Let me clarify a few things. I forgot there are alot of midwesterners and ect on here where it's been around and is an option. Here on the east coast we have no choice. We have to have oxygenated fuel by law. Mtbe was fouling water wells because of leaking tanks so it was outlawed in many states here and replaced with ethanol. My original post was informational and my personal observations. We have been runnming this stuff for a couple of years here and when the amount of ethanol is up it is noticable in fuel milage. My Civic gets 40mpg on gas about 35-36 on e10. One of my points was that this stuff is mixed locally and quantities in the gas vary widely. I have read that for the distributors the ethanol is cheaper than the gas so many are upping the amount in the fuel to make a buck. This has caused alot of problems in even new cars. Lot's of mechanics are reporting fuel pump failures on new cars and are just now putting 2+2 together and realizing that these are E10 related. Probably due to excessive ethanol in the fuel. I have had no problems so far in the cars where the gas is turned over regularly. But lots of starting issues with small engines this year even with fresh gas. I had not intended to leave fuel in my boat all winter I had intended to fish over the winter but the cold weather came on hard and fast this year. I know several boat owners like myself that got caught with their pants down and never got their motors winterized. Most years and with straight gas that probably wouldn't have been a problem. This spring I learned some lessons.
One of the most interesting things I learned was after testing several different cans and tanks around my place with the test kit I found differing amounts of ethanol/water 2 tanks were just bought form the same place(name brand busy stations) last week on different days. One hardly had any ethanol one had 12-13%. That one has much more potential to absorb water. That water is the #1 problem with E10. That's what causes pitting in old carbs and keeps engines from starting.
I personally like the idea of American made ethanol. 10% less of my money going overseas is a good thing. I also think we should be making this stuff from crop wastes and garbage not crops. Heck you can make moonshine from grass clippings! I wouldn't want to drink it but I'll run my car on it. Right now is learning curve time. A lot of people are getting ripped off for repairs when the only problem is water fouled gas in the tank. I hoped to make people aware of some of the probs. Maybe save somebody a service trip. A friend with a new motorcycle just spent $1k to get it repaired after some fuel systems parts disolved and went into the injectors ect. I wonder how much ethanol was in that tank of gas!
For the record I usually use stabil in my fuel unless I intend to go through it quickly. I don't like it in the winter in my old tractor(pre cub for me) though because when plowing snow the exhaust gets blown back at me and that stuff makes the exhaust acrid on the nose!
The fuel test kit is over priced but was worth it for me just for the education i got testing several cans and tanks I got.
Just so you know this is sort of a generic reply as I felt this info was good to post on a couple of different gearhead sites I belong to. Some of the same isuues have come up some different and I type real slow so I cut and paste from one forum to the other.
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