I bought "real" gas today.

A name brand gas station that I fill up at on a regular basis had a sign out offering ethanol free gas. So today I thought what hell, let's just see if there's any truth to the hype. I think it's going to be an expensive experiment, but so far I've got about 17 miles on this tank and my butt dyno wants to say there's a positive difference. However, I don't believe in butt dyno's, the only thing that matters to me is mpg. My plan is to drive like I always do so the only variable is the gas.

Since numbers are what matter, this is what I have so far, ethanol free gas vs what I normally buy:

• $2.709/gallon vs $2.229 ($.48/gallon more)
• 88 octane vs 85 octane
• My last tank of gas, purchased at this station, yielded 17.012 mpg
• This tank of "real" gas cost $47.28 vs $38.90 ($8.38/tank more than regular gas)

Based on my calculations I'll have to go 60 more miles on a tank just to break even. I'll post my results when I fill up again and get the final numbers.

 

I've always ran real gas in ALL my vehicles. I accept none other. Here's my experiences.
Little better gas mileage, but really nothing to brag about and you won't see a big dfference.
But dynamic - shit yah
Smoother idling - hmm smoother = gas mileage = but dyno. Yup...
Less carbon buildup. They say ethanol is cleaner burning at the tailpipe, yah, that maybe true, but getting there is a different story, from gas can to intake to valves. List goes on. Those internals will thank you in the end and so will your pocket book on fuel system repairs.

Don't get me wrong, guys om here will say ethanol don't matter. But when you've run non-e gas as long as I have, I beg to differ.

I've also had mechanics left and right agreee. Took my son's car in, that was mine initialy. Put over 100k on it. They asked, I need a throttle body clean due to build up front ethanol. Hmm, I asked them what ethanol, they looked at me funny. Then looked closer and sure enough, not needed, fockers.

 

pure gas need a 14.7:1 air to fuel ration for "perfect" combustion 100 percent ethanol is about 8:1 (so almost twice as much fuel per a given amount of air) since only 10% of the gas is ethanol and it requires twice the fuel for said 10% you can assume about a 5% increase in mileage (10%/2=5%)
since your pure gas source is roughly 15% more expensive, it will net you a tank that cost about 10% to drive the same distance. just some food for thought. that's too much of a difference for me to justify it but I'm sure your internals will be a little happier ($30 a week is 1560 a year and 10% more would be and additional $156).

 

OH, no I'm sure I will get 35 mpg out of my truck. I waste money on stupid stuff all the time, but this is literally the first time I've ever bought "special" gas.

Day two and I can't tell if the perceived improvements are real or placebo.

 

Pure gas should be the standard, ethanol for the tree huggers.

It takes more energy to process corn than is saved by displacement of fuel.

That said, while we are stuck here............

Non ethanol would gain me about 10% MPG on my street driven race car. Not nearly enough to offset the cost delta.

Also, there was some improved drivability, but total power gains were insignificant.

The only place I'll pay to stay 'free' is for my small engines, both two and four cycle. Generator, yard tools, boat motors, etc. Because they sit too long between uses.

 

Does running 85 octane gas really help at high altitude? I don't believe you can buy that 85 octane stuff east of the Mississippi. My ignorant low altitude attitude would think that it wouldn't be a good idea to run anything lower than 87 octane.

 

You should put diesel in it. That's how you get really good mileage.

 

I tried it for a while when I once lived closer to a station that had it. Not worth it. Really not noticeable and it just costs more. These vehicles are so modern it doesnt matter. Now an old big block Chevelle, ect...sure...likely best to use it.

 

The thinner air effectively reduces the compression ratio which means you can use lower octane gas. My house is about 4,300 feet above sea level and I regularly drive at 5,000 - 8,000 feet. The only time I buy 87 octane is when I travel out of state and that's all they've got. If the engine knocks, I've never heard it.

 

Today the empty light was on so I ended the "real" gas experiment, and the results are >>> drum roll >> "real" gas provided 18.055 mpg or an improvement of 1 mpg. Woo hoo! I'm not going to do the math cause to break even I needed around 20 mpg, so yeah totally not worth the extra money. After the placebo effect wore off I couldn't tell a bit of difference, so back to the $2.05/gallon ethanol blend for me.

 

I only use non ethanol in the mower and other lawn equipment. Truck gets up to 10%.

You're going to have to run a few tanks through the truck to see any difference because the truck will need time to change over to using the non ethanol.

 

It's getting hard to find pure gasoline these days. In fact I'm not sure I've seen it anywhere around the city, at least not advertised.

 

I don't know how much truth there is to the need for multiple tanks. I did get 1 mpg better, but the math totally doesn't work out to make non-ethanol gas worth the money. (If it did everyone would be using it)

Now where it does make sense is like you say in the lawn equipment. But, for me even that isn't worth the hassle. My lawn mower gets what ever the local station has. At 20+ years old and running fine I don't see the need. Heck the only maintenance that thing gets is an oil change every other year or so and the tank run dry before winter storage.

 

Well at 5 months old and $5k the mower gets the good shit.