Fuel Question

NickT

Hamdog, 

It is the same on the Illinois River.  Most marina's only carry E-10.  I agree with the higher octane I try for at least 89, and the additive.  Save the money and fuel it on the hard.  Realize, your fuel economy with ethanol will be about 10% less than straight gas.

NickT

Glassguy54

@Robs_232, I too am in Iowa. We trailer our 246 so I am able to fuel up at stations that offer 91 octane no ethanol gas. I also add Startron fuel treatment. With the well documented issues regarding the Gen 3 cool fuel module, I just don't want to take any chances.

Michael T

10% less fuel economy would be a good deal for 10% ethanol. A comparison about 5 years ago showed 18% - 20%  less mileage capability for 10 major fuel suppliers when a vehicle (truck/boat) was under load. The stuff is just crap - water attracting, deposit laden, with 20% less power.

F1100

its cause alot of older engines are not built optimal for ethanol... its a good fuel.

I personally use it in all my sleds with no issues either

Robs_232

I have done a lot of comparison on fuel mileage on my Silverado 1/2 ton's over the last 10 years, as I drive a fair amount every year. I don't see much difference in fuel mileage using E10 vs straight. However, anything above that is incremental loss in mileage. E-85 is horrible fuel mileage as I have seen as much as a 50% reduction in fuel mileage.

Since I work in the agriculture industry I will support them when it makes economic sense, and like rowboat said don't run it in small 2 cycle engines. The ethanol can eat the fuel lines up.

212rowboat

half a lifetime ago i got to play with explosives... good times... we did a lot of breaching doorways... shape charges were most often composition, and made to cut- where as tnt, for instance, is a pusher... one would cut a moment prior to the other pushing... we got to cut down trees in this manner in training... big ol' trees- 14~20" in diameter... pines.. we'd det cord round and round the trunk, run a small stretch of timed chord, and shove a blasting cap in a 1/4 stick of tnt... the det chord cut the tree (burns at a rate of 16k ft per second, meaning it basically explodes), and a full second of time before the tnt pushed the tree in the direction we chose... it was a blast... pun intended.. 

so... compositions cut... tnt pushes... if it is a garage door, c4 would make it look like a big knife went through it.. tnt would make it look like a big fist punched it... it's not exactly the stored energy of the explosive, but how fast it burns. 

gasoline is a pusher using my analogy... alcohol is a cutter... (diesel would be an even greater pusher as it stores even more energy and takes longer to burn- pushing/chasing the piston further, like a boxer following through with a power punch as opposed to a jab)...

booze has a higher burn temperature and does it fast... it has a really precise ignition point, which means its stable and won't ignite as readily as gas (the purpose of rand expressed as octane- means its more stable not more volatile/powerful)... it makes it a good thing to burn in high compression precisely machined engines... it burns wicked fast and generates a lot of heat, but will not ignite near as easily under compression... it takes spark in most every instance.. 

gasoline burns cooler, stores less energy than booze, but burns slower- chasing the piston deeper into its stroke.. unless you're hitting really high RPM's, it will burn out before you near dynamic BDC, but not far before, allowing you to squeeze more tq out of the cycle than alcohol... great for slower revving engines to convert tq to hp... 

mixing the stuff gets tricky... it's awesome on paper but in practice you've gotta take precautions to keep from allowing predetonation.  change your ignition timing, but at the same time fatten your spark by hitting it with higher voltage and a wider gap.. ect... 

then there is the issue of solvents coming into contact with materials it can destroy.  

so.. that e85 doesn't push the pistons, it punches them w/o following through.  you're tq takes a nose dive which leaves less to convert to hp... and means you're using more of it to do the same thing pure gas can do easier... and five percent more than the common 10 is enough to do that... what is going to happen when it's 20?  that's coming... are manufacturers going to be prepared?  are massive reflashes of PCM's/ECU's going to be dispatched to attempt to address it? or, is sub ten MPG going to be the norm again?