i think that E10 is a joke if anyone thinks its going to help the environment right away. IF all engines everywhere ran on it we might see a small benefit, but was it worth all of the work to get there? prolly not. does it hurt fuel economy in our cars? some people get the same milage and some people get a lil worse and then some people get horrible milage. this is either caused by the differnaces in engines, the differances in driving styles, or the differances in fuel. i personaly get the same milage with or without ethanol. wheather you have the same results as me or not there is somthing else to consider. the quality of your gas. lets say you go out and buy an ethanol test kit. (which you dont really need. you can do it at home just as effectively without one). all they are able to tell you is what percent "isnt" gasoline. not what percent "is" ethanol. they work by measuring how much ethanol/water is able to phase separate out of the gasoline. dump in 25ml of water and 75 ml of whats suposed to be E10. you shake it up and the ethanol mixes with the water and separates from the gasoline and you measure how much straight gasoline there is comapred to how much water/ethanol you have. so if you have 32.5ml of water/ethanol you have pulled 7.5ml of ethanol out of the fuel which is right at 10%. thats good. but if you get 45ml of water/ethanol that means you pulled out 20ml of ethanol which is 26% right? wrong. that means you pulled out 20ml of water "and" ethanol combined. it still could have been 10% ethanol and "if" it was that means in the 75ml of E10 you started with that there was 12.5ml of water in it. this water is the problem. this water WILL DEFINATLY 100% cause a HUGE reduction in power and fuel economy. and if there is enough water to cause phase separation in your gas tank, you will have a very bad situation on your hands. the ethanol thats not dissolved in the gasoline is very corrosive to everything in your fuel system expect steel.
i have asked several of the guys who refill the tanks at several differant gas stations, they have all told me that the ethanol is added to the tanker first and then the gasoline is pumped in on top of it. this means the problem is that the water most likely got in there while sitting in the tank under the gas station. or during its travel from there to your tank. not the distribution facility, refinery or transporters. one could measure the water/ethanol percentage at the same gas station and at the same pump everyday for a month and get a differant reading each time. and therefore differant horsepower and fuel economy each time you fill up. you could seek out and find E10 stations that actually care if their water sesors are all lit up, ones that dont fill up in the rain, ones with clean filters. you can tell because dirty or water clogged filters will cause the pump to go more slowly (im sure we have all noticed an increase in the time it takes to fill up our tanks with E10...hmm). this would probably increase your milage and performance over shittier gas stations or you could just seek out non-ethanol stations. but ive got another possible solution for you guys who just dont want any ethanol in your tank.
I HAVE NOT DONE THIS NOR HAS ANYONE ELSE I COULD FIND OR TALK TO. I HAVE NO IDEA OF ANY ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS, NOR DO I KNOW HOW MUCH THE OCTANE LEVEL WILL DROP, AND IT WILL! NOR WOULD I ACTUALLY RECOMMEND ANYONE DOING IT. IT WAS JUST A THOUGHT.
you could remove the ethanol yourself, at home. put your gas into a barrel and add a fair amount of water. stir it up and pump out the gas which will be on top of the ethanol/water mix. and there you go 100% gasoline. i would start with the highest octane fuel available so you will hopefully have a usable octane when finished. and you will have a bunch of left over ethanol/water mix. which probably wont burn or have any use except maybe to get drunk with. if anyone tries this please let me know if you are left with usable fuel.
Last edited by freakasis; Jun 7, 2008 at 01:09 PM.