Then, the very obvious solution is to elect informed people to positions of leadership.
Perhaps the idea of electing “outsiders” isn’t such a great concept…
3 Likes
Rod, how has ethanol “been very costly to you?” I am currently working on a pro-ethanol story and would be interested in your first-hand opinion.
And I’m curious what would be ‘pro’ about ethanol.
1 Like
See, that’s the trick! My story will include first-hand experience from a racer and engine builder who races for Mazda and Porsche. I’ll leave the political wrangling to others. Like jtsanders, I see the upside of ethanol in gas for environmental reasons. My well was tested and the water contained MTBE before it was banned. It was the single highest contaminant. I live in the NE woods, There is only one gas station in my town and it is miles away.
Ethanol fuel has caused me to spend a great deal time and money repairing lawn equipment. I have repaired several carburetors and replaced 2 and will likely replace a third in the next few days. And the cost to avoid ethanol damage is a 40c to 50c premium on the price of pure gasoline which isn’t always what you get for the high price.
Great feedback Rod. Was this due to 10% ethanol fuel or was it due to the 15% that is so controversial? I have not had that issue. We have 10% ethanol in our fuel here. What is different in your situation and do you think it may translate to automobile issues too?
Well, pointing to the advantage of E100 as a racing fuel is a pretty minor plus, overall, don’t you think? Not something that affects the driving public.
1 Like
Anyone who owns an older automobile would be wise to pay the price for pure gasoline to avoid the damage done by ethanol E-10 or E-15. Ethanol is a federally enforced subsidy for the corn belt paid by the motoring public. And another example of policies that result in the tale wagging the dog.
I’ve got an interesting story, concerning flexible fuel vehicles
One of our fleet’s Uplanders, which is a flexible fuel vehicle, came in with a check engine light
Fuel trim codes, rich on both banks, I believe
After some time spent on test drives, reading up on theory of operation, etc., I was convinced there wasn’t actually a true rich condition. I decided to perform a “fuel composition reset” with my oe-level scanner. You heard that right, a fuel composition reset, not a fuel trim reset. This option is only available on some flex fuel vehicles, not on regular vehicles.
In fact, the fuel composition reset was mentioned in the factory service information, might have been buried in the trouble tree somewhere, but gm almost treated it as an afterthought . . .
The fuel trims now returned to normal, under all conditions. I know this because I was driving with the scanner hooked up before and after, and I was watching the fuel trim pids. Under certain conditions the fuel trims were very rich before the reset, and absolutely normal afterwards
Our fleet doesn’t even have E85 fuel, by the way, only some flex fuel vehicles
So in this case, the whole flex fuel/ethanol situation caused no benefits, only unnecessary problems
And that happened a few years ago. That vehicle comes in every 6 months for regularly scheduled services. And it’s never come in with those fuel trim codes after I worked on it, not even pending codes.
Strangely enough, that problem only happened to that particular Uplander, not any of its twins, which are the exact same model year and also flex fuel.
1 Like
My 71 nova and 70 f100 ran well into the 90’s, on 10% ethanol.
There is no problem with the engine running on 10% ethanol… until the ethanol emulsifies rubber components in the fuel system and/or causes corrosion to components in the fuel system. At that point it becomes a very expensive problem on many vehicles.
Ethanol is fine as a fuel if cars are set up for it. The compression ratio in the US is not high enough to take advantage of high ethanol content and make it run efficiently. I’m willing to use ethanol as a MTBE replacement, but I don’t want to add any more just so someone can make more money to donate to politicians so they can get reelected and perpetuate the cycle. In my mind, that’s corporate welfare.
1 Like
My town–which encompasses 47 square miles–is partially rural, and partially suburban. In one of the rural neighborhoods, where the residents have always relied on wells for their water, routine testing revealed the presence of MTBE that apparently came from leaking gas station tanks that were located ~6 miles away. Most likely, this had to do with underground springs that ran from the area of that gas station to the neighborhood where those homes are located.
The bottom line is that my town had to bear the expense of running water mains to that area of town because the contamination level of the wells was so high. And, of course, both the gas station operator and the oil company that owned the station were able to skate-away from bearing any of the massive expense of running those new water mains into an area that had never before needed “city water”.
This is a non-solution: we’re already electing whom we choose. We could eliminate heart disease if no one ate too much or smoked and walked for 20 minutes/day, but it’s useless as a policy prescription.
My '87 shows no sign of being damaged by ethanol. The owner’s manual warns about too much methanol damaging the rubber parts. The methanol additives I have used have co-solvents intended to protect them; I’d think ethanolated-gasoline would too.
That’s the way everything works. Ethanol is just 1 small subsidy for agriculture. Sports teams get free stadia, old people (including me this month) get subsidized medical care… Asking farmers to stop is to ask them to disarm unilaterally.
Might want to just do a little searching. I didn’t read it but there was a report that it has a negative impact as a whole. Drove by a huge ethanol plant on the way to the steel supplier today. At least 100 hopper cars loaded ready to unload. Yeah big business in farm country but you don’t want to live by one of the plant due to the stink.
The fuel pump in my lawn mower lasted exactly one week before I had to replace it using the ethanol blend. After one year the carb in my generator was so fouled up, I had to replace the jet. Then I switched to the non-oxy premium with B&S stabilizer for all my small engines and chain saws. Haven’t had a problem since, and that was a few years ago. So I suppose it is OK in cars but not small engines, and definitely not 15%. Don’t tell my farmer relatives I said that though. They have money invested in the plants.
I don’t mind if they ask for subsidies, I mind that they always get them approved by our elected representatives. BTW, I am very much against many agriculture subsidies. I’m OK with disaster relief, but I don’t care for other forms of social insurance for farmers. Especially if it benefits huge agricultural businesses.
MTBE is bad, a gasoline additive, whatch what your voted in politicians do!
“We didn’t find out for 7 years,” said Joe Hufman, whose well was contaminated by a Haysville dry cleaner.
The Legislature passed the law, including a line that directed the KDHE not to look for contamination from dry cleaners. The Legislature also directed the KDHE to “make every reasonable effort” to keep sites off the federal Superfund list.
I was under the impression there’s very few truly independent farmers left
I thought most of them are essentially working for large corporations nowadays
Not around here anyway but they do run many more acres like 2000 instead of the old 500 acre size. And they do also incorporate themselves for business reasons. Land though is anywhere from $4-7000 an acre so big business. So it’s not hard to have several million in assets. They also will contract with corporations for their product. I’m talking grain but turkeys are a different story.
Do these farmers have their own equipment, or do they hire equipment for big efforts, like harvest? I’m thinking about Uber-expensive machinery like combines. I read an article a few years back about people that own combines and travel from Minnesota to Louisiana during the harvest. They have a low-boy flat bed to transport the combine and make numerous stops along the way to mow down the crops for local farmers.