skibum9199

Some of my friends were telling me how most gas stations don't have pure gas anymore, now its a kind of mix between gas and ethanal(sp) i think.... Anyone know what kind of effects this gas has on our cars? Its made from corn apparently... I've been ussing shell gas, they still use 100% gasoline. Just wondered, reliability wise and performance wise.

~Jesse

snoopster76

ethonal burns cleaner. this is better for less carbon and cleaner air. suppose to be cheaper to prodduce, like 7 barrels for every one crude oil barrel. they should lower the price of gas that much, yeah right.

Snrub

iTrader: (1)

To my knowledge, ethanol is not in most gas. The only one that I'm aware of is Sunoco, and I think they have 5%. I think in CA they may REQUIRE 5% ethanol. Ethanol burns cleaner than normal gasoline so it's put in for environmental reasons. Ethanol is the same alcohol in your beer and is found in rubbing alcohol.

The fedral US gov't was going to make it manditory to have 5% ethanol, but the gas companies claim they can do it cheaper with different additives. They don't like octane either, they claim that they can make gas burn just as cleanly and efficiently with other chemicals that cost less than octane. (we'll wait and see)

Only a couple hundred miles across the lake from where you are there is a ethanol plant that has been highly subsidized by the canadian gov't. (near St. Thomas, about 1/2 drive from my place) If Ethanol is so cheap to make, why the massive subsidies?

I don't know about wear, etc. but the CART series uses methanol (1 less O and H atom). Seems to work pretty well.

That's probably more than you wanted to know.

Evil Aviator

Pump gasoline never was 100% iso-octane, or at least not in my lifetime.

You should not use gasohol that makes your engine run poorly, especially if it has more than 10% ethanol. Do NOT put methanol in your car unless you are a pro racer, in which case you are probably not reading this thread anyway.

Your car will make the most horsepower with the lowest octane-rated pump gas that doesn't cause knocking. My cars seem to like the Shell 87 octane, too, but each state has different blends of gas.

Blue Goose

hmm...gas always has additives (usually anti foaming and something else to prevent random crud from forming big particles) but here in NY, and most NE states, during the winter, gas stations must ad 4.x % ethanol...something to do with cold idling/choke I think...

dre_2ooo

HHHHMm..... buy cornfield or two now... sell for gas... make millions in 10 yrs...

skibum9199

I see... I just wanted to make sure nothing bad would come of using it Hey St. Thomas, I have a friend who lives up near there... I love canada, especially the way people talk, I think its pretty cool...


~Jesse

Evil Aviator

Um, since this is an RX-7 forum, I will be happy to trade you my TII for your Vette... you know, not that I want it or anything, but just so you can fit in better. Yeah, that's it. :p

Dak

I think my owners manual says not to use gas that is more than 10% ethanol.So anthing that is less than 10% ethanol I think,should be fine.

peejay

AFAIK *ALL* gasoline in Ohio is 10% ethanol.

Basically it makes your car run leaner, since ethanol requires less oxygen to burn (or another way, it requires more ethanol to combine with oxygen). This is supposed to make cars have better emissions, but since 99% of the cars on the road have feedback EFI, all it means is you get worse mileage.

It's still "100% gasoline" though - gasoline isn't a specific compound, it's a complex brew of dozens of chemicals, and every company has different compositions, and it varies depending on many other factors. (I could go on for days about it, but that would bore even me!) Gasoline is like air... you can add stuff to it and for the most part it'll still be air because it's a very loose definition.