100% gas vs. Gas with ethanol

[Robertmangrum.rm]

In my area we have a few stations that offer 100% gas with no ethanol. It's a few cents higher than standard. Is this better to run in my truck? Is there any benefits? Just some questions. I thought that all new engines were designed to run a certain percentage of ethanol in the fuel.

 

[Dirtman]

Almost all gas in the U.S has up to 10% ethanol in it (the amount varies day to day station to station) and almost all cars made since the 90s were designed for this type of fuel.

Running 100% gasoline (around here its called marine fuel) doesn't have many benefits to a new car. There is a marginal increase in fuel efficiency but the cost difference pretty much negates that. Ethanol absorbs water and water in your fuel tank isn't great but again its marginal. Ethanol is very harsh on fuel system components but yet again, your truck was designed for it. If it were a 50 year old car then you'd have an issue with it eating up seals and lines but not on anything modern.

Around here marine fuel is generally high octane (94 or more) which does have some benefits itself on modern engines with compressiom straddling the limits of what can be done on regular octane fuel. but you don't need 100% gasoline for those benefits, you can just fill up with super, premium, or whatever your local gas station calls their high octane fuel.

So to recap.... nope, no real point to using 100% gasoline unless it was literally the same price as what you normally fill up with. It goes on sale at the local marina once in a while where its actually cheaper than normal gas and I always fill up with it then and get a bunch for my mower, chainsaw and polaris. Those are things that actually need it.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

I use it in the SxS but never have put it in the Ranger. It's only .05$ higher so about .15$ cheaper than premium.

 

[ericbphoto]

Use it in your lawn mower, weed eater, leaf blower, etc. Those engines have components that don't like ethanol.

 

[Dirtman]

I use it in the SxS but never have put it in the Ranger. It's only .05$ higher so about .15$ cheaper than premium.

Dang, What octane is it? The 100% gasoline marine stuff here is generally 94 octane but its still like 60 cents more than normal gas station premium 93/94 octane unless its on sale. (The marina tanks are above ground and they move them twice a year so when they are ready to move them they sell it dirt cheap to get rid of it before storing the tanks for winter)

 

[ericbphoto]

The 100% gas here is normally 87 or 89 octane. Not much more expensive than regular.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

It's only 89 octane here. At least at the station by the house.

 

[Dirtman]

I got really desperate once and had to buy a can of that tru-fuel crap to get my tractor running. Looked almost everywhere in a 50 mile radius for 100% gasoline before giving up and paying that absolutely absurd price of over $20 a gallon...

They weren't even nice enough to buy me dinner first...

Always keep some pure gasoline on hand!

 

[sgtsandman]

The last time I got pure, 100% gasoline, I noticed a bit of a throttle response improvement and the gas mileage went up bit. That was pure circumstance on the way out to Illinois and never found the gas station again. That was in a 1999 Honda CR-V. Newer vehicles might not see that much of an improvement. The ecoboost engines might like it though.

In any case, with that little of a price difference, it might be worth running it all the time and see how it goes. Assuming you don’t have to go too far out of your way to do it.

The remarks about small engines and 100% gas is spot on. The same with some motorcycles. More the air cooled ones than the water cooled ones.

Around here, one has to go way out of their way to get anything more than a 1 or 5 gallon can and it’s ridiculously expensive. So I just run the 10% stuff and be OCD with the preventative maintenance. So far it’s been working.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Use it in your lawn mower, weed eater, leaf blower, etc. Those engines have components that don't like ethanol.

+1

Basically don't run it in a carb that isn't ran often. It does not store well.

For your two stroke stuff you can get straight gas premixed in a can from your dealer if you can't get straight gas from a gas station.

I do run it in my Ranger during the summer (Edelbrock 4bbl) but I run a couple of tanks of straight gas thru it before I park it for the winter.

 

[CrabGuy]

In Oregon I use the 94 oct. ethanol free for my 2-stroke equipment and 4 stroke Yamaha outboard. It's definitely much more expensive than 89 oct. 10% fuel and doesn't really offer any benefits for a vehicle designed for regular. The ethanol fuel softened the supply hose on my boat so bad that it gummed up the fuel line and stranded me until I shortened the hose. The boat just runs better with ethanol free and I don't have to throw away unused gas every year.

 

[sgtsandman]

Run the carbed stuff at least once a quarter, mixed fuel or not and use the fuel shut off to empty the bowl and let the engine starve itself if the engine has one. The only thing that has been a little bit cranky for me has been the Stihl chainsaw. Everything else has fired right up after the 2nd or 3rd pull.

And if it’s something gets stored for the summer or for the winter, get as much gas as you can out of the tank and run the engine until it starves itself. You’ll thank yourself later.

This is all using gas treated with Sta-Bil. The 50:1 mix only gets done when needed. The bulk is kept in 5 gallon cans.

 

[19Walt93]

The smell of alcohol diluted gas coming through a cold catalytic convertor will make a billy goat puke and the gas mileage suffers as opposed to straight gas. I had my 04 Ranger when NH was still selling gas and other states had switched to E10. On gas driving through the hills of Vt, then through Mass and into NY where we stopped for lunch it would get 20 mpg. I'd fill with E10 in NY and get 19 mpg on the flat part of the trip. I use E10 in my lawn equipment, chain saws and generator with Marine Stabil and haven't any trouble. Yet. It takes more energy to produce alcohol from corn than it produces, the only reason to use it to political. I tried Gasohol- as it was called in the late 70's and it ran OK in carbureted cars until winter, in sub zero weather it wouldn't start with a stick of dynamite.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If you do run two stroke stuff with mixed fuel on ethanol make sure to give it a good shake before you start it.

If the alcohol separates from the gas the oil stays with the gas which will rise above the alcohol... usually your fuel pickup will be flopped down to the bottom of the tank so you will start it on straight alcohol.

 

[cbxer55]

Around here we have a lot of stations that advertise NO ETHANOL, 100% GAS. And some that sell both. Here, the pump has to be clearly labeled if it has ethanol in it. The 93 octane I use in most of my vehicles is no ethanol.

There is one company, OnCue, they have five selections. E85, yellow nozzle. E10, black nozzle. 87, 89 and 91 no ethanol, red nozzle. The 91 is what I use in my Ranger. Around here, No Ethanol fuel is not labeled Marine Use. That's only available at lakes. I see more people filling their boats at the same station they fill the truck towing it. Saw one guy a few years ago, BIG 47 foot Apache with triple big blocks, each with an 8-71 blower and two four barrels, filling it at the station where I get 93 for my Lightning. I asked him, "Did you leave any for me?" He put 1000 dollars worth of 93 in that monster. And said it wasn't full.