10% ethanol experiences with 911SC?

[hytem]

If you haven't noticed, all gas (at least in the northeast) contains10% ethanol. That's what it says on the gas pumps. A rather stealthy development, as I haven't heard anything in the news about it--except for the Panorama article in the June issue.At $3.00/gallon, it's apparently cost effective.

I have yet to use the stuff in my 82 911sc, and wondering what the experience is out there? Any idle mixture problems?
I understand the ethanol makes the fuel lines more susceptible to water, but that will be true for any car.

[defcon65]

The 10% ethanol blend seems to be the way things are going - lots of threads on this with pretty polarized opinions, as you might guess. Some say it will inevitable ruin your Porsche, others say they've been doing it for years with no ill effects...
I've experimented with all the fuels out there and can't honestly tell there is any difference between 89 octane gasohol and 93 octane pure gas or with the MTBE additive. If your engine is stock compression you should be fine with the minimum octane fuel specified in your owner's manual.
From what I have read on this BBS it seems most Porsches get damaged from driving too fast into corners, rather than pumping an alcohol blend. But that's just my observation, I'm no petroleum chemist; they will chime in soon enough...

Joe

[MotoSook]

In the Midwest, we’ve been using Ethanol added gas (“up to 10%”) for years. I can’t remember when they started stocking all the gas stations with the stuff, maybe 10 years ago. I can’t recall if I have seen a gas pump in recent years that doesn’t have the Ethanol sticker on it.


I use it in my 3.0 and 3.2 liter P-cars. And haven’t had any issues. If folks complain about fuel lines rupturing or something else to be blamed on the ethanol, they might not have considered all the factors like the lines are old to begin with!

[Paulporsche]

Same experience as Souk, except here in Ontario Sunoco 94 has had up to 10% ethanol for as long as I can remember. I've used it for 15 years in this engine w/o any ill effects I'm aware of.

You may experience a little less mileage w/ the ethanol gas. You may have to adjust your idle bypass screw, I can't remember. Let us know what happens when you switch.

[Dantilla]

The last issue of the local PCA region's newsletter had a great article about this. The high points were that fuel economy will be reduced a bit, and CIS cars tend to have problems if they are not driven frequently enough.

I'll try to dig it up and post more thorougly later.

[Mysterytrain]

I thought we in the northeast have been seeing this for years also? Wasn't this kind of forced down into all the metro area in summer due to smog issues?

[Purrybonker]

Just keep in mind - if you're checking AFR ratios - ethanol has a lower stoichiometric than gasoline. Even a 10 % mix will throw off your readings.

Best to run 100% gas or apply some math to your results.

Day to day use with ethanol is fine, even acts to eliminate fuel line freeze-ups if you happen to encounter such weather.

Plus the environment will thank you for side-stepping MBTE.

[MotoSook]

I didn't know they were stillusing MBTE. I thought that stuff was found to be toxic and discontinued. Or do I have the wrong formula? A contractor at the office who was at Unocal when the additve (the toxic one) was introduced swears it was all a a bad decision by a greedy exec.

We can now get E85 at the pump which is the oposite of what were talking about..85% Ethanol...

It's usually about 30 cents less than premium. I see folks gasing up at the E85 pumps and wonder if they have flexible fuel vehicles or if they are clueless and heading for expensive repair.