dicky

Hey guys

I don't see any problems with this but I wanted to be 100% sure before trying. I'm wanting to run my car without ethanol, all I can find is 87 octane non ethanol. I was thinking just get the 87 and add some octane booster, it should be the same thing, right?

The main reason for this is because years ago when they started switching all the gas to 10% ethanol I noticed about a 2 mpg drop. I kinda feel like if its taking more mpg to do the same thing then it must be hurting my performance a tad also. I could be completely off with this, but curious.

Thanks for your help.
Dicky

PRE-Z06

You're not hurting performance with the ethanol blend, but be sure that if you do switch the octane booster you're going to use actually raises the octane level a full 6 points and not a .1 of point as most actually only do...not worth it imho
Not sure of your set-up, but the ones that really increase it substantially from my experience are not cat friendly either.

FloydSummerOf68

Lol, going to 87 octane is what's going to hurt your performance.

Ethanol does not hurt your performance.

Also, E10 should be more like a 1mpg drop for a corvette.

carpe dm

Forget it; put in a top tier gas and drive it.

HOXXOH

A local Z06 guy did a dyno test between 91 E10 and a 50/50 mix of pure 104 and 91 E10. He did this to determine if adding some 104 at the track really helped his times or if it was just hype. He did 3 pulls on the 91 E10 followed by a 3 hr cool down, draining the tank and refilling with the mix, and then 3 more pulls with the mix. The average gain was 7.5 HP and 7.8 Tq with no other changes involved.
He was on a stock factory tune for the whole test.

FireRoc

If you use an octane booster, make sure there is no lead in it. Lead can shorten spark plug life, and in short order kill the O2 sensors and cause cat problems.

I also wonder at the economics of gaining 1 to 2 mpg. Sure you use a little less gas, if you use 87 but you have to add back in the cost of the octane booster and I bet the total cost would be more than just using 91.

I do not think there is a power loss either. The reason for the mileage loss is that alcohol has less BTU content than gasoline....so a little more volume is needed to get the same BTU content. So for the ame power you use a little bit more fuel.

Also, alcohol has a cooling effect on the combustion chamber making the engine less detonation prone (that's how alcohol obtains the octane rating) which allows the PCM to add more spark advance, which can result in more power.

Here in Canada I've been using 94 octance gas with 10% ethonal for many years with no ill effects. In fact, I get very good drivabilty with this mixture -> no stumbling, good acceleration and very little, if any, ping.

db2xpert

Think what it might have done with tuning and that 97 octane mix...