Filled up the other day. For some reason I started reading the label on the pump. One listed 10% ethanol. Is this in all fuels now? How does it affect fuel mileage?

Jake T.

 

Seems like most of the gasolines any more have 10% ethanol. I believe you get slightly less mileage due to the fact that ethanol contains less energy output or BTU's than regular gasoline. Our Shell stations around here are still 100% gasoline but that could vary from area to area. Always have liked Shell V-Power for my C5.

 

This was a Shell station. Probably add the 10% ethanol because of the New England region. Just a guess.

Jake T.

 

This could start a thread of rabid debate, but the facts are this:

With a 10% ethanol blend, your mileage will suffer slightly. The good news is that with a 10% blend, your horsepower will improve slightly.

As the blend percentage increases, so does the mileage decrease and the power increase. Oh, and your emission levels - all of them, go down.

Tests using E85, an 85% ethanol blend show between 5 and 10 percent decrease in gas mileage, yet show about the same in horsepower/torque increases. These tests were done on cars that were not tuned according to their fuel. So if you were able to tune your car to the higher octane, your power ouput should increase even more so.

Now here the caveat to the 10% blends - not all, but some, such as the 5% blends here in Oregon. Oregon mandated an ethanol blend to reduce the emission levels. Sounds good right? Well, what we ended up getting was a low grade gasoline - so low that it couldn't be sold on its own. However, with the ethanol blended into it, the octane was raised to 87, so it could be sold. The bottom line is, the gas was and is, ultimate crap. It dirties the engine, the oil and the filters and makes the car run horribly. I am not exaggerating.

As a result, ethanol get a bad name here in Oregon and it is too bad because it wasn't the ethanol that was the problem, it was the gasoline that they were putting it into that was the problem. There has been a fairly strong public resistance to ethanol here because of it.

All in all, it was another win for the oil companies. They didn't want ethanol to begin with and fought it tooth and nail. Then when they were finally forced into blending it, they used the worst gas they could come up with, thus making the ethanol look bad. Give the average Oregonian a choice between ethanol and gas, and they'll pick the gas. Big oil won.

Currently, there is a political effort, albeit small at this point, to redefine the blend standard, making the blended fuel better grade.

 

There was an ethanol mandate that just got voted down today in the state assmebly here in Wisconsin. Too bad it didn't apply to southeastern Wisconsin where we still have to fill up with that stuff.

Anyway, my understanding is you get lower gas mileage in autos and over time it destroys the fiberglass in the fuel tanks of boats. Not good stuff.

 

The Sunoco's I use in the Detroit Area all have 10% Ethanol.
Fred

 

I stopped at a Sunoco in NJ (not near were I live) several weeks ago with my truck and was suprised to see the gas prices so cheap. As I was filling up I notice the big sign near the street avertising Ultra as 93 octane. I thought to myself, "Huh, that odd ... Ultra is always 94 octane." Then I was checking near the pumps and I saw the label stating that they were using 10% Ethanol. I also notice that all the grades of Gas were a octane point lower that usual and knew then it was due to the Ethanol. Dang! I thought as I always used the Ultra in my Vette and now even Sunoco, a gas I always trusted is selling out too! A few days later I went to my local Sunoco station and they still had the Ultra at 94 and all the grades were they were pre Ethanol. That station had not 10% E signs up and was told that it was a Corpate owned station and they are still straight gas. Who knows if they are blowing smoke up my pant leg .. but I still get my gas there.

 

In Nebraska I have yet to see Premium fuel with E-10 additive, but regular with E-10 is always higher in octane rating than "pure" gasoline....generally 90 or 91 octane for E-10 and 87 for regular. This is in line with what I'd always heard about Ethanol, that it increases octane. Now, exactly what "octane" means is another story.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem99527.htm

 

If our Governor gets his way, all our fuels will have an ethanol blend in them. Already the mid-grade has a 10% blend. Been running that for years in most of my cars and never had a problem. If gas mileage does suffer, it can't be much.