Anyone Ran 100% Gasoline Lately?

[Junglejack]

While probably a safe assumption to write that most here know of the downsides to the proliferation of Ethanol in gasoline here, I was just wondering if many/any have happened to use pure gasoline?

Due to having an Exxon/Mobil card, 99% of my fuel purchases are done there. However, I running low yesterday without an Exxon in sight (rare occurrence) I pulled into a Marathon.

To my amazement, they sell an 89 octane "Plus" for $2.79 a gallon. While I have used the Pure Fuel app on my iPhone for some time, the price for ethanol free has usually been about $1.00 premium.

Upon putting $20 in, I was pleasantly surprised at the difference. While not groundbreaking, I do feel the car felt a touch more responsive.

 

[Keowee]

I used the 89 pure for two fillups a while back. Got about one mpg better than before. Hard to spend the extra bucks for it though. I use it in all my small engines to avoid carb corrosion.
Imagine the problems if the EPA gets their 15% mix rules in place.

 

[Bomar]

I run it exclusively in my LCs. It is nice having the aux tank so I just get $100 at a time.

 

[spressomon]

Paradox: In the land of all things corn and ethanol production <Nebraska> I was able to easily fill up with non-ethanol gasoline; premium grade 91-octane too.

Colorado, Nevada and of course California = No bueno.

Go figure.

 

[badlander]

There is a Texaco here in Sarasota that sells it. They call it "Rec. Fuel" (for recreational use - boats, ATV's, etc.).
I tried a couple of tank fulls and noticed no difference in performance or fuel mileage whatsoever. Don't remember the octane, though. I do use it in my lawn equipment and also in a custom car I have which rarely gets driven just to preserve the fuel systems in them. It is more expensive and I can't justify the cost difference for daily use in the LC.

 

[hoser]

Colorado, Nevada and of course California = No bueno.

Dos x No bueno

http://pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

Pointer indicates ethanol-free gas station:

 

[spressomon]

3 in all of Denver. And 1 in all of Nevada.

The Shell station around the corner from where I'm staying...only ethanol.

FWIW and mostly unrelated: Sandy's '15 Prius V consistently gets 2-3mpg better with non-ethanol regular.

 

[costalcat]

I get it being on the coast as I use it to fill up the boat. I do a 2.5 hr one way run to Raleigh a couple times a month and use it then in the LC. I was told a few tanks on road trips helps the fuel system.. I don't see much of a difference, but I'm also expensing those trips so I figure what the hell...

 

[ponytl]

Do the math
With only 2/3 the energy of gasoline, ethanol costs more per mile
The energy of ethanol relative to gasoline
A. 76,000 = BTU of energy in a gallon of ethanol
B. 116,090 = BTU of energy in a gallon of gasoline
C. .655 = 2/3 = GGE of energy in a gallon of ethanol. A / B. (GGE =energy in a gal. of gas)
D. 1.53 = Gallons of ethanol with the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline. D = B / A.

As a motor fuel ethanol is a stupid fuel... when you take into account the amount of energy used in it's manufacture and the amount of pollution that produces, With the overall increase in food costs because someone somewhere (Washington DC) (the farm lobby) thought it was a good Idea to create a mandate for the uninformed...

at 15% ethanol we lose 5% of the BTUs in a gallon of fuel purchased.. that is 5% less energy = 5% less mpg that is just basic physics...

There is far more involved... as a former high performance engine builder of engines that ran exclusively on Methanol which has even less btu's per gallon around 58,000, in building fuel systems we had to double the size of everything to run it... fuel lines, fuel pumps, jets ect... BUT it had a great cooling effect and could handle compression numbers pushing 18 to 1

We are paying 20% more for ethanol enabled via highly paid lobbyists, heavy government intervention, taxpayer funds, and protectionist tariffs than we are for methanol that has long been produced subsidy-free. Yet ethanol is “practical.” (If we make that gallon per gallon comparison that ethanol proponents like to make when comparing gasoline to less energy dense ethanol, then ethanol costs 60% more than methanol).

nations like africa even china could never justify using food for fuel... they go toward methanol

ok off my soap box

 

[Junglejack]

There is a Texaco here in Sarasota that sells it. They call it "Rec. Fuel" (for recreational use - boats, ATV's, etc.).
I tried a couple of tank fulls and noticed no difference in performance or fuel mileage whatsoever. Don't remember the octane, though. I do use it in my lawn equipment and also in a custom car I have which rarely gets driven just to preserve the fuel systems in them. It is more expensive and I can't justify the cost difference for daily use in the LC.

There is also I believe a Sunoco on Bee Ridge Road that sells 104 octane pure fuel. All the folks in the Ferrari's, Lambo's, et al that live on Siesta Key and Longboat get their gas there. I sometimes filled my lowly Infiniti M45 there... I miss being in an area where driving by a Bentley Continental seems ho hum. In one weekend I saw both a Veyron (275) and a Carrera GT at a Roy's (International Mall)

At $2.79 it does make sense to me to use 100% gasoline. Any higher and I will return to the 10% stuff.