E-15 fuel in your area?

[MossRoad]

This is false because a lot of plastics and rubber components were never designed to be compatible, there was a transition period and items (mostly small engines, can’t think of a automobile engine) had to be upgraded to compatible components. Not much room for debate on that one

You're showing your age. E10 has been around since the early 80s and most small engine manuals tell you that the engine is designed to run on up to 10% ethanol. That's 40 years. You can't think of a car engine because they've all been designed to run on it as well.

 

[sea2summit]

You're showing your age. E10 has been around since the early 80s and most small engine manuals tell you that the engine is designed to run on up to 10% ethanol. That's 40 years. You can't think of a car engine because they've all been designed to run on it as well.

This is the last small engine I adopted, the replacement recoil starter is from the 80’s the rest is older. Is what I said incorrect if stuff since the 80’s is compatible? We’re there no engines prior to the 80’s? Who’s got the ego?

 

[MossRoad]

Again, you're talking about 40 year old engines.

 

[JethroB]

The price of corn has pretty much doubled in the last 18 months or so. It hovered roughly at $4 a bushel for about a decade except for a few swings. Now it’s $8/bushel. Gas prices have to be pretty high to support $8 corn based ethanol, which we’ve had recently.
Approximately 40 percent of US corn production is used for making ethanol, 40 percent for animal feed, the remaining 20 percent for everything else.

 

[jjeff]

I believe ethanol was only mandated in the early 90s in urban areas with poor air quality and started in most other areas in the late 90s early 2000s? it did take some time to get the infrastructure set up for ethanol plants. I immediately replace all fuel lines anyway if I buy something over 20 yrs old. The only fuel hose that I found that is remotely resistant to years of ethanol use in small engines is Tygon its yellowish transparent and is marked Tygon, it even remains flexible after years of use in very cold climates. Most other black rubber hose I've bought and seen says its rated for ethanol. I have no Idea how either will stand up to E15 not to mention all small and marine engine manufacturers tell you specifically not to use anything more than e10. ive had cheaper hose in more recent times mostly from chineese small engines that became hard and brittle after a few months of ethanol use. Ethanol blended fuel is corrosive I can tell you from seeing it first hand do not buy a Boat with a fiberglass fuel tank.

 

[ericm979]

That's kind of misleading.

E100 (pure ethanol) has about 76,000 BTU per gallon.
Pure gasoline has about 114,000 BTU per gallon.
E10 (10% ethanol 90% gasoline) has about 111,800 BTU per gallon.

111,800 is 98.07% of 114,000.

Less than 2% difference in BTU.

Sorry but that's not correct.

E0 114k btu/gal
E100 76k btu/gal

For E10:
.9 * 114 = 102.6
.1 * 76 = 7.6
total: 110.2k btu/gal

114 - 110.2 = 3.8
3.8 / 114 = 3% less BTUs for E10.

But my point was that just looking at the BTUs it's only 3%, not 10-20%.

 

[sea2summit]

Again, you're talking about 40 year old engines.

In response to your blanket system that there were no issues.

 

[dodge man]

I was on vacation recently and there were some gas stations that had a huge selection. Like E10, E15, E20, E85. Can’t remember where, Kansas, Oklahoma or Nebraska maybe? I’ve run E10 for years and never a problem IF you burn it up reasonably fast. I by pure gas for small engine’s because I have had problems in the past, luckily I can buy it at the pump around here but at a higher price.

 

[dieselade]

well,,,, around 2005-6-7-, corn was dangerously close to $2 a bushels cash off the farm. at one time I was offered around $1.70 or close to that. The govt gave any farmer who sold corn under $2 support money to bring the price a farmer received to $2. bad times right in that time zone. only fair thing was all the farmer inputs to grow a crop of corn and also beans ( i dont know what wheat growers got) also was low unlike today. Good times for livestock farmers/ranchers. the grain farmers are good about growing corn and soybeans and at that time the u.s. had a very large surplus of corn. we couldnt even give it away to other countries. so,,,, thankfully a few entrepreneurs got going with ethanol to add to gasoline as an oxygenate instead of that poison MTBE. and dont forget that after ethanol is funneled out of the corn kernal, the leftovers go to livestock feed and whatever else.

 

[MossRoad]

While I can appreciate what ethanol has done for corn farmers and replacing MTBE, when you look at the facts, converting corn to ethanol is a terrible waste of BTUs, just like converting oil into gasoline.

I've posted the details before, so this is a repeat.