Ethanol Fuel

[BajaRon]

If gas costs .95 cents to make why did someone post about the 110 race gas cost 7 bucks? You do realize that ethanol is 110 octane, if you want to compare straight across. Also a straight ethanol engine will put out more hp than a gas one, and I mean an engine built to run on ethanol not a gas engine burning ethanol. You can run a higher boost with ethanol than gas and not hole the piston and if you inject water hp goes up more.

A bit of an 'Apples and Oranges' comparison there. The $.95 cents was in 2009 and does not include transportation, markup for profit, taxes, and a number of other costs added to bring the product to market. These numbers were comparing raw production costs for a gallon of regular for each fuel type. Comparing these numbers to 2019 pricing of 110 octane racing fuel at the pump, is not a valid comparison. I don't think anyone is recommending using 110 racing fuel in a Spyder or Ryker. Higher octane does not produces more power. It simply increases the ignition temperature of the fuel mix and slows the burn rate for very high compression engines.

Yes, a specially designed or modified racing engine dumping tons of ethanol fuel into the cylinders will produce a great deal of HP. But comparing that to a daily driver or something that you can run on the street is also an unfair comparison. That racing engine might get 3 or 4 MPG. I don't think anyone is willing to go with that. And the life span on pure ethanol fuel is very short unless held in a sealed container where it cannot sponge up all the moisture it comes in contact with.

If you think ethanol fuel is the best way to go, that's fine. I do not have a problem with that. However, I would prefer that my tax dollars not be used to make ethanol fuel artificially less expensive at the pump. I would rather see both fuels compete on an equal footing. This would allow the consumer to make a fully informed choice as to which fuel they wanted to use. I think the honesty and transparency would be good for the consumer, and for America. Of course, this will not happen because everyone promoting ethanol fuel knows sales of that product would plummet if these 2 products were allowed to compete on equal footing. Straight gas just has too many advantages over ethanol.

 

[Lew L]

I just wish I could get 92 octane non-ethanol fuel at a reasonable price. I CAN get non-ethanol 100 octane fuel at $7.00 a gallon--- 40 miles away. :gaah:

Lew L

Yes, I was the one who mentioned non-ethanol 100 octane fuel at $7 /gal. Supply and demand. Is it better for 99.99% of the vehicles out there----- NO. Just for sh(ts and giggles I tried a tank full in my V-Max------ a waste of money. Would I put it in my :spyder2: with an ECU upgrade. ---No. But the local racers do love the availability of it. And the station that sells it loves the profit.

Oh---- how about the specific energy in BTU's compared between ethanol and gasoline??? 124,000 btu's /gal Vs. 84,000 btu's / gal. Carb jets the size of drain pipes.

This is almost a much fun as tire, oil , and air pressure threads

 

[DaveInMn]

The discussion is always lively when discussing ethanol fuel. Here is a link to a video with some very interesting testing of various fuels. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/UvS_D4_lF5U

Good find...
.

 

[h0gr1der]

Anyone know how to actually test the ethanol content of fuel? I seem to remember back when all this corn stuff started that Hot Rod (I think) magazine put out something like in a 200 ml container, add 10 ml of water and 100 ml of fuel, agitate well and let sit for some hours. The 10 ml of water will pull the ethanol out, and any increase in the water interface can be easily seen and calculated as ethanol in the fuel. So with 10% ethanol, you start with 110 ml of level, and 10 ml of water, and end with 110 of level and 20 ml of water/ethanol mix at the bottom.

Reason I'm bringing this up is a couple of years ago an automotive type show went around the states testing what was actually in the ethanol blends, and even though it was (by law) supposed to be 10% or less, in some cases it was 40% or more. States without the fuel inspection agencies fared the worst.