Use or refrain from ethanol gasoline?

[Reverend Conehead]

First, please refrain from commenting on the political side of ethanol gasoline. What I'd like to know is if it's good for your car or not. I just bought a 2014 Honda Civic LX, which I would like to keep in good shape. That means regular oil changes and maintenance, of course. I also wonder if it's worth it to buy non-ethanol gasoline. I had heard that the gasoline with ethanol is not as good for car engines as we had hoped. I have several stations near me that offer gas sans ethanol. It's a little bit more, but it's affordable. Do you think it's worth the extra money to keep ethanol out of my gas tank?

 

[Vtwin]

I definitely notice a perfrmance drop off in my air cooled motorcycles, outboard and 1989 BMW. Don't really notice it in my f150 or the wife's Escape.

I am forced to run ethanol in all of them most of the time and have never had any maintenance or excessive wear problems as long as the water is kept out.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Some Pros and Cons from various sites...

http://www.hybridcars.com/benefits-drawbacks/

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1077734_ethanol-in-your-gasoline-tank-the-pros-and-cons

https://axleaddict.com/misc/Pros-and-Cons-of-Ethanol-in-Gas

Among various topics...all say that you actually get less MPG with ethanol. So if you would normally get 25 MPG with regular gas, if you used the higher percentage ethanol you could up to 25- 30% less MPG so instead of 25 MPG you could get 17.5 MPG.

 

[Denim Chicken]

First, please refrain from commenting on the political side of ethanol gasoline. What I'd like to know is if it's good for your car or not. I just bought a 2014 Honda Civic LX, which I would like to keep in good shape. That means regular oil changes and maintenance, of course. I also wonder if it's worth it to buy non-ethanol gasoline. I had heard that the gasoline with ethanol is not as good for car engines as we had hoped. I have several stations near me that offer gas sans ethanol. It's a little bit more, but it's affordable. Do you think it's worth the extra money to keep ethanol out of my gas tank?

A 2014 will be designed to run with at least 10% ethanol. Do not use E85 since a 2014 Honda is not flexfuel capable.

 

[Melonfeud]

And it's more than likely already had a crap ton of ethanol fuel ran through it already,,,,that castle walls done been breached.

 

[Chrispierce]

No...I wouldn't recommend it unless your car is made for Flexfuel.

 

[G2]

Nope. It costs me more to fill a tank and I get less horsepower and less mileage.

 

[StarMan2112]

First, please refrain from commenting on the political side of ethanol gasoline. What I'd like to know is if it's good for your car or not. I just bought a 2014 Honda Civic LX, which I would like to keep in good shape. That means regular oil changes and maintenance, of course. I also wonder if it's worth it to buy non-ethanol gasoline. I had heard that the gasoline with ethanol is not as good for car engines as we had hoped. I have several stations near me that offer gas sans ethanol. It's a little bit more, but it's affordable. Do you think it's worth the extra money to keep ethanol out of my gas tank?

While ethanol is not ideal, your 2014 Civic will run just fine on 10% ethanol. It will only reduce mpg by about 3%. Not sure how it is where you live, but around here the non-ethanol stations are no-name brand, low volume, mom-n-pop type joints. The concern with these is the fuel could be old, water laden, and may not contain the proper amount of additives your car needs. Buy name brand gas from a high volume station and you won’t see any fuel related problems. I only buy Top Tier fuel for my vehicles to ensure the proper amount of additives.
https://www.toptiergas.com/licensedbrands/

 

[nobody]

Ethanol is bad...for older cars (carbeurater using cars and not fuel injected), motorcycles, lawn mowers, etc...(anything with a carbeurator).

I looked it up and found a site that explains it pretty well. I'll post a few paragraphs from it after the link to it:

http://kosu.org/post/pros-and-cons-buying-gas-or-without-ethanol

“When you look at the chemical compositions of ethanol and gasoline….gasoline is definitely a more dense fuel in terms of energy that you’re going to get per pound. So it does more efficiently. You’re going to get more miles per gallon out of gasoline than you are out of ethanol most of the time.”

“If it’s relatively close to the same cost I absolutely stick with straight gasoline.”

But, Robbie added that the mileage difference isn’t huge when you’re talking about 90 percent gas and 10 percent ethanol. It’s when the percentage of ethanol compared to gasoline grows that you really start losing efficiency.

Now for my next question. Can ethanol damage your car?

“No most modern fuel injected cars run great off of the 10 percent ethanol mix. Where you get into problems is with systems that aren’t designed to run off of that mixture. Which are going to be your older cars, your carbureted cars, lawn mowers, motorcycles, things like that don’t run great with ethanol.

“The danger that we do hear about is that alcohol is a water based fuel so it does allow moisture into the fuel lines so we’ve heard reports about corrosion and rust in the fuel systems of those older vehicles because they’re not made for that.”

When buying gas for my lawn mower, since I can't find 100% pure gas around here, I get in in a 5 gallon gas can and then add octane boost / cleaner and add it to the 5 gallons. If I don't do that, I notice a huge difference in the performance of my lawn mower. Ethanol is REALLY bad for the health of your lawn mower.

 

[John813]

Around here we have 87/89 octane non Ethanol gas.

Cost as much as premium.

I've run it for 100k miles over various engine, some higher HP than most. No issues.

 

[CouchCoach]

I will refrain as long as my airplane glue supply is flush. The neighbors think it's odd that I've been working on that model for 30 years. Hell, if I could get past the tube, I might put something on the fuselage. That came already together. Right hospitable of Revell.

 

[Hardline]

It takes corn from the food market and drives up cost.

 

[gmoney112]

Definitely would not run it in older cars. As far as newer ones, it will affect longevity of the engine comparatively at least.

Lower fuel mileage/performance is expected. Fun fact, as far as energy density, you'll spend more energy creating ethanol gasoline than it eventually puts out.

 

[Cowpolk]

On older cars pre 2001 should not use it it will erode the fuel lines and seals in the gas tank