Real Gasoline, not Ethanol

This string has some fairly technical information - more than I probably need to know, but ethanol hasn't been a friend to several of my gasoline powered machines. I switched all of my lawn equipment - garden tractor, leaf blower, etc. to non-ethanol several years ago. The costs of getting the fuel systems repaired at our local power equipment store was costing more than I wanted to shell out. Most of that equipment (chain saws) tend to set for several weeks to months without being started. I always try to drain the full and run it dry, but I still end up with problems. Some kind of green-colored mold in the carburetors that hardened and was difficult to remove. The only issue is that I'm paying about $1 more per gallon for the 93 octane non-ethanol, but everything idles well, starts well, and doesn't stink.

I tried it in my F-150 a couple of times and found that I had better acceleration and gas mileage, but not enough to justify the costs.

 

i put stabile in my power equipment. no idea if non ethanol is offered around here. i haven't had any problems.

 

Central Va. is good for trying E0. Here in NoVA we have EPA reformulated gasoline, which is about 20 cents/gal more and we do not have any E0 around here.

 

pure-gas.org

IS this site still available? Thanks

 

While I am unsure why it was impossible for you to type the URL into a browser yourself, it is still up.

(As always, if getting 3% better gas mileage costs you more than 3% more at the pump, you are losing money with 'pure gas')

 

thanks--came up as: Ethanol Free Gas Stations

 

Sounds like you did a browser search rather than actually hand typing the website you mentioned.

When I manually typed the URL you posted, I get this: Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada

 

got it--thanks

 

Even f you enter a website address into google search, or even just a reasonably close approximation, it's pretty good at finding the site, typically the first hit.

 

I have it as an app on my iPhone. It is available in the app store.

 

What's your experience with E0 down there in central VA Neo? How do you like it? I'd have to drive down to your place to get me some.

 

Finding it can be a challenge from time to time. I have to use 93 octane in the Super Coupe - didn't have ethanol when that car was "born". It has been a blessing in the lawn and garden equipment. The app makes it easier to find, but you can't always tell what octane they have. I have six options within 10 miles of the house with only one that has 93 octane. The next closest "high-test" is about 25 miles one way.

There are lots of places in Harrisonburg with non-ethanol and a couple in Winchester. Not sure about areas north of Richmond.

 

I could maybe do Winchester as increasingly the Beltway traffic makes detour thru Winchester feasible on way to Pittsburgh.

 

Talking about ethanol free fuel, I filled up at my local ESSO Garage this morning, on my way to work. The attached picture shows my MPG for the 15 mile journey from the Fuel Station to where I work.

I noticed rather quickly during the journey that my MPG readings seemed higher than usual for every section of the commute.

The temperature was 12c. I used cruise control to keep to the speed limits for about 3/5 of the trip. I also switched to manual throttle control when going through 2 underpasses, using the gravity wells to swing me out of the dip with mpg no lesser than 70mpg coming out of the underpasses - achieved by also feathering the throttle.

I got to work to find 70.2mpg on the MFD.
It was 70.4mpg by the time I'd parked inside the car park at 5.55am.

I've never seen figures like this for 15 miles to work before - and certainly NOT at 12c temperature. My MPG before fill up was 56.1 @ 512 miles (filled up with 42 litres).

My only explanation for this is that somehow, the pump I filled up from must have had ethanol free petrol in it.
Throughout the journey, I noticed the MPGs rise rather quicker than usual and stay at higher levels than usual.
I can't think of anything else that might have caused these unusual readings.

Explanations are most welcome


iPhone 6s +

 

Gasoline can vary in energy content (density) and of course ethanol content. Especially Premium could be very high energy content if it stuffed with high density aromatics. In the US I am expecting 10% difference between the lower energy content fuel and higher energy content fuel. It is not guaranteed that Premium has more energy, it is just a possibility depending on formulation details. What I do sometimes is get exactly 1.5-gal is a red plastic gaso container and go hone and measure weight right away to get density. In the USA, the aromatics are regulated by EPA so that reduces energy content.

When measuring MPG, I believe EPA uses density of test fuel mathematically to adjust observed reading to a constant energy content (direct multiplier).

The fact that Prius is so clean re: emissions makes me wonder if EPA's aromatics restrictions (and ethnaol dang it) are unnecessarily hurting MPG - which we can see so well in a Prius
50 MPG we want to see maybe 60 these days

 

Update of my November 9, 2015 post:
As stated above, my last 5 low 87 octane, low compression ratio (9:1 to 10.5) gasoline engines registered year-round E0 (ethanol-free) increases of 8%, 8%, 7%-8%, 7% & 5%, over E10. Not only does E10(10% ethanol) have a 3% btu decrease compared to E0, but ethanol needs high compression ratio(16:1) ethanol engines to extract its energy efficiently because ethanol has an octane of 114. Low compression ratio( 9:1 to 11:1), low 87 octane gasoline engines can't get the energy out of ethanol. This is quite obvious, despite ethanol advocates denying the mpg collapse of ethanol in low compression ratio, low 87 octane gasoline engines.

As the news trickled out that E10 efficiency was worse than EPA & "ethanol in gasoline industry" lies (1.5% to 3%), pure-gas.org showed increasing leaps(14% per year) in E0 source availability, now soaring to 10,591.

EPA & "ethanol in gasoline industry" always depended on "minor to moderate" price gap drops for E10 to keep the public "satisfied" with ethanol in gasoline. Now, with the widening availability of E0, someone is tickering with the "minor to moderate" price gap between E0 & E10. Often during the recent major price drops in E10, the same price drop is NOT occurring for E0. Presently, in many areas of the country, E0 is outrageously priced, octanes being equal. For the price 10 gallons of E0, you can buy 15 gallons of E10, INCLUDING the 1.5 gallons of ethanol PLUS the 13.5 gallons of E0.
This isn't economics. This is EPA, working with the "ethanol in gasoline industry", behind the scenes, to rob the American public. The decades of EPA & "ethanol in gasoline industry" lies, cause the American public to fall asleep as the ethanol passes through their engines WITHOUT producing much work.

 

this is SO very true----

 

Is pure gasoline good for the engine long-term if the engine is designed to run on the Ethanol blend? The computer is making its calculations on the expected performance of ethanol based gasoline for the U.S. market.

 

There is no pure gasoline, gasoline is always a mixture of various organic compounds. It may or may not include ethanol, but that does not make more or less 'pure' in any sense.

E0 is gas with no ethanol, E10 is 10% ethanol, etc.

Gasoline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

If anything, it is designed for straight gasoline (most of the world), but also designed to tolerate the common (but not yet universal) U.S. ethanol mandates. The ECUs can adjust performance to fit a wide range of fuel blends, while the fuel tanks and lines and fittings are designed to tolerate a certain narrower range of stuff.