93 octane or 87 Octane NO Ethanol

[4570Man]

87 or 100 or 110 are all I can get ethanol free. I run the 87 for cost of around $2.30 a gallon.

 

[ruffdog]

You will lose about 3-4% fuel mileage with E10.
Ethanol

 

[tomplum]

Yeah, by me they get 3$ a gallon for the stuff with corn squeezings in it. Add a dollar for clear gas. So Woodlandfarms, is it like a coop that has the clear gas by you, a chain station or?

 

[4570Man]

I know of at least 3 different places in town that have ethanol free gas. Ones a Weigel's. Ones a Exxon, and ones a non chain. There's other chain stations that have it locally, but the Weigel's is the cheapest and the Exxon was there first, and the other place is a mile from my house so those are the only places I buy it.

 

[TMGT]

Listen buddy!!!! (yeah, like I've got some authority :laughing ... I've been running 87 octane 10% ethanol in ALL of my machines (cars, trucks, tractors, lawn mowers, garden tractors, snow blowers, chainsaws, weedeaters, power washer, ice auger, etc... ), since the early 80's.... and I keep my vehicles until they rust apart. So this is a long-time study on my part. I've had exactly ONE 20 cent fuel line go bad in ONE chainsaw in 37 years. The only one I ever treat with Stabil is my generator. And it sits for years with the same fuel in it.... and it starts every time.

Bottom line is you are wasting money by paying more for non-ethanol fuel when you should probably be adding Stabil to ANY fuel you use in your long-term storage machines, regardless of if it has ethanol or not.

I'd say your an anomaly, I spent a lot of time researching and studying fuels when i was in college and the ethanol can have some detrimental effect on certain materials, especially those found in a lot of small engines.

I've always treated my fuel but started using ethanol free fuel in my ope over a year ago and have noticed a marked improvement in performance and maintenance.
Doing cost analysis I end up breaking even spending the extra on the ethanol free by the time you factor in the additive designed to prevent ethanol problems and the added fuel economy.
I don't see the point of buying fuel with ethanol just to have to treat it for the ethanol?

The cars get regular E10 as they go through enough fuel I don't have to worry about fuel sitting and they are designed to handle it.

 

[Wagtail]

You will lose about 3-4% fuel mileage with E10.
Ethanol

I can support that statement. At my petrol pumps they offer 'regular' = 91 octane, 0% ethanol; E10 = 95 octane, 10% (sugar cane) ethanol and 'super' = 98 octane, 0% ethanol. The E10 is the cheapest, but only by 1 cent per litre compared to 'regular'.

"But the E10 is still cheaper and it's 95 octane! That's gotta be better, right?" Nope. A 4 hour round trip from St Helens to Launceston and back used almost 3/4 of a full tank of E10.

The same trip using a full tank of 'regular' 91 octane petrol is just under the HALF mark on my utes gauge.

That's "proof" enough for me

 

[Toyboy]

In my neck of the woods ethanol free gas is everywhere 87 & 92 octane I think. We pay about a $.40 premium for the 87 and I use it in everything, even both vehicles. I'm the go-to guy all my friends bring their chainsaws to when their not running right. 95% of all the problems are ethanol related, carbs & fuel lines.
For every guy like Moss roads there are 25 or more that don't have that luck. If you've been using blended gas and are happy with the results your equipment, by all means stay with it.
If your not one of the rare lucky ones, try to find un-blended. It will save you lots of headaches down the road.
Your choice.

 

[davesl708]

I can support that statement. At my petrol pumps they offer 'regular' = 91 octane, 0% ethanol; E10 = 95 octane, 10% (sugar cane) ethanol and 'super' = 98 octane, 0% ethanol. The E10 is the cheapest, but only by 1 cent per litre compared to 'regular'.

"But the E10 is still cheaper and it's 95 octane! That's gotta be better, right?" Nope. A 4 hour round trip from St Helens to Launceston and back used almost 3/4 of a full tank of E10.


The same trip using a full tank of 'regular' 91 octane petrol is just under the HALF mark on my utes gauge.

That's "proof" enough for me

I get about 2 mile to the gallon increase using pure gas over E10 driving the same route time and time again and produce less pollution doing it.

 

[N80]

If the mileage increase doesn't pay for the difference in cost its still a waste of money.

Also, if you frequently pay extra for pure gas at small country markets you might want to make sure you're getting what you pay for. There is a small country convenience mart outside of a race track where I frequently drive. The owner has high octane gas and no-ethanol gas. His prices are high but a little lower than the gas at the track itself (Shell, high quality stuff). The next closest gas station is 5 miles away. Over the years racers who bought their gas there noticed performance issues and in some cases engine damage and rumors began to fly. Finally one racer took the initiative to request a state investigation which found that his fuels did not meet advertised specs and appeared to be mixed. No one know what the fines were but apparently not much if any and the only change he has made was to tape little signs on the pump indicating that the octane rating might be lower than the one on the official sticker and his sign!

We were not surprised to find that this guy was ripping people off. We had suspected it for a long time. We were quite surprised that the state did little or nothing about it.

So before you plunk down good money for whatever performance gains you believe you might be getting make sure the fuel is coming from a reputable source.

 

[tractorshopper]

As I've stated on many similar threads, my truck runs much better with more ready power when I put in a full tank of ethanol free. I get better gas mileage with it also, but not always enough to offset the additional cost depending on the difference in price. Sometimes I run it anyway if for no other reason to vote with my money and make sure demand stays up so we will continue to have it available locally. We are fortunate that it is readily available around here.

For small engines, I have had so many problems with ethanol gas, that I exclusively run ethanol free in any small engine power equipment that I have. My Honda pressure washer specifically calls for ethanol free.

My Honda CRF250L motorcycle calls for 87 octane and doesn't say ethanol or ethanol free, but I almost exclusively run ethanol free unless I'm up in the mountains and can't find a station with it when I need to fill up. I then try to use 93 octane as some local stations state that the 93 is almost always ethanol free mix around here whether it's marked that way at the pump or not. Have only done that twice, so can't really compare, but I did fill up with 87 ethanol one time and averaged 64.7 mpg, then the very next tank filled up with 87 non ethanol and recorded 68.5 mpg. That's roughly 5.6% increase in mileage in my bike, consistent with the ~6% I usually notice in my truck. Sometimes ethanol free 87 is 10% higher than non ethanol. Sometimes it's 15-20% higher.

We have a lot of lakes around here, so most boat and jet ski owners exclusively use non-ethanol. My father in law lives on the lake and has a boat and 2 jet skis. He has about eight 5 gallon cans that he fills up periodically at the station exclusively with non-ethanol and the gas stations near the lake landings all advertise non-ethanol offered here for boaters.