Ethanol-free gas??

[Busta Prima]

I went on this same quest a year or two ago and it was nearly impossible to find. The online directory I had found was completely wrong. All I wanted to do was buy ethenol free gas for my lawn mowers and weed whackers, never mind for a car. About the only place is the airport but now you're paying $4 to $6 a gallon and the octane is WAY too high. In fact it's ALL octane, no hexane and going over the rating is just as bad as going under. People mistakenly believe (as with most things) that "more is better" and that you'll get more power but that's not true.

As for the damage of ethenol, the main issue is that it absorbs water from anywhere, including right out of the air. That helps it ruin the engine, especially the smaller ones that get little use. I'm finding this is a huge issue for boat owners (because I'll be one soon) that fill their boats with autogas and don't use it all up right away.

The whole ethenol program is a giant waste. The little bit of savings gets blown out by the cost of making it and the cleaner exhaust is offset by burning more fuel to get where you're going. Add to that the additional costs of maintenance and it REALLY sucks. This is your government at work (both sides).

[Stinky]

I have a friend that works in the fuel delivery business. He claims about a 10% drop in mpg by going to ethanol.

[hollohas]

I have a friend that works in the fuel delivery business. He claims about a 10% drop in mpg by going to ethanol.

It is WAY more. I have a flex fuel/E85 truck and my milage drops by almost 25% when I have run E85. When E85 is only 10% cheaper then gas it actually costs significantly more to run ethanol.

[sniper7]

E85 is terrible. Unless it is 75% the price of regular gas it is not financially worth it. Then you have to fill up more often, get less mpg (I factored that into the cost) and it is worse on your engine since you are burning more fuel to get the same distance. I tested this in my 2008 gmc Sierra, 2010 silver ado and a 2011 suburban. My 2012 silverado will never see that crap...unless it is about 1/2 the price.

[jerrymrc]

It is WAY more. I have a flex fuel/E85 truck and my milage drops by almost 25% when I have run E85. When E85 is only 10% cheaper then gas it actually costs significantly more to run ethanol.

Is that all? All the later .gov vehicles run on it on post. My 2010 Dakota gets about 8 city and 11-12 on the interstate. It takes almost a full tank to go from Ft Carson to downtown Denver and back. And my Dodge Caravan will NOT start on E85 if it gets below 10 or so.

[Throat Erosion]

I pretty sure that there used to be a filling station right across the street from the old JeffCo ice rink that they turned into a indoor soccer field, over by Arvada city hall, I believe it was on 58th in between wadsworth and kipling, off Garrison St. it was a conoco, they used to have these signs out front advertising that they dont have the normal 10% ethanol added in their fuel. I memory serves me, they are usually 10-15 cents more than the average price, but i think it is worth it. I've since moved and dont even know if its there anymore, but i used to get it all the time, and I felt that the cost was more than worth it.

[xiondavis]

I used brads conoco over in Lakewood for my big old banana yellow Lincoln. Just a bit more expensive for ethanol free but it made a huge difference in my 1970 high compression 460. They can't sell ethanol free in the winter so you will have trouble finding it now.

[dwalker460]

E10, which is what we get as pump gas, is pretty much a meaningless amount of ethanol added to the fuel, and unless your car is carbureted or worn out, its not going to notice the difference, even in milage. Drivers tend to blame bad milage on ethanol or other stuff instead of stupid crap like spark plugs, oil changes, coils/wires/ injector cleanliness,fuel filters, tire pressures, etc. that actually effect it.
E-85 is a little different. OEM E-85 cars suck ass and were only done because the .gov subsidized the crap out of them, and the OEM's had no reason to care about it. "Normallly" an engine should use about 1/3rd more E85 than "pump gas" under load and about the same under cruise. Since the OEMS didnt care, they pretty much waste the crap out of fuel. I have managed to get reasonable (20-ish) mpg out of a purpose built and tuned ethanol car, but that is not the norm.
E10 is also not usually the cause of fuel issues, but water or contamination is.