E10 Concerns By runningslow (Read 773 times)

[runningslow]

I brought this up on another, non-disclosed forum, but I thought I would share it with this community as well.

pure-gas.org/

For those of you concerned about E10 (gasoline with up to 10% ethanol content), I just found this website. I don't know how reliable the information is, but it seems promising. It appears that I have a handful of places in my area, too.

I'm sure the laws vary from state to state, but I found that website while I was researching the law here in Florida. In particiular, I was checking about marine gas, to see if pure gasoline was still available at marinas. What I found are the following exemptions to the law:
(a) Fuel sold for aircraft
(b) Fuel sold for use in boats and similar watercraft
(c) Fuel sold to a blender
(d) Fuel sold for use in collector vehicles or vehicles eligible to be licensed as collector vehicles, off-road vehicles, motorcylces, or small engines.

With a little further investigation, I came to learn about Marathon Recreation Gasolines and from there I found pure-gas.org. It appears that most of the locations where "Recreational Gasoline" is sold are either marine or aviation related. Which, in short translates to airports and marinas. One of the stations listed that is close to me, however, appears to be a local auto mechanic with a couple gas pumps (presumably for recreational use). I haven't driven by to check it out, yet, since its a little out of the way for my daily travels. I'll check it out soon, though.

[ccprof]

Thanks for the research. I haven't seen "pure" around here in quite awhile.

[Bashan]

I posted about this on "another" forum too, I personally think the hype about ethanol damaging your vehicle of any sort is just that...hype. My 10 year ols MC clearly states in the book that it is totally safe to run up to 10% ethanol gas. I'm sure they saw it coming and were prepared. The whole issue is that the molecule is close to water, if you're really worried, use some seafoam once in a while, it actually does bind water type molecules and cleans out your fuel system. I'm not worried but I use it anyway, thanks for the link though. There's actually one in Talladega not listed, I can't remember the name of it but they make a big deal out of selling it. Rich

[Bashan]

Hey, while were at it, what do you guys think of this nitrogen added fuel that Shell sells? Could that help anything? Rich

[runningslow]

I have no clue what possible benefit you could gain from adding nitrogen to fuel. Its a very stable, benign gas, so its not going to burn. Unless, its going to make the gas burn cleaner, I have no idea...

But then, I've also never understood the practice of filling tires with nitrogen, since the atmospheric air that you would normally pump into tires is already 90% nitrogen. But people claim to see benefits, including my parents. I just wonder if that's the placibo effect.

As for the ethanol... newer vehicles that are designed to handle ethanol won't be damaged, per se, but you will see better gas mileage and have cleaner emissions with pure gas. In fact, I'd venture a guess that most fuel injected cars built in the past 20 years are capable of burning the stuff without damage, but all will have reduced performance. Heck, I'd like to compare the performance of the FlexFuel cars that can burn E85 and see how they compare to running E10 and pure-gas.

But, I have heard more than one story of it gumming up small carbureted motors, like lawn mowers and scooters. I have more than once had to clean out the carb and replace the diaphram in my lawn mower (which was getting regular use, year round in Florida)

I've never used Seafoam on the scooter, but I ran through the intake of my truck and made a nice smoke cloud. When I'm filling up my scooter, I usually fill it from a gas can that I premix with Pri-G. It does appear to help.

When I have my scooter running again, I plan to do some experiments on the matter. If I can in fact find some pure gas, I plan to compare my gas mileage with pure gas vs. E10 vs. E10 with Pri-G. Also, premium vs. regular. Maybe I'll mix in some tests with Seafoam, too. Of course I'll go through multiple tanks of each. I'm not claiming my methods will be perfect and definitive, but it might be fun and hopefully I'll get some notable results!

[jct842]

I have said it before....there has to be a reason aircraft and boats have an exemption. Poor people got to love it too, just check the price of a box of cornflakes or the fact that soft drinks have almost doubled in the last 10 years. John

[ootscoot]

We had a problem with fuel level sensor floats getting brittle and falling apart on many of our 08 Chinese scoots, I heard that the ethanol here in CA. reacted with the plastic floats and gummed up the jets. We used a little marine-grade Stabil or seafoam - seem to help

[Bashan]

Y'all are probably aware ethanol has less bang for the buck than gasoline, yields less energy. So when you compare mileage, ethanol added fuel will get less. Ethanol is close in structure to a water molecule so it can have negative effects on systems if it sits in there for a while. If your running your vehicle consistantly I don't think it matters that much. Ootie-wan is right on about the stabil and seafoam, I read up on it. Are we allowed to talk politics? I'll have to ask the head moderator. Anyway, there's a politcal incentive behind ethanol, it's not really helping with the oil supply crisis. SOLAR I SAY! Free energy, when are we going to wise up? Rich

[runningslow]

The original purpose of this thread was to pass on information to those wishing to get their hands on non-ethanol gasoline. Of course, discussion is will almost certainly follow on any topic.

I have been trying to avoid political sentiment in this thread, but with this topic it really is inevitable. So, if no one objects, I'll speak my 2 cents worth.

So, I agree that the use of ethanol is not helping with the oil supply, in fact on average we actually burn more gasoline per mile when we use E10 vs pure gas.

For example, take one gallon of pure gas. Then take a second gallon of pure gas and add 0.1 gallon of ethanol to make 1.1 gallons of E10. You car should actually go farther using using 1.0 gallon of gasoline vs. the 1.1 gallons of E10.

E85, may be a bandaid to using less oil, but from what I've seen its harder to come by than pure gas and there are so few vehicles on the road that can use it safely. None of my cars will, including my wife's 5 year old Corolla.

< soapbox >
What boggles my mind is that we're using all this corn to supplient our energy needs, when there other more viable options available and there are people starving all over the world.
< / soapbox>

Ok, I'm done. Maybe that was 3 cents worth.

[ccprof]

Don't forget meat prices!