Thread: What are you working on?

E85 is 85% ethanol. I hate the stuff. It eats at the seals in my trailer. Ive never had to replace seals as much as i have in the last few years of hauling the stuff.

As we speak, im delivering Mid-grade, non-ethanol fuel to a station. 87.3 octaine. Now my Bill of Laiding calls it Prem. Non-e. And some places sell it as Premium because of this. Plus the fact that if you add the Ethanol to it at 10%, it brings it up to 91 octaine. This is Premium fuel at Colorado elevation.

I bet most of you know Premium to be 93 octaine. But thats because of the lower elevation and more CO2. This Non-oxy 87.3 octain fuel sells for the same cost as Diesel fuel and we all know Diesel cost more than Premium. Im my personnal studies and testing of fuels (gasoline) ive found that burning the Regular fuel is cheaper in the long run. Yes, you dont get as many miles per tankful, but the cost at 10 cents or more a gallon difference doesn't add up the the extra miles you get. Now, if you take the cost of engine repairs into this, i find the issue is the Ethanol and not the lower octaine fuel.

In the fuel tanks at all fuel stations that have ethanol in the fuel, you will very seldom find water. The reason is the ethanol suspends the water in the fuel and keeps the water mixed with the fuel and ethanol. So that when you get it in your vehicle, its a very little amount, and the ethanol counters what can happen if you put water in the tank. So besides the goverment getting kickbacks or whatever for us burning ethanol in our vehicles, it also hides the fact that... ALL GAS HAS WATER IF ITS BEEN IN A TANK! They wont stop condinsation in a tank unless its left full. And that aint happening.

So take this bit of info and believe it or not. Its just my opinion. Its possible i might have played with a little bit more fuel than some of ya. Lol.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

So I'm not mechanical like you guys-would it help my old sputtering Husqvarna lawn tractor to get higher octane gas?

uh.....No........


Old carburetors with diaphragms, power-valves and such suffer with the 10% ethanol.
Eats up the old type stuff and sometimes that is all you can get to replace it with.
Yeah....Has water in it too.

My best friend is a retired mechanical engineer and he swears that Supreme Fuel gives better mileage/even though the factory says to run Regular Fuel.

I stumbled upon this a couple of years ago. I found it informative. If you've got 20+ minutes perhaps you will also.

For those that have never seen this before... Blue is Non-oxy (ethanol free)

I used to be a fiend on the premium fuel. Did some reading and made the switch to Regular 10% ethanol with exception of one old car with higher compression. Mileage diff was minimal or negligible.
Price was greatly reduced. Performance? Seems same.
You cannot shower-down around here without someone in the road ahead!


Seems the amount of corn needed along with the taxpayer-subsidies to make and implement Ethanol in our motor fuels is a thing not really working. It is to minimize emissions, yet you use a pile more of it IF you run it in a car designed to use it (E85). If your car was not made to use it, not good..

Lots of additional devices and software involved for your car to know if you have put corn or gas into it and to make necessary adjustments to air, fuel, timing, emissions, and such.
Makes the cars more expensive....

Once in a while they will send me on an Ethanol run. Going way out in the county to the corn fields to the industrial size 0rofesional still. It takes up about 20 acres of land and has 2 big tanks. One says 190 proof the other is 200 proof. They inject a denaturer into it just before it gets to my trailer. Thats to keep ya from wanting to take a bit home for drinking. Ha. As if!

Love the smell of straight corn alcohol, i mean ethanol. Ha.

Well here's the thing, ethanol/ alcohol absorbs moisture, and begins to break down after 17 days or so. In our cars its not that much of a problem since we burn up a tank a lot faster than boats. So the longer it sits, the worse it gets. Boats in the northern parts of the country sit for many months (winter). And that's when it happens.

Customer's boat has been sitting since October of last year. Got it out for the labor day weekend...no go!!

I couldn't tell you how many carbs I do every year, but its in the hundred count. Its not as much a problem with closed fuel systems ( fuel injected ). I hate the EPA for this butting in and screwing everything up. Of course at the tax payers expense. Hope Europe enjoys the clean air we send them, only to have it return from Africa, full of pollutants.

Interesting video on the new engine management systems abilities to de tune for higher octane as in knock control etc.
To me it’s simple, the higher the octane, the greater explosive, or combustive energy released per cylinder stroke, everything else being equal.
The video had some merit but was also a little misleading. In the beginning the dynomometer showed around 6 hp required to propel the vehicle at a certain speed. The tech then wrongly expected that stat to go down with premium. The energy required on the Dyno will still be around 6 hp regardless of fuel but the engine should have achieved same 6hp at a slightly lower rpm.
Later when they were reading emissions I was surprised that newer cars potentially dump fuel automatically to maintain compression and timing ranges, but I have no personal experience with that. I do know I intentionally dump fuel in my Corrado at pre-launch to keep my turbo spooled up before I drop the clutch. But that is a specific engine mgmt mod not typical of regular cars.
Full time Auto guys like Tom and Jerry can correct me but basically I still believe that higher octane equals higher bang, or caloric energy per cylinder stroke unless automatic changes are imparted by the engine computer, not typical of older cars. Higher exhaust gas temperatures due to hotter burn will, over time, unburden the catalytic and leave a better breathing exhaust path, which should equate to a more efficient running engine and easier emission test passing.
And is the only fuel rated for engines with high compression ratings and or racing because of the above absolutes.
Regular cars can run fine on regular gas yes, and with the new ECUs, maybe they should. I’d have no issue saving some money at the pump. Maybe I will try this on my Pacifica. She’s a dog anyway no matter what I feed her..
Happy motoring men!

From what my mechanic and some tech car info online said, premium gas in an engine tuned for lower octane does not burn all the fuel. Which would seem to me to burn at a lower temp and send unburned fuel to the catalytic converter.
Logically, though I'm not an engineer or a mechanic (though mechanics often give dubious information), this would seem to lower mileage and hurt the catalytic..

Driving through ethanol states, I put premium in my car yet I have no idea which is better for an engine, the wrong grade or ethanol?
I assume ethanol is worse for seals, and wrong grade worse for catalytic???

I just reread my post from last night. I dont want anyone to think that i know everything about fuel. I haul it around all day and night, but ive done my own tests with it. As some of you also have done. Ethanol is a good thing for enjected engines, but as Mike/Outback has said, its just bad for any vehicle or machine that runs with a carb. It does bring the octain levels up so that most fuels now are what we call a base fuel and lower octaine. And this is easier and cost less to make. Savings all around for the makers of fuel and goverments.

As a side note, some transporters of fuel will have there own storage tanks and buy fuel in bulk for storage. In these tanks they will add other things to the fuel. Sometimes it is bad stuff that others pay them to get rid of. Its mixed in the gas at a low percentage so that your vehicle will burn it and not notice.
This add to the quantity of fuel and they make money on bother ends. Paid to get rid of the junk and more quantity. I know of a couple of these places and try to stay away from buying where there fuel is delivered. I cant say it has caused issues with vehicles but i dont want to take the chance in mine.

So fuel marked at an octaine is that octaine, but you just dont know what else might be in it. And tbose little mom and pop store you run across, try to stay away from. Fuel doesnt sell fast enough. It sits to long and the tank gets stale. They order there own fuel and many times i will deliver a full load or regular to these places and find they dont have enough room in the tank to hold it all. They then tell me to put the rest in the Premium tank. So when your paying extra for Premium, it might not be.

Buy from stations that sell lots of fuel and are busy. You will get fresh fuel and you will get what you think you are getting.