Quote:
Originally Posted by exc911ence
Ethanol supports higher compression. The cooling effect of the alcohol content reduces the chance of detonation. I believe that it also has a higher effective octane rating than pump premium.
Of course this is E85, not the E5-10 that's normally at the pump.
The list of cons is too long to fit in this little box however....
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Right, ethanol's octane rating is something like 113. So the gas makers can take cheaper gas, say 85 octane, and add ethanol to raise the combined octane to something like 87 (assuming E10).
The only positives are costs to produce and there is probably some related economics from ethanol production (though that is probably a contrived argument). I believe ethanol gas is better from an emissions standpoint.
Lots of negatives already mentioned. The only other significant negative is that it absorbs water. There are a few additive products that you can use (Stabil comes to mind) that are designed to mitigate the negative effects in ethanol gas.
I remember a few years ago that here in the US the government toyed with the idea of mandating E85 for all cars and some car makers (BMW was the main one I recall) said they would pull out of the US market if that happened.