Best Of

YYZRC said:

Agreed!! I hope we can all agree on Hendricks...

212rowboat said:

if the motor is modern it'll run ethanol just fine.  it just won't run at peak like it will with non-ethanol unless you tune for it.  ethanol is actually higher in rand count than gasoline- meaning it's more stable. when it's mixed with gas it loses that stability.  there is also a lot more power by volume in gasoline than alcohol, but alcohol burns faster... hence, it's good for power but hotter and won't go as far.  

i had a set of ski-do's in the four stroke variety, closed cooling rated at 265hp (boosted).  i ran rec fuel in the 91 to 93, sometimes 94 octane rating and those skiis would break 70mph and tickle 75mph in the right environmental conditions.. same everything except running 93oct e10 and i could barely break 60mph... there was that much difference... i'd also blow through a tank of fuel in about 2/3rds the time running e10 than rec fuel.  

blue fuel is still a thing around here... it's literally blue- dyed...  it's E0 105~110octane racing fuel.  it's out of my way to get and there is no benefit to running it in any engine i now own, BUT... you could take, in theory, a boosted engine with 11:1 mechanical ratio or somewhere around 9:1 dynamic ratio and feed it that stuff, and advance spark way up there around 37*~38*, and see some major benefit.... it's kinda funny, though, because you can NOW do the same (as @69fastback offered) with E85 and a tune designed for it... just don't expect it to take you as far as gasoline will... no matter what a tune does, it can't add to the stored energy by volume of gasoline... sorta like gasoline can't compete with the stored energy by volume of diesel... 

the problem with ethanol in a boat is a: corrosion.  and with a modern engine that has fuel system parts to account for that corrosion it's b: it attracts water.