Ty Smith

There has been alot of publicity recently in Virginia for the increase in ethanol to gas. All I know about ethanol is it's basically grain alcohol and is added gas to reduce cost and burn cleaner. Yesterday I was at the pump with my 993 and saw the 'warning' sticker, "contains 10% ethanol" I decided to find another gas station.

What's everyone's thoughts on Ethanol additive. Should it be avoided, or is it better? Maybe it's unavoidable.

Porscheologist

Hmm interesting. I would bet that our cars will not do well with Ethanol. Most likely mess with the cat. But there is hope to all 993 lovers worried about rising gas prices. Just check this link.

http://www.electrictransport.net/sho....asp?itemid=42

Somehow it just seems wrong!

p_carfan

Alex, Would MaxFlows fit that .

Rick Lee

Ty, you won't be able to dodge the ethanol much longer. All of VA will have it within the next few weeks. Best you can do it add some gas dryer.

Paulsha911

Yeah! Don't have to worry about SAI/CEL neither. I bet a battery leak would be monstrous though.

jnnking

We've had 10% ethanol in Illinois gas for years. Someone said since the 80's.

amfp

I have added isopropyl gas drier before filling up with E10.
E10 has a bit of a detergent so think we should change fuel filters more often.

Because a moistureless and clean fuel system is important with this change over, start adding gas drier now and continue to do so during the season may be pro-active maintenance.

As mentioned, some states have always been using E10 with no problems.

ca993twin

My "layman" understanding of ethanol is that it is basically an octane booster and is used to replace lead (a long time ago) and more recently, the dreaded MTBE that has been used (at least here in California). The problem with ethanol from a performace perspective is that there is less available BTUs per liter than with gasoline, so a drop in performance... I hear numbers like 90% of the BTUs. So, if you are using 10% ethanol, you may experience a 1% drop in power... prolly not noticable.

In some parts of the country, they are using E85.... 85% ethanol. The cars need to be modified to use E85 because the rubber parts don't care much for ethanol in that concentration. From a green perspective, this is great... can vastly reduce our dependence upon foreign sources of petroleum... but from a narrow, Porsche-centric perspective... Yipes! I NEED MY MPH!

c993k

Remember how crazy it got when you couldn't find leaded gas in the 70's
I thought it was the end of fast cars and that all the engines not made to use unleaded would
blow their valve seals out the exhaust and wear out everything internal! Well nothing happened.
Chris

Bob Rouleau

FWIW - gas drier is pretty much the same as ethanol - i.e. alcohol. It likes water and mixes/bonds with water. That's one of the problems with running E85 - it has too much affinity for water. On the plus side, ethanol does raise the octane rating. While it does contain less energy per liter it does have some benefits, note that indy cars all run on ethanol and hav e for many years. More power from the engine is why they do it. Running full on ethanol or even E85 does require adjustments to carb jets and or injection systems. Ethanol has no effect on cats and is safe in that regard.

Rgds,

Porscheologist

Ok then I wonder if a simple ecu upgrade(tuned for ethanol use) would allow our cars to handle it??

Bull

Indy cars, sprint cars, etc. run on METHANOL. We ran in our inboard hydroplane we raced some years ago.

Ethanol is being mandated by the Feds, so get used to it. We have used it in our State during Nov 1 -April 1 for some years.....not a big deal.

Bull

Our cars have been handling it fine for years.

Tom Pultz

I don't think that's true. From my understanding the whole Ethanol deal is a "feel good" solution as far as cutting our energy dependence. It sounds good on TV and in sound-bites but it costs more in oil burned to produce Ethanol than the energy you get back from it.

ca993twin

Tom,

You raise a very interesting point. I think that may be true TODAY, when we rely on gasoline or diesel tractors for harvest, and for oil for the heat required for the refining. And of course, the oil companies will keep citing that data to keep the use of ethanol down. But... if the tractors were ethanol powered, and the refineries buring ethanol... the equation changes. The other part of this is that it takes more "energy" (of any kind) to make ethanol then you get back... that seems to be hogwash... again watch the sources of the misinformation. Did you see that Brazil just recently switched their entire country to ethanol? No more petroleum oil for them. Now... they use sugar cane as the source and we are talking corn/soy/canola oil, but I'll bet the energy requirements aren't all that different.

My personal green hat is with bio-diesel... I think that is by far the most sensible solution.

Besides the green aspect, think of the $$$$ aspect... the U.S. has zillions of acres of land that are not fully utilized now. Think about the boom to the farm sector if this (ethanol or bio-diesel) takes off. Picture the economic turn-around if the US becomes an exporter of fuel products, hell an exporter of anything! Just keep enough 100 octane race fuel for Rufus, and other performance cars.