Fuel for Gassers

Ponderosa wrote:

Hikerdogs wrote:
If you're looking to improve fuel mileage non ethanol regular (87 octane) is the way to go. As mentioned the ethanol does nothing in that regard except lower the mileage by the amount of ethanol in the fuel. With a 10% blend you can expect a 10% poorer mileage than with non ethanol unleaded.

It's a bit amusing that the non ethanol regular gasoline is most available in Iowa, the state that produces the most ethanol in the country. Non ethanol regular wasn't even available in neighboring Wisconsin until about 5 years ago. Even now it's not available at most stations. It's more easily found in rural areas and those catering to "recreational vehicles". In this case recreational vehicles refers to ATV's and marine inboard and outboard motors.

A 10% reduction in mileage would imply that ethanol has no available energy on combustion. In fact, it is around 3 to 4% less than gasoline. So the mileage drop in reputable testing I have seen is also 3%-4% not 10%. That is also my experience when I have experimented. I would much prefer the real thing, but with pricing what it is, it is simply too expensive for payback at that number. I use it only in my stuff that frequently sits for months unused.

The problem with “reputable testing” is that it’s just that, testing, done in a laboratory.

In the real world, where we ‘test’ our mileage going down the highway, the differences are VERY different. There is water entrainment, fuel adulteration, messed timing based on false or misleading sensor input and generally much lower performance.

The only ‘real’ way to measure fuel economy is to do large scale real world test twice, once each on 2 different types of fuel. I have done that repeatedly and the results were FAR more than 3% to 4% different.