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Old Apr 29, 2006 | 09:39 AM
  #1  
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Talking Ethanol

I'm ticked. Not only are gas prices going up again but now I have no choice but to add ethanol into my tank as well. I'm not sure where all this is going on but here in Dallas all pumps now have stickers - "Contains up to 10% Ethanol".

Ever since Ethanol was added into the mix my car has been stumbling at low rpms. Has anyone else noticed a difference with Ethanol now mixed in? Are they doing this wherever you live?

Boo on Ethanol. My Rotary hates you.

iSP33D-for-J3SUS

EDIT: By the way, this is with 87 Octane which is what I've always run on my N/A.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 10:05 AM
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i would have thought that dallas being a major city would be required to run 10 % ethanol.
all metro city's with high smog are this way. maybe they just haven't been telling you.
seattle gas has ethanol and my car runs just fine.
**** its 3.29 a gal for the good stuff.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 10:24 AM
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bum, in the uk its about to hit £1-00 a litre thats 8.2 dollars a gallon and on about 18 to the gallon that hurts it costs 16 dollars just to go to work-yuk!
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 10:35 AM
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In the midwest (Iowa) they have been using ethanol for a few years. I haven't put in my rotary since I live in California but I will be there in a about 10 days and I'll let you know.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 12:35 PM
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They started doing it in Houston now and supposedly it's going to go nationwide because the additive they usually add (HPDE or something like that) they found out if more harmful to the enviroment than they previously thought.

Personally, I don't like the fact that they have to raise the prices $.6 - $.9 for adding the Ethanol.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 12:40 PM
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ive run 10% a few times (93 octane) with no problems going up to 13psi.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 02:42 PM
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They changed to E10 over here the first of the month. First time I put it in my car I sat at the station with the car running for like 5 min just watching all my gauges. I didn't knotice a difference....yet.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 02:55 PM
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Originally Posted by iSP33D-for-J3SUS
I'm ticked. Not only are gas prices going up again but now I have no choice but to add ethanol into my tank as well. I'm not sure where all this is going on but here in Dallas all pumps now have stickers - "Contains up to 10% Ethanol".

Ever since Ethanol was added into the mix my car has been stumbling at low rpms. Has anyone else noticed a difference with Ethanol now mixed in? Are they doing this wherever you live?

Boo on Ethanol. My Rotary hates you.

iSP33D-for-J3SUS

EDIT: By the way, this is with 87 Octane which is what I've always run on my N/A.
I would almost try some maintnace (fuel filter, clean balance your injectors, ect)
Im not sure what there doing with the gas befor they add the ethonol to it,
Ethonol has a higher octane rating and a lower stoic ratio so I think you might not have enough fuel at the lower rpm...
But I havent been able to find out if this new stuff is Super +ethonol or just the middle grade stuff with ethonol added

Everyone should notice a little loss in MPG and a little gain in power and a small decreas in emisions.

But Id be really interested if someone had some hard data on this.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 04:23 PM
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they dont even run ethanol in Vermont yet, I was wondering if 100% ethanol would run in these cars. Eventually, I hope they will switch to all ethanol like the country of Brazil. They use 100% ethanol(green fuel) now, first country to do this.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 05:22 PM
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Check the manual It states that the FC runs fine on "gasahol" (the gas/ethanol blend), but it is not recommended to use gas with more than 10% ethanol concentration.

Ethanol is bad for some engines because it reduces the life of the rubber. This is especially true with older cars. It also requires different air/fuel mixtures. So, to answer jgrts20's question, the RX-7 can't run on anything even close to 100% ethanol, although 10% should be OK. I don't know if replacing all the rubber with newer formulations, and the addition of a new ECU, would allow it or not.

Here in california, you can get gas with MTBE or ethanol. They are migrating to ethanol because the MTBE apparently precipitates and pollutes the ground water.

Ethanol is cool because it is cheap to produce, renewable, and produces more power. Biodeisel is the same way, except that it doesn't require any mods at all to run in a deisel engine.

--Alex

Biodeisel is the future, IMO.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 08:09 PM
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ha............Biodeisel, image a rx7 running on deisel.
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 08:54 PM
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Old Apr 29, 2006 | 08:54 PM
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Originally Posted by jon england
bum, in the uk its about to hit £1-00 a litre thats 8.2 dollars a gallon and on about 18 to the gallon that hurts it costs 16 dollars just to go to work-yuk!
Remember the US gallon is less than the Imperial Gallon

4 quarts vs 5 quarts
Old Apr 29, 2006 | 08:57 PM
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they have 10% ethanol added around me for as long as I can remember.
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 08:17 AM
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If they add 10% ethanol to the gas, shouldnt it be cheaper or it another way to say HA......I GOT YOU. BS Like I said earlier theres NO ethanol here in Vermont.
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 08:18 AM
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I guess its just because it not a high polution state. Who knows....
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 08:38 AM
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I work for Lyondell Chemical. We make MTBE (makes gas burn cleaner) Since MTBE is being outlawed, they're converting the plant over to something called DIB (Diisobutylene) it will be out this summer, and will be much better than corn liquor. It adds octane as well.
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 11:29 AM
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coming from australia the ethanol capital, I can tell you now
DO NOT use ethanol in a rotor

pay the extra to get the higher octane fuel, i don't know what you US guys get, but if you can get it, put in the 98 RON fuel, try and steer clear of the 10% blends.

if your cars running the standard computer, i'd steer clear, if your cars running aftermarket comps, i'd steer clear, in fact, the only time i'd recommend it, is if you actually tuned the car for the ethanol blend, but even then i probably wouldn't due to the rubber deterioration.
that's something you definetly don't want happening.

also, in the ethanol blends, it tends to lean out your mixtures, hence why i say don't put it in anything that isn't tuned for it (rotor wise - pistons, well who really cares)
and as everyone should know, lean = bad, rich = not so bad in a rotor.
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 11:30 AM
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*********Ethanol is cool because it is cheap to produce, renewable, and produces more power.*********8

Not hardly. Ethonal produces fewer BTU than gasoline and results in fewer mpg. Plus, it takes energy to make ethonal. So where does that come from. Sorry, it won't come from ethonal since it takes more engergy to make ethonal than it produces.

Question: What are you gasahol nuts going to do when there is a drought? Duhhh. Do you really think this isn't going to drive the cost of corn upwards? And corn is inefficient compared to sugar cane when it comes to making ethanol.

I can see it now, some bleeding heart in the future saying *how can heartless Americans drive their cars on corn products while there are starving children in the Sudan (fill in your favorite starving country).

EDIT: Oh, about the drought, I guess we'll do what Brazil did when they had a drought, buy ethonal from Archer Daniels Midland. Now just where did ADM get their corn?
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 02:59 PM
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Oh dear god, here comes everyones favorite conspiracy theorist, HAILERS! First, ethanol was going to drive up the price of bacon, now its going to probably cause AIDS and melt the polar icecaps.

Ya know HAILERS, Net Energy Balance of Ethanol is going to hit 100% soon, and seems like using Corn to produce it is a much better solution then the government paying farmers NOT to sell corn in order to allow our imports to be competitive. Oh, did you forget that? Not too mention the price of high fructose corn syrup might go up too!! What will the diabetics do?
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 03:39 PM
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Originally Posted by RyosukeFC3C
coming from australia the ethanol capital, I can tell you now
DO NOT use ethanol in a rotor

pay the extra to get the higher octane fuel, i don't know what you US guys get, but if you can get it, put in the 98 RON fuel, try and steer clear of the 10% blends.

if your cars running the standard computer, i'd steer clear, if your cars running aftermarket comps, i'd steer clear, in fact, the only time i'd recommend it, is if you actually tuned the car for the ethanol blend, but even then i probably wouldn't due to the rubber deterioration.
that's something you definetly don't want happening.

also, in the ethanol blends, it tends to lean out your mixtures, hence why i say don't put it in anything that isn't tuned for it (rotor wise - pistons, well who really cares)
and as everyone should know, lean = bad, rich = not so bad in a rotor.

+1 A few of my friends with turboed cars have had detonation when they get gas with the ethanol added in..that's why I pay so much and go to Chevron No ethanol
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 03:49 PM
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Originally Posted by RyosukeFC3C
coming from australia the ethanol capital, I can tell you now
DO NOT use ethanol in a rotor

pay the extra to get the higher octane fuel, i don't know what you US guys get, but if you can get it, put in the 98 RON fuel, try and steer clear of the 10% blends.

if your cars running the standard computer, i'd steer clear, if your cars running aftermarket comps, i'd steer clear, in fact, the only time i'd recommend it, is if you actually tuned the car for the ethanol blend, but even then i probably wouldn't due to the rubber deterioration.
that's something you definetly don't want happening.

also, in the ethanol blends, it tends to lean out your mixtures, hence why i say don't put it in anything that isn't tuned for it (rotor wise - pistons, well who really cares)
and as everyone should know, lean = bad, rich = not so bad in a rotor.

WhAT??! you are kidding, right? The standard ECU can MORE then handle a 10% blend of corn and dino fuel! And there is no issue of rubber deterioration in a 10% blend.

As far as leaning out the mixtures, thats not happening either. The variation of 10% versus anything else you get at the pump is well within the standard variation you might see on straight dyno fuel.. Probably .5 or less on the number. Yea, thats correct, you think when you tank up on 91 octane that you are ABSOLUTELY getting 91 octane? Guess again..

Please do your research before you post more of this unfounded and unsubstantiated information.

Rat
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 04:00 PM
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I guareenteeeeee you will not be going as far down the road on a full tank of this ten percent mix as you would on DINO fuel.

Looked at pork prices lately? Dan alky members. Go to The One Step Plan and get off it. Either that or Alcoholics Aynonomus (serious misspell).
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 04:31 PM
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Originally Posted by jgrts20
they dont even run ethanol in Vermont yet, I was wondering if 100% ethanol would run in these cars. Eventually, I hope they will switch to all ethanol like the country of Brazil. They use 100% ethanol(green fuel) now, first country to do this.

Never happen. The US could not produce enough corn (or anything else for that matter) to surpass (as ethanol is less powerful) our current fuel consumption. It also requires more petrochemicals to make ethanol than it saves.

Fossil fuels will be around long after the IC engine is long gone, or long revolutionized.
Old Apr 30, 2006 | 04:33 PM
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so im screwed because my state has 10% ethanol added at pretty much every pump.



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