Ethanol. Should it be avoided if it can be avoided?

[HedonismBot]

Only 3,000km on the clock but every tank has been ethanol free (Shell V-Power in Canada).

The problem is having to plan ahead as to where to get my next tank has me feeling all:



Is there any reason to continue this besides idiosyncratic madness? Could it result in cleaner injectors in the long term? Less carbon buildup?

[LINDW4LL]

If there are two gas stations on the same corner, one offering no ethanol, and the other 10% or whatever, you might as well go for the non-ethanol one. In any other case, no, it doesn't make sense to seek out the non-ethanol stations.

[Pilfer]

Lol, love the picture and I can understand how you feel. I don't even remember the last time I saw ethanol free gas. I don't really look though to be honest.


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[boomtime]

Interesting non ethanol vpower in canada. its 10% here.
Down here in south florida we have quite a selection depending where you go.
87 Octane (10% ethanol)
89 Octane (10% ethanol)
90 Octane (non ethanol)
91 Octane (10% ethanol)
92 Octane (10% ethanol)
93 Octane (10% ethanol)
e85 Flex (85% ethanol)

Obviously not all gas station have all these flavors but a few have almost all of them under 1 roof.

I have heard that about the e85 cleaning the FSI engines better than 93 but i dont think 10% ethanol is going to help one way or the other with regards to the carbon.
Of course you cant run e85 unless the car is rated for it... do they have the corn juice in canada?

[moose_head]

E85 is almost non-existent in Canada. Only a few stations sell it. 5%-10% is common, with some 0% still sold as mentioned. They still sell all the same FlexFuel/E85 vehicles as the US, which makes it kind of funny to see the useless badge.

Choosing one with 0% ethanol makes sense if it's the same price as one with some ethanol. The whole point of ethanol was supposed to be that it's cheaper to compensate for reduced mileage (and emissions I guess.) On the other hand, ethanol gives slightly better power. I doubt it's noticeable at 10% ranges.

[QuattroRocket]

Chevron 94 has no ethanol and is my go to pump. You will also notice that the cheaper ethanol pumps sound cheaper until you see that you actually get less miles on a tank. I find I get an extra almost 10% mileage on a tank with no ethanol.

[LINDW4LL]

Ethanol has about 30% less energy than gasoline, so you need 30% more fuel by volume when using pure ethanol.

So with a full tank, 90% gasoline, 10% ethanol, you should see a ~3% difference at most.


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[redrocker55]

Check out this link

http://pure-gas.org

It's not 100% accurate but it gets you started.

If I can put ethanol free gas in my car I do it every time. The engine simply runs better as measured by mpg.

[Skywagon]

If you can avoid it do so!

[chaos2984]

Ethanol has about 30% less energy than gasoline, so you need 30% more fuel by volume when using pure ethanol.

So with a full tank, 90% gasoline, 10% ethanol, you should see a ~3% difference at most.


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YES but the easier way to look at it is ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline.

But i dunno about avoiding it if you can. Its not worth it to seek it out. Id say its only worth it if ethanol free fuel is easy to find. Because going out of your way your going to burn what you save to get that ethanol free fuel. But as far as ethanol properties. I believe that now days cars can withstand the 10% without any long term effects. The only thing I've seen it do is eat certain type of fuel level sensors. The type with the fingers not the button type. But i don't know if that was poor design or due to the ethanol but thats the only thing I've seen.

[flyinverted]

Chevron 94 has no ethanol and is my go to pump. You will also notice that the cheaper ethanol pumps sound cheaper until you see that you actually get less miles on a tank. I find I get an extra almost 10% mileage on a tank with no ethanol.

This ^

I haven't done the math on it myself, as I don't burn anything but Shell V-Power in Ontario when at all possible, however I have heard from more than one person, and also read online that others have experienced better mileage when using ethanol-free fuel.

I have a regular area that I travel in with the car, and I could tell you where every Shell station is along major routes from Niagara to Kingston, Toronto to London and Barrie to the Bruce Peninsula...

When I can't get any Shell to fill my boots, I look for Petro Canada with 94 (but yes, it does have ethanol).

Incidentally, I heard a rumour that Petro Canada stations (in Ontario at least), that DO NOT have 94 octane may actually be set up like the shell where for 87/89/91 it is 10%/5%/0% - best bet is to get ahold of the station's manager and find out from them, they may know.

I began looking into all of the a number of years ago when we started to see ethanol blends come to Canada... some small personal airplanes (usually with low powered engines) have special approval (called an STC) to use car gas in place of airplane gas (which is a 100 octane leaded fuel without ethanol), however the use of ethanol blended fuels was strictly prohibited, as ethanol was known to eat/destroy some of the gaskets and rubber components in the fuel systems and engines of said airplanes, among other reasons...

You can actually buy an instrument to test if gas contains ethanol or not. Water and gasoline will generally not mix, and because of the greater density of water, the gas floats on top. If you mix water and gas in measured quantities in a clear container, and you end up with more "water" at the bottom, the gas contains ethanol - the water and ethanol will mix and separate from the gasoline...

[mattchat]

Went down I-15 this summer and just about every gas station had some ethanol, surprised the heck out of me because very few stations in Canada sell the stuff. Our octane ratings are higher too. Most pumps I saw in the states had 85-87-89 and a super at 91 or 93, in Canada they're all pure with a few exceptions (like Husky) and start at 87-89-91 and super at 93 or 94. I guess you guys just have more choice and cheaper grades that use ethanol to offset the cost as well. Man you folks down south have no clue how cheap you have it for fuel, I'm lucky in Alberta because we have fewer taxes than the rest of the country, but man its cheap in the states. Go figure too, Alberta has a larger oil reserve than Saudi Arabia and we still pay an arm and a leg....

[chaos2984]

Went down I-15 this summer and just about every gas station had some ethanol, surprised the heck out of me because very few stations in Canada sell the stuff. Our octane ratings are higher too. Most pumps I saw in the states had 85-87-89 and a super at 91 or 93, in Canada they're all pure with a few exceptions (like Husky) and start at 87-89-91 and super at 93 or 94. I guess you guys just have more choice and cheaper grades that use ethanol to offset the cost as well. Man you folks down south have no clue how cheap you have it for fuel, I'm lucky in Alberta because we have fewer taxes than the rest of the country, but man its cheap in the states. Go figure too, Alberta has a larger oil reserve than Saudi Arabia and we still pay an arm and a leg....

Well its mainly because MTBE was outlawed in a lot of states. Due to its toxicity. We had a spill here in MD before and they outlawed it. Some states still use the MTBE but most use ethanol now. It wasn't to offset cost or anything it was due to safety.

[b8audis4]

I would always choose shell v power 93.

[Amorphic]

Chevron 94 has no ethanol and is my go to pump. You will also notice that the cheaper ethanol pumps sound cheaper until you see that you actually get less miles on a tank. I find I get an extra almost 10% mileage on a tank with no ethanol.

This is all I use as well.