Ethanol question.

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by 04FX4

The reason I ask is some gas stations where I live have 94 octane fuel with 10-14% ethanol, I was not sure if this was good or bad, I thought I seen some where posted that ethanol was bad.

The octane rating makes it sound good, but it's totally misleading. High octane only means the fuel is resistant to detonation (ping, knock - explosive burning) in an engine. It DOES not mean the fuel has more power, and in the case of ethanol, it has less power. High octane fuel is not a "treat" for your engine, as I have heard some people say. It's just a fuel that resists ignition under compression. And, our engines are designed for 87 octane fuel. We can get a bit more out of them by running 91 or 93 stuff and advancing the spark, but, we still throw a lot of potential away since the compression in our engines is not high enough to really take advantage of the burn properties.

However, now that I've ranted a bit, if the price differential of the ethanol blend is better than the reduction in gas mileage you're going to see, and, if yur truck is designed for high ethanol (flex fuel design), go for it! I think you'd be foolish to put real gas in your truck in that case.

- Jack