that says "No Ethanol" and the octane is 93.

Ethanol might not be harmful for my Vette, but I figure why use it when I can get 93 octane non-ethanol less than 5 miles from my home.

zaragoza

ccrazor

ghlkal

A station 2 miles from my house sells non-ethanol premium. Unfortunately, it's $.45 / gallon more expensive than their regular, which makes it $.25 / gallon more expensive than ethanol based premium at other top-tier stations.

How much more are you paying, if any, for the non-ethanol premium?

Leftoverture

Great list, but I found at least one of my regular stations was missing (I added it). If you live in Minnesota, here's another list that's usually up-to-date:

MSRA's Non-Oxy List

Ward Cleaver

The other stations in town are selling 10% ethanol premium for $3.39 a gallon...and it's 92 octane.

The non-ethanol 93 octane that I got yesterday was 3.47 a gallon.

BrianCunningham

Thanks

H P Bushrod

abdo

Despite what some Corvette owners say, non-ethanol premium will give your car better mileage in addition to better performance. I think the extra cost is well worth it. I use it always in my '86 Coupe.

Keystring

For anyone in Canandaigua...

This station no longer sells gas... Service only..

Canandaigua UNBRANDED 91 Tom's 267 S Main St

RetiredSFC 97

For you Missouri folks

You should use 91 or higher in your vette. All 91 and higher fuel in Missouri does not contain ethanol. If some does please correct me and point me to your source please

But all 89 and below does contain it. Also 87, in most places is the same gas as 89 octane. Some stations do not mark up the 89 and others do. But it's almost always the same gas. I've posted an article from KC about this several times in the past 3 years.

joe paco

from what GM says, use the octane rated for your car. there is no power gain from running 93 if your compression ratio allows 87. also, the fsm cautions that the ethanol is necessary for emissions and for sensors.

the higher octane is for detonation control, not power. that's why premium in a lawnmower won't work. the fuel mixture slows down combustion.

by all means, everyone is free to use what they want. but few owners can quantify results of changes, other than "feel."

every wonder why so many of these stations are smal, obscure, selling fuel as a sideline to other stuff? I don't know the answer, but have wondered.

HlhnEast

I am in LA..........Lower Alabama right now and the closest station, an Exxon, has no ethanol across the grades. The nearest decent size town has a Shell that sells no ethanol fuels. The price is $0.10-0.12 more than the blend and I am happy to buy it.

Ward Cleaver

My owners manual states to "use 91 octane...'or higher'...for best performance."


In addition to the above octane recommendation in my owner's manual, it also says if a lower octane is used, the car won't accelerate as well.
Joe, the reason the owner's manual states it won't accelerate as well with lower octane fuel as it does with higher octane fuel is because the higher octane fuel can be compressed more without igniting...thus when it does ignite, there's more complete combustion.


Premium is all I've ever used in my lawn mowers, and they've run superb. It's also all I've ever used in weed whackers.


The two stations in my area that sell 93 octane non-ethanol premium aren't "small and obscure," and most gas stations nowadays sell fuel along with other stuff. Many gas stations today are accompanied by small stores, mini-marts, etc.

Bottom line Joe, I've heard stories about ethanol degrading rubber components in fuel systems, gaskets, etc.
Ethanol may not do any harm to the fuel system in my Vette, but on the off chance that it might, I'm going to avoid it.
Also, with my owner's manual telling me to use 91 octane "or higher," and stating that the car will not accelerate as well if less than 91 octane is used, 93 octane non-ethanol premium is a win-win situation for me.

PLRX

I'm saving this for my next adventure.

Last year I filled up at Las Cruces, NM and magically Betty Boop was giving me 26-28 MPG, normally it gives 22 MPG max. Non-Ethanol fuel rocks!

Ward Cleaver

Pete, thanks for jogging my memory, I forgot to mention gas mileage.
Gas mileage also goes up when using non-ethanol fuel instead of ethanol.

joe paco

for the record, I am not a strong supporter of ethanol in gasoline, except that it does reduce emissions. it is the price we pay for cleaner air.
ethanol has far less btu than gasoline. my point is that an engine using 91 with no problems will not gain from using 93 -with or without ethanol.
octane is a "burn inhibitor" and can actually cause more carbon buildup on pistons and valves. it is not cleaner burning, nor is it more powerful. it allows the engine to use all the spark advance it is designed for without detonation. anyone who has endured VET -emissions testing- knows that it is not cleaner burning than ethanol.

you should benefit in mileage from non ethanol 91, but using 93 does not gain anything -unless your engine is out of whack. when I calculate mileage, I get one single number, 21.1, whatever, not 21-23 or some ballpark figure.
-maybe my cheap Texas Instruments calculator.

QCVette

I wish we had some competitively priced non ethanol gas available here.

The no ethanol is better gas simply because gasoline has more energy than ethanol. I don't remember the exact figure, but ethanol is only about 60% of the energy in gas.

That means that even a 10% ethanol blend has about 5% less energy than pure gas. Expect about that much reduction in power and fuel economy on most cars.