Gas question

Well.... I have seen the lab test reports, And the warnings from the engine makers, and have checked out the chemistry. There is evidence to suggest that higher concentrations of alcohol may damage engines NOT designed for it (Mercury Outboard Motor's test) Of course if the engine IS designed for it,, Then that test would not apply.

And there is a fact that alcohol contains less energy per gallon that gasoline so your MPG suffers with Alcohol. Without double checking the research (Which I do not feel like doing just now) I believe EtOH is about 10 percent less powerful, so E-10 should cost you 1% in MPG. That said I have seen much greater claims.

This I do know.. I ran low level alcohol (1-2% in my cars in the winter for many years (Standard/Amoco gasoline) before they were bought by BP.

They added HEET gas line antifreeze to the mix (At least when the driver was adding it, If they added at the plant I doubt they used that brand).. This is basically shellac thinner or Wood Alcohol, Works much like the grain alcohol they use today but a bit more expensive.

This worked as a gas line antifreeze because it dissolves water and carries it along into the combustion chamber where it is turned into steam and exhausted out the tail pipe.

Works very well in fact as I and a few others have proven.

I'm not sure what that water is doing to the engine either.

Still makes me laugh when ethanol comes to a state that didn't have it.

We have had ethanol in our gas for over 20 years now. Everything I own runs and starts just fine. And I have turned over 200,000 miles on several of my pick trucks that I liked so much I just couldn't trade them in. :C

The ONLY piece of equipment that I add sta-bil to is my lawn tractors, wood chippers etc. when putting them up for the long winter months when they are not used. Come Spring I add gas and they fire right up. And that practice is used when leaving any type of gas in a small engine left for any length of time.

The chicken little 'the sky is falling about ethanol' is all just media hyped rumors to make you crazy.

Remember millenniums, wikipedia is composed of any idiot that wants to post to it. It is NOT an encyclopedia where all the information was researched. :W

NinerBikes wrote:
Sometimes I get bad gas, sometimes I get good gas.


With a barrel of oil being so cheap, it it going to make adding ethanol to gasoline a cost prohibitive idea with so much surplus gasoline available for so cheap, compared to corn made alcohol? Thinking about my little honda Eu1000i generator, and how much it hates alcohol in it's carburetor's jets, with varnishing and all.

I don't think there is a lot of bad gas but some is better than others, I have found that the gas on the east coast isn't the same quality as what we find in the Midwest, I notice in the mileage we get.

I use E10 in my Honda generator, 5th wheel built in generator,outboard motor, lawn mowers, car and our truck and have 0 problems with it. The biggest problem with switching to E10 is running enough of it through what ever your using it in so it clean all the residue that straight gas has left behind. We have left our car at our homebase for up to 2 years with a full tank of E10 without any problems, just hook up the battery and start driving it.

Denny

KD4UPL wrote:
...Gas is not cheap because the oil companies want it that way. It's called supply and demand, it's a basic economic principle.

Correct, the U.S. is now a net exporter of refined crude. OPEC wanted to cut production to get the price of a barrel of crude back up. The Saudi's said no. I believe they want to put the U.S. producers out of business. Saudi Arabia can make a profit on crude at $15 a barrel and they have the largest known reserves. U.S. producers need at least $55 a barrel to remain profitable, fracking is not cheap.

Never had bad gas either,....that includes, in a 1000 Honda gen, a 2 stroke tiller, a 4 stroke Honda outboard, a 4 stroke Kawi Mule,
Relates in S CA never have had bad gas either.

Maybe all you paranoids out there that have all these problems from corn oil, would send some detailed photos of the actual damage,.....or damaging deposits
that it leaves.

The real purpose of ethanol is to buy the votes in all those square states. Remember that every state gets two senators, so that is a lot of political power from a relatively small part of the US population. Always follow the money.

beemerphile1 wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Ethanol is subsidized by tax payers.

Ethanol is not a choice for the gasoline companies, it is a government mandate that is subsidized by the taxpayers. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing I am helping the environment! TIC

Yup, Ethanol is mandated. The relative price of gas vs ethanol is totally irrelevant. Well, ok, mostly irrelevant. The purpose it serves is a reduction in pollutants, and it is a much safer additive than the compound in replaced, which had a propensity for leaking from fuel tanks and contaminating ground waters, and then getting into drinking water. Ethanol, however, even if it does get into ground water, is not a cancer causing agent, like the previous stuff.

NinerBikes wrote:
Sometimes I get bad gas, sometimes I get good gas.


With a barrel of oil being so cheap, it it going to make adding ethanol to gasoline a cost prohibitive idea with so much surplus gasoline available for so cheap, compared to corn made alcohol? Thinking about my little honda Eu1000i generator, and how much it hates alcohol in it's carburetor's jets, with varnishing and all.

Short answer is NO, it won't..

Long answer: Alcohol contaminated gasoline has NEVER been a cost saver and never will,, The cost, in terms of barrels of oil, of moving a gasser motor home 1,000 miles on PURE gasoline, is less than (And always has been) than moving the same motor home on E-10 (or e, just about anything greater than 2).

Of course the cost of fuel is lower with Gasahaol but we are not saving oil by boozing up our gasoline..

There is much more like wear and tear on the engine and so on I won't go into.

I will comment on the 1 or 2%... In days of old the commercials for Standard (Later Amoco) Gasoline (American Oil Company, John D Rockefeller's company) this time of year included the phrase "My Advice Sir, Get De-Icer" Standard added about 1% HEET brand gas line antifreeze (wood alcohol, the kind you should not drink) to the mix in the winter. Worked too.. I proved it myself.

Alas, they sold out to British Petroleum (BP) so I do not know if they still do that (Well with E-10, no need).

MFL wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Ethanol is subsidized by tax payers.

Correct, and if we tax payers were not subsidizing this fiasco, we could get rid of it. No one would pay more for ethanol, knowing they would travel less miles per gallon.

Don't forget the supermarket savings, we are burning our food, mixed with gasoline.

Jerry

Actually Congress allowed the Ethanol subsidies to "lapse" on Jan of 2012..

Here is one of the reports on that..

HERE

But, don't get your hopes up.. as long as EPA "mandates" Ethanol for "cleaner air" you will never, ever see it being removed totally from gasoline..

On on better note at least PA has now bucked the EPA and lifted the "mandated" "summer blend" of gasoline :) which amounted to nothing more than a extra hidden tax that easily drove up fuel costs $.15 per gallon and reduced the mileage even further :M

As far as having any issues with Ethanol in my gas.. no problems on my end.. I run it in antique engines, lawn mower, chain saws, weed eater, several generators and all my daily driver modern vehicles..

The ONLY thing I have noticed is if you allow Ethanol laced gas sit long enough in a NON AIR TIGHT can it will pull moisture out of the air to the point it drops out and falls to the bottom of the container as water droplets..

Moral of the story, do not use ALL the fuel out of the can (IE dump the entire can into your tank) or shake up the fuel can very well.. Shaking it will recombine the water into the Ethanol.. The danger to that is if you don't use all the fuel the water will settle out in your gas tank :S

Last time I got bad gas was 1974 during the "Gas Shortage".