Mapco gas now with ethanol

[Cutehumor]

I went to mapco to get gas as they had the cheapest gas in the area I live. Well, when I pulled up the gas pumps, all of them were taken except for one. So I pulled up, when I got gas, they had a piece of paper taped over each pump with "contains ethanol" for each grade of gas. I used ethanol before when I was driving through Illinois in my 96 sunfire so I wasn't worried. I filled up with regular and left. But I notice after I put in my 10 gallons, everyone was gone. Guess the ethanol scared them.

 

[wiswind]

Many parts of the country, ethanol is REQUIRED by the EPA mandated "Oxygenated" gasoline program to reduce polution.
Early in the program, some gasoline used MBTE, while others used ethanol.
MBTE was later banned from most....maybe all (I'm careful about the term "always").
So, as you experienced in Illinois, many of us have no choice.
You will likely see a slight decrease in fuel economy, as ethanol has a lower energy content per volume (BTU).
However, many miles of driving on the "reformulated" fuel has not been an issue for me.

As modern vehicles are so well controlled with sensors and computers to adjust the air/fuel ratio to real time measurements, the change in the charactoristics of the fuel with ethanol versus the next tank of fuel without, etc, should be no issue.....as it will be well within the adaptive range of the vehicle's fuel system.

However, I can understand, those who live in the areas that do not require ethanol in the gasoline may do a double take when they see a "contains up to 10% ethanal" label on the fuel pump.

 

[Drew2000]

Originally Posted By: wiswind
Many parts of the country, ethanol is REQUIRED by the EPA mandated "Oxygenated" gasoline program to reduce polution.
Early in the program, some gasoline used MBTE, while others used ethanol.
MBTE was later banned from most....maybe all (I'm careful about the term "always").
So, as you experienced in Illinois, many of us have no choice.
You will likely see a slight decrease in fuel economy, as ethanol has a lower energy content per volume (BTU).
However, many miles of driving on the "reformulated" fuel has not been an issue for me.....



FWIW, I bought gas in northern VT in the fall, and it contained MTBE. Riding a fairly high-performance bike, I definitely notice a power difference between E-10 and straight gasoline sold in the areas that are not reformulated.

Really don't notice in the car, other than about 10% worse fuel economy on the E-10.

Drew