Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge RaceTrac Ethanol

Cinnamon Girl is going to have a hang over. Tried to use a fuel pump at RaceTrac and the screen was showing that the silicon was rebooting. Went inside where they told me that Corporate doesn't allow them to place a sign on the pump saying the card reader does not work. Okay, outside to the pump, roll CG to another pump, fuel Cinnamon Girl up to a squirt past the first click, hang up nozzle and only then do I see a sign Corporate allowed them to place on each pump.

%10 Ethanol
Or Less
in Fuel

Nice of Corporate to TELL someone they are pumping cellulose ethanol. They placed this 3" sq sign between the mid-range and high octane fuel handles.

I walked around the other pumps and asked people if they knew they were pumping ethanol. The Mayberry Genre of ladies especially . "Why no, when did they start using that?"

We've had Ethanol in our fuel for years, I've never noticed a problem.

Most all fuel contains 10%, so you should be OK, but the MPG will drop some.

It use to be that they only used fuel like that here only during the fall and winter months, but now (by law) all the gas here is that way. It definitley affects performance and mpg.

In my opinion, even though it's their excuse, it really has nothing to do with the enviroment, but is all about money. Lower mpg means you have to buy more gas. The more gas you buy, the more money the government gets from fuel taxes.

Soren

Lemmings come to mind, sorry Moe.

The ethanol only becomes an issue if you don't winterize the bike properly and leave the stuff in the carbs all winter, but that is sort of true of regular gas too. Oh I forgot, in Florida you don't have to winterize your bike...

I've been using ethanol for almost 20 years here in Iowa, both in new bikes and in my antique bikes and cars, never a problem.
What I most worried about, in my antiques, was the lack of lead for the valve guides. Turns out that lead additives were a marketing gimmic from the 60s (according to a book written by an investigator) I put 30 thousand plus miles on my 68 and 71 trumpet motors, no noticable valve train damage.

Ethanol lowers MPGs. In a comparative sense, the more fuel that passes through an engine per x distance, the more accelerated the wear per mile. How discernible is this accelerated wear factor? Couldn't tell ya, since it would be near impossible to run a comparison study in the real world.

Aside from lowering our MPGs, and thus raising the amount of fuel taxes to the revenuers as a result of this increased fuel usage, ethanol makes for a right dandy political tool for Bush to use against Chavez*. The EPA even has doubts about the health aspects of ethanol. Pardon my acute cynicism, but bio fuels are by and large, a further exercise in politicians stroking corporate wants & needs grab a--. The numbers don't work for bio fuels, but as you well know, little issues like economic viability and common sense never stopped us before. There are a number of other means to get to the end of "Please Lord, create a miracle that weans us off Persian Gulf oil" but corn squeezins ain't one of 'em.


{*Bush is going to pay a few gazillion to all of Venezuala's neighbors to produce alcohol as a motor fuel, EXCEPT for, you guessed it, Venezuela.}

I always ran straight pump gas in my old bikes too and never saw any damage. I heard the biggest problem was the older bikes have soft valve seats in them and the newer mixes pit the seats. I have never seen any evidence of this though and have rebuilt hundreds of those engines.

Remember how the gas & diesel products of yesteryear (Let's say, the 60s) actually smelled pretty good? They were closer to a true mineral oil product, not the hydro cracked benzene laced stuff we get nowadays. If I spill fuel on me now, I can't wait to wash it off. The smell says it all.

That's interesting Martin. I never really thought about it, but on reflection you are right gas used to smell almost good and now smells like crap. I remember liking the smell of gas when I was a kid filling up the lawn mower thirty years ago, but now not so much. Hmm...

I've got nothing against 10% ethanol per se, however, it is not the answer to independence or conservation of oil. In fact, many articles have been written that explain that it takes as much gas to make a gallon of corn ethanol as is worth the same gallon of oil, I.E., fuel to plant the corn, combine it, transport it, process it. There are virtually no savings and the only good thing is that it puts some more money in the midwest farming operation. Politcians who court ethanol are just getting on the midwest vote bandwagon. (then again, ...PARANOIA ALERT... maybe the articles I read on ethanol are written by the same oil co. secret hacks who told us that ethanol additives would ruin the rubber seals in our carbs!)

ethanol is a scam anyway, it makes less of 1 gas and more of several others that aren't any better for the enviornment.

Well having rode Cinnamon Girl after the advent of corn squeezin's I notice that she runs a bit skinny. My list does have pull the carbs and check the jetting already...

Moe, with all that riding around , I'm sure you've put ethanol in it hundreds of times. The owner manual even addresses it and says its ok.
Geoff

Odds are you are correct, however I look at the pumps when out of town specifically for ethanol additives. RaceTrac sneaked it on me as RaceTrac is in my home range.

What I can't figure is how can they charge the same amount for corn-laced gas that other stations charge for non corn-laced gas?

Never mind. Time to ride.

I call dibs on being the US emperor of Brazil.
My palace will be located on Copacabana beach.



Anyway, back on topic - The local lawnmower shop guy claims ethanol will make a small engine run hotter, and so he recommends mid grade.

It would make sense to use a higher octane to slow the burning process as a way of mitigating the higher temp of the alcohol. Probably not so much an issue for us northern hemisphere folks right now but it would come into play once Spring is here.

I noticed the 10% sticker at Race Trac the other day. I was wondering if they just went to that or if I have been over looking it for years.