Ethanol

In Alabama, virtually all of the gas stations have stickers on the pump that say, "Contains at least 10% ethanol". I have seen a few gas stations, usually run-down mom-and-pop affairs, never chains, that advertise "100% Gasoline!". Personally, I don't worry about it.

However, I have discovered that absolutely my 1990 7.5L FI Ford engine runs much better using 89 octane instead of 87. No pinging under load. So we always fuel up with mid grade.

Steve

I HATE ethanol in gas!!!

It wreaks havoc on small engines like chainsaws, ATVs, log splitters, water pumps, motorcycles, lawnmowers, etc.

Competing food and fuel results in higher prices for both.

Wish we had pure gas around here.

My guess is the primary difference is conditions unrelated to the ethonal:
- Head wind vs tail wind can easily create that big of a difference.
- How hilly is each state (and what state did the gas actually come from)?
- What is the altitude?
- Did the engine have issues with clogged injectors or other issues from light duty use that got blown out by several days of hard use.
- Was there congestion or stop & go driving conditions?

There are issues with ethonal but the facts don't support that kind of an improvement in gas mileage just based on ethonal.

The number of stations offering non alcohol gas have been increasing in N Florida but the price will knock your head off. Different states require different seasonal blends as well for emission reasons and that may also affect mileage.

And for those of us that are old school and have carbureted engines the ethanol fuel is more prone to vapor lock.

Don't use food for fuel.

We found the non-ethanol fuel in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (and in marinas and airports). We went from 3.90 a gallon here in West Virginia, down to 3.29 a gallon in Georgia.

I noticed that Murphy and Patriot stations seemed to have a good bit of the "pure fuel". It seemed that going up hill under full load that the rig "felt better" with pure fuel.

Some interisting facts about the loss of MPG and HP with ethanol here:

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/006608.html

I'll rephrase. Which states don't have ethanol?
Florida has stations that offer non ethanol but they are few and far between. and the price is usually a buck higher which I attribute to supply and demand.

If you pull into a gas station, they will not have non-ethanol fuel.

Big Katuna wrote:
What states had non ethanol gas? I might move there.

As far as I know they all do. Check out puregas.org, it shows over 8,000 stations selling pure gas in the country, nearly 500 in Florida.
I agree, it's nothing but a gift to the corn farmers.
I only use non-ethanol in my boat, antique truck, and small engines. It run the ethanol mix in the wife's Corolla.

mike-uswest wrote:
Here in my town, it is $1 a gallon higher for the non ethanol gas over the ethanol. There are only a couple of stations in town that sell the non ethanol gas. I use it for boat motors, saws, lawn mowers, or any small motor.

Mike

same story in wenatchee, 3 stations that I know of and also use gas for small motors.

chevman