Greetings from Afghanistan and fuel question

[Mark Howard]

Greetings fellow Pelicanheads! It's been a LONG time since I have posted due to my deployment here in Afghanistan. Not very often do I get a chance to get on the net and see what's going on. Wow things have changed since last I posted. Wayne has really updated the site - or perhaps I just forgot what it looked like.

Anyway, I'm doing well here, giving the Taliban hell and hoping to get back to driving sometime next year, which brings up my question.

Where I live in Louisiana, our metro area will soon be changing to reformulated fuel to reduce emissions and theoritically decrease our air polution. Does anyone know if reformulated fuel has any effect on P-car engines? I really don't even know what is involved in reformulated fuel, but if I were to guess it probably has an additional process or additive that will make it burn cleaner. Anyone with any experience with this?

[gduke]

Mark I don't know. but will you have to run the car through emissions also?

[Schrup]

Mark, thanks for keeping us free!!! Hopefully it doesn't involve adding 10% methenol as some stations do around here. If it is it's not good for anything, especially injectors. That is why I try to buy the cleanest premium gas I can find. I wouldn't sweat it till you get back. Stay safe!!!

[djmcmath]

I have no clue, but thanks for your service out there. I did some googling, and here's some stuff:


From another car forum:
Fuel economy is partially a function of the energy content of fuel. Here are some stats that may be of interest. The numbers are in BTUs which is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a pound of water 1 degree.

Conventional Gasoline (summer avg): 114,000; (winter avg): 112,500

Reformulated Gasoline (summer): 111,811 (ETBE); 111,836 (ethanol); 111,745 (ETBE)
Reformulated Gasoline (winter): 110,503 (ETBE); 110,422 (ethanol); 110,410 (ETBE)

Overall, reformulated gas has about 98% of the energy of conventional regular fuel, both winter and summer.

Reformulated gas has oxygenates in it displacing a small amount of higher energy fuel. This is why reformulated gas depresses gas mileage a small amount. There are three commonly used chemicals: MTBE (93,500 BTU, approximate treat rate of 11%); ETBE (96,900 BTU, treat rate of 12.8%) and ethanol (76,100, 5.71%)

For a vehicle that delivers 20 MPG with conventional regular under a certain set of summer conditions, RFG fuel will deliver about 19.6 MPG. In winter, with conventional regular the car will get about 19.7 while with RFG, the car would get almost 19.4 MPG.

I got these figures from an EPA report on this subject.



From an article in the LA news, it looked like everyone else had quietly shifted to RFG IAW EPA deadline (That's "Re-Formulated Gas In Accordance With Environmental Protection Agency" for those of you who aren't so good with TLAs) and LA has requested a waiver.

From http://www.ethanolrfa.org/ereports/er022201.html -- it looks suspiciously like it's got a chunk of ethanol in it, which is great for the gas companies 'coz it's more expensive.


Does that help any?


Dan

[Mark Howard]

Thanks, Dan. I was just worried I would put the stuff in when I got back and it would kill the injectors, fuel pump, etc. Sounds like it will be fine, just a little reduced performance.

[n8marx]

I live in Minnesota. In our neverending quest to subsidize everyone we reformulate our gas so that 10% of it is ethanol, year round. The farmers appreciate the gesture but all the car clubs gripe about it. Despite the griping, I've never noticed any ill effects from running reformulated fuel in any of my cars, including the 911.

[Emission]

Mark,

Thanks for serving our country - we're all proud of your guys (and gals) over there...

Whatever they do to your gas in Louisiana, it has probably already been done to us in California. With that said, driveability shouldn't be affected much (you probably won't even notice).

Here in California, the best we get is 91 octane. Ouch. My turbo needs a hit of octane boost in the summer to keep predetonation away. PIA.