Ethanol free gas worth it?

[Ron Neal]

My orig question was really concerning older cars that require premium fuel but sit a lot and was told if you buy Shell premium it was ethanol free. I know the pumps always say may contain ethanol up to 10% so was just curious. I can't always get to the airport to buy avgas to mix with non ethanol which I can buy locally but its only 87.

Sponsored

 

[Gullzway]

My orig question was really concerning older cars that require premium fuel but sit a lot and was told if you buy Shell premium it was ethanol free. I know the pumps always say may contain ethanol up to 10% so was just curious. I can't always get to the airport to buy avgas to mix with non ethanol which I can buy locally but its only 87.

Photo of my 68 Mustangs Fuel sending unit after sitting in 87 ethanol gas for a few years. That said, I use the same in my Maverick.

 

[Bigred]

What I do know is my chain saws all love non ethanol gas and that is what they get.

Yeah, I run non-ethanol in my mower, weed eater, blower, and outboard motors. Ethanol tends to attract moisture and clog up carb jets on small engines.

 

[shadow76]

With such low annual mileage, I would bear the added expense and use nonethanol fuel. I use nonethanol fuel in the mowers/snowblowers/tiller and have little issue with carb problems.

 

[Maverick2022XL]

With such low annual mileage, I would bear the added expense and use nonethanol fuel. I use nonethanol fuel in the mowers/snowblowers/tiller and have little issue with carb problems.

In my experience with small engines, whenever I've used ethanol free gas the engines specifically weedeaters lose power don't fire up easily most likely due to how they are tuned out of the factory. Mowers not so much but the performance seems to suffer with ethanol free without retuning the carbs on them. in both cases they can work well once adjusted but then you use ethanol laced fuel same problem again until you figure out how to retune them which is an very inexact process. Now cars or things side by sides shouldn't be a problem since the ECU should have a mapping that will correlate to the correct air/gas ratio regardless of the octane of the gas.

 

[r0tax]

My biggest concern with Ethanol (esp E85) is/was with Storing it long term/months +.
Moisture ingress/condensation is the concern if the storage area sees large temp swings each day.
Keep it Off the concrete floor.
Use additives (Sta-bil, Marine grade) if relevant.

But, if you are running it through your daily driver, and its not sitting for months at a time, Its probably not going to bother you much on a modern vehicle.


Small engines (esp carbed) is a different story, and also addressed here.
Esp ones that don't get used regularly.

 

[Suzukiridr14]

At my last fill up, I saw they had no ethanol gas, so I thought, "what the heck?" And filled up using that. I knew the mileage works be better, but it's a lot better. On the way down to San Antonio I got 33 mpg. On the way back I got 42. All highway, mostly 75 mph.

The regular gas was $3.67 and the no ethanol was $4.50


My question, is that worth the extra cost on a regular basis?

Did you try regular, and high test,or just regular and non ethanol gas?, I have to use non ethanol in my 1956 Thunderbird because the alcohol in todays blends, affect all the rubber parts in the old car. The high cost of the non ethanol gas would make me stick with what Ford recommends, but it's up to you.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

I have a 1941 6 HP 2-stroke engine.

Runs perfectly fine with 10% ethanol.

And some people get the story backwards.

The more ethanol in your tank, the LESS you have to worry about water.

Ethanol and water mix (ever hear of rum & coke or a whisky sour? ).

Water will not separate and sink to the bottom of a fuel tank with ethanol.

Water will separate from pure gasoline.
Winter fuel additives like "HEET" are pure alcohol you are adding to your tank!

Sponsored