My local gas station is now offering ethanol-free gas, however, it is 90 octane. What do you guys think? Stick with the 10% ethanol crap or go the ethanol-free route but only at 90 octane?

Has anyone tried this?

 

Use the correct octane. 10 ethanol won't damage anything. Tech section in Excellence a couple of months ago addressed this issue.

 

For a moment, I thought it was free gas (as in $0.00). Silly wabbit me!

 

maybe use the 90 and add appropriate amt of octane booster

 

X2 Some motors like older marine 2 strokes don't get along with ethanol, but the motors in our vehicles will be perfectly fine with E10.

 

Can you provide a summary? Just wondering if "getting the ethanol-free version and just adding octane booster or racing fuel" is better.

Thanks.

 

It would take some serious octane booster to boost a tank of 90 octane up to even just 91. You're better off using the standard Florida 93 octane with a crap ton of ethanol in it because even though the gas mileage is a little less it's much less likely to cause detonation.


Now if you were driving a classic 911 with old gas lines in it then maybe the better choice would be the ethanol free, but the difference in octane would still be something significant to take into consideration.

 

I think 12-15oz of Torco would get you to 93 in our tanks. Rough calc. though. Plenty of info on their website.

 

Crazy at it may sound but we have 2 local Union76 stations here with racing fuel. A mixture of racing and regular gas would easily raise the octane. I stopped doing it once I saw the price of the racing fuel.

And yes, on my air-cooled one, I would rather use the ethanol-free gas. Octane was never an issue since the factory requirement was 87.

 

I d pass on that and I you didn t state the price per gallon.

 

Are you asking about the ethanol-free gas price or the racing-fuel price?

For the racing fuel, it was A LOT (I could not remember since it was years ago). I only did it for 2-tanks full. I was basically trying to find out how a 997 would actually perform with the right octane and without having to deal with the alleged crappy California gas.

One thing for certain --- the car was happy with higher octane. Was it worth it? For my daily 30-mile trip, it was not. Perhaps if my car were a garage queen and it just hits the canyons, perhaps the price would be worth it.

 

I was asking about the ethanol free price... it seemed overpriced to me in my area.

 

Buy 93 octane 10% ethanol gas and add Sta-Bil Ethanol Treatment to your tank every other fill up or so to neutralize the effects of the ethanol on the engines fuel delivery system. Lot's cheaper than octane boosters and works without reducing the octane level of the 10% ethanol gas you buy. ( which is why the ethanol is in the gas in the first place ) Good to use in small gasoline engines ( mowers, trimmers, chain saw, etc.. as well as they are all negatively effected by ethanol in gasoline over time.

 

For modern automobile engines there's no harm to running ethanol. If there were there'd be tons of problem posts on the 'net. Every car forum would be full of them.

BTW, while the pump may have a label that the fuel has 10% ethanol it has around 7% to 8%. Refiners have at least up 'til now held back a few percent of ethanol.

The best thing one can do is buy the right octane grade of premium gasoline from a busy station to ensure fresh fuel.

Unless one is in the habit of parking the car up for months and months without any use there's no need to add any fuel additive to the tank. Waste of money and some additives can harm O2 sensors or converters.

 

old school used toluene or xylene, glad my chemistry major is good for something