QUAKEnSHAKE@webtv.net (QUAKEnSHAKE) wrote in news:12073-47474FED-696
@storefull-3157.bay.webtv.net:

> Gas has a higher btu rating than ethanol. You will get better milage out
> of 100% gas.


No fuel is "100% gas". A goodly proportion is made up of detergents and
other additives. Then you have the octane boosters.

In the old days you had tetra-ethyl lead added as an octane booster. Later
it was replaced by MMT. Neither of these had a significant impact on fuel
mileage.

What *did* finally adversely affect mileage was the addition of oxygen to
the fuel. Oxygen was added through the use of MTBE or ethanol, the
resulting fuel mix being known as "reformulated gasoline".

If you want to maximize fuel economy, you have to remove the oxygen by
going back to non oxygen-containing additives. Which ain't gonna happen.



> Ive never really bothered to check the difference.


I did, and it isn't much. Perhaps 2%. Until you do whole-year studies with
the same car, the same fuel brand and the same octane rating, it's
impossible to pick out changes that are not due to simple randomness.



> When I had a 35-40mpg
> vehicle driving 15-20000 mile a year gas was cheap ($.80) so didnt care.
> Now I dont drive much 5000miles on a bouht new 2005Pilot. If two
> stations side by side one blended, one 100% I would go with the
> non-ethenol blend 100% gas.
>
>


You can find ethanol-free gas almost everywhere. It's usually in the form
of the the "premium" octane grades, like 91 pump octane. The lower the
octane, the higher the ethanol content. But you won't find non-oxygenated
anywhere in North America now that MMT is out of use.



--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/