Last930

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about a bill passed a few days ago that will up the amount of alchohol in our fuel from 10 to 15%. Anyone else know anything about this? What will this do to our fuel systems? What are our options if we want to maintain reliability and driveability? Any premium fuels sold these days without ethanol?

Benny771

Well,
As far as i know....
The top brand of Shell.

911rudy

I don't think they will put ethanol in premium fuel because it would be an oxymoron. Ethanol has less energy in it and I believe the octane rating would have to be lowered if it is added. Just think, it takes about a gallon and a half of petroleum based fuels to produce a gallon of plant based ethanol and it has only 80% of the energy as gasoline! That means that you have to use more to go the same distance as pure gasoline. Only Congress could see that as a good idea.

Stratman

http://pure-gas.org/

This might help

racer

1) the suggestion was for 15% ethanol to be used in cars made since MY 2000.. Not 1978.. or 1988 for instance. This implies there may be yet another pump to choose from.. 87, 89,91,92,93,94 octanes.. then there are the diesel pumps and, if in the middle of the US, E85 and other multi-blends.

I think there will be further tests to study impact on older cars. But to be fair, most cars built since year 2000 have been designed to handle small amounts of ethanol mixed into gasoline.

Whenh MTBE was ruled out as being too toxic an additive to gas, Ethanol seemed to jump right up into its place.

2) near me, ALL fuels (except diesel) contain 10% ethanol (yup, regular, midgrade and premium gas) and have little to no effect on cars. It would be a bigger concern if you had a fiberglass gas tank (like boaters do). One preventative step might be to replace you existing rubber fuel lines with new ones, simply because the ethanol (nee alcohol) can degrade the lines quicker.. and if yours are already 25 years old, its just a smart thing to do.

3) Thank the corn lobby and your governments misplaced desire to reduce its dependence on foreign oil

Last930

I've read studies that show higher concentrations of ethanol can hold greater amounts of water in solution. When the water starts to separate out of the gas it can be much more corrosive than many parts were designed for. While fuel lines and fuel tanks come to mind, other more precision parts - fuel distributor head, fuel pumps, pressure regulators etc. (read: very expensive) can be damaged by both water and ethanol.

If they force the gas stations to install different pumps for the 15% ethanol mixtures then we can vote with our wallet as to which fuel to use, but somehow I doubt the entire gas station industry will retool their gas pumps to address this. While the newer cars won't be too much affected , the older ones like the early 930's can face some issues potentially.

racer

I recall, perhaps in Washington State, maybe 5+ years ago(?), there were some issues for folks with 911SCs with some of the issues you mentioned. However, I can't recall the Ethanol level that they were forced to consume

Time to write your congressman to vote NO.. and slip 'em a few bucks too I guess.