Ethanol Fuels

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andy.peterson01

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Around here, most all of the gas stations have some amount of ethanol added into their gasoline.. I'm wondering if using say, 91 octane with 10% ethanol is bad for my LS?

The basic options for gas around here are :

87 with no ethanol
87 with 10% ethanol
89 no ethanol
91 with 10% ethanol
93 with 10% ethanol


I have tried several gas stations and can't seem to find 91 octane with no ethanol in it.. Will this harm my car any?
 
Almost all gas stations put ethanol in their gasoline even if they do not advertise it. 91 octane is 91 octane. Octane rating is a measure of how well a fuel resists preignition. What the companies are doing is mixing a lower octane petro with 10% ethanol to get the same octane rating. Most of the differences in gas is with the additives which are added to higher octane fuels.

It shouldn't do any harm, but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will tell me.
 
well lets put it this way, if those are your only choices, then 91 with 10% e is a hell of a lot better for your car than the 87 without e.
 
andy.peterson01 said:
...The basic options for gas around here are :

87 with no ethanol
87 with 10% ethanol
89 no ethanol
91 with 10% ethanol
93 with 10% ethanol


I have tried several gas stations and can't seem to find 91 octane with no ethanol in it.. Will this harm my car any?
Click to expand...

Of those choices, "91 with 10% ethanol" and "93 with 10% ethanol" are the only two options that will clearly do no harm to your engine.

You will get worse mileage with 10% ethanol than you would with 0% ethanol, but any stations that really have 0% will have higher prices.
 
Around here NH, we only have the 3 octane levels 87, 89, and 93 all have the 10% additive. There may be some stations offering 91 instead of 93 but I haven't seen one, and I haven't been to every station in the state either. I just got some 93 for 3.74/gal
 
bullschmidt said:
Almost all gas stations put ethanol in their gasoline even if they do not advertise it.

It shouldn't do any harm, but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will tell me.
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Any fuel with ethanol added MUST advertise it by federal law. e10 will not harm our cars. You will not get as good of gas mileage with e-anything vs 100% gas.

I have heard of a swing to go e15 and I don't like it. It is a bad idea to turn food into fuel.
 
E10 won't hurt anything. You will get worse gas mileage cause the compression isn't high enough in an LS to take advantage of it. The engine will also run cooler because the burn isn't as hot.

I know a lot of the hot-rod/tuner shops are waiting on E85 to show up at a gas station around here. But that's because they want access to cheap fuel to build retarded alchy motors. Has something to do with double-digit boost. :)

Here you pretty much only get 87, 89, 93. I've seen maybe 2-3 gas stations that had 87/89/91/93.
 
we don't have any ethonal around me as far as I know although I go two like to different stations and thats it, not one much for experementing with gas stations.
 
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I think if your city is NOT listed, you have ethanol in your gas if I'm reading the link correctly. surprised to see 1 station in the whole state of nh sells real gas. I'd use half a tank getting there and half a tank getting back. :)
 
ah yes I read that wrong, That pisses me off. I hate the EPA they are a useless waste of tax dollars. And people wonder why we are in dept. It's because we have to pay thousands of people to do nothing but control our every doing.

Did you know that the majority of tax fraud is commited by IRS employees... Our Government makes no sense they take for ever to do anything and it always cost double what it should and it never comes out right, If it where a company t would go out of buisness its first week.

Who wants to over pay for a slow service that isn't even going to work right....


end rant
 
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we just started getting that at some local gas stations in MI, we have 87, 89, and 93, or just straight ethanol. I always put 93 in my LS, although I'm sure 89 would be fine but the gas cap says 91+
 
jdmans101 said:
although I'm sure 89 would be fine but the gas cap says 91+
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really, are you sure about that?

There is a reason that the gas cap says that, but im sure you would know way better than the people who designed the motor. i mean its not like they have any degrees or anything like that to back up their knowledge, right?
 
1LoudLS said:
really, are you sure about that?

There is a reason that the gas cap says that, but im sure you would know way better than the people who designed the motor. i mean its not like they have any degrees or anything like that to back up their knowledge, right?
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not that I was asking for a smart ass answer, the owners manual actually says its okay to run lower octane rating gas if you have to and to only be worried if the engine knocks or stutters, depends on elevation and what not. I wasn't stating a fact or anything.
 
I think you can get away with 89 in the cold temps assuming you have a standard tune and not set hot (advanced or what ever) for performance.

heck if you want, you can run 87 and toss in octane boost in cold weather, but what would be the point I imagine. the boost probably would take the benefit of the cheaper price out of the equation.

But if you are in the boonies and all you can get is the 87, boost will get you by till you can get to another station.

I used to have a re-worked 64 pontiac sport coupe (64 1/2 became the first GTO) and that sucker would drag me out of bed and kick my but if it didn't get premium. But that's another story.

Back then I'm not sure what the octane was for premium, but I don't think it was much over 90 (talking about 70 - 71).
 
cirelle said:
I think you can get away with 89 in the cold temps assuming you have a standard tune and not set hot (advanced or what ever) for performance.

heck if you want, you can run 87 and toss in octane boost in cold weather, but what would be the point I imagine. the boost probably would take the benefit of the cheaper price out of the equation.

But if you are in the boonies and all you can get is the 87, boost will get you by till you can get to another station.

I used to have a re-worked 64 pontiac sport coupe (64 1/2 became the first GTO) and that sucker would drag me out of bed and kick my but if it didn't get premium. But that's another story.

Back then I'm not sure what the octane was for premium, but I don't think it was much over 90 (talking about 70 - 71).
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We've been through this a thousand times. The high compression of the LS engine requires 91+ octane. I think the engineers know a little more than all of us on this board combined.

In short you can run less than 91 octane and the computer will retard the spark reducing efficiency (mpg) and performance. Whatever money might be saved at the pump will be more than eaten up with fewer mpg.

Jeesh!
 
I fill my LS up with jesus juice and a hint of unicorn blood. It makes it puff rainbows and drive on water.

BRB, i'm starting to get sober.
 
the main reason that i think its a bad/stupid idea to run substandard fuel, is when it is doing this

LS4me said:
In short you can run less than 91 octane and the computer will retard the spark reducing efficiency (mpg) and performance.
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its relying on its own sensors to keep from bowing itself up. what happens when one of those sensors fails? I bet it turns out to be the most expensive sensor you will ever replace, on the good side, that sensor comes with a new engine
 
Ethanol has been shown to clog fuel filters over time on older vehicles. I have a friend that works at a garage and he has replaced so many fuel filters because of this that it is just sickening. Unfortunately there are no gas stations that are ethanol free within driving distance to make it worth it for me. And I use 93, never lower since I have owned my car. Not very many gas stations have 91 around me and I won't go lower.
 
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