I have been running alcohol free gas in all my small engines and it is a game changer. I wouldn’t do it any other way. Sealed tanks on cars are probably fine with E15, especially if run on a frequent basis. I wouldn’t want it in something that doesn’t get used for a winter or whatever.
Not disputing your claim, but there’s no mention of this on the gas pumps. Excepting one station, there is a sticker on the gas pumps there which says appx 10% ethanol. Prices a little lower there as well.
Unless you absolutely drain every drop out of your small engine, it can cause problems very quickly. The jet on my generator was all fouled up after sitting for less than a year. After a couple weeks I had to replace the fuel pump on my mower. It just raises havoc on the jets, diaphragms, and small ports on small engines, have had no problem since switching to non-oxy with a stabilizer. Mower, blower, generator, pressure washer, chain saws, etc.
According to the CA Air Resources Board (CARB, great acronym):
" Will the Federal Energy Act requirements increase ethanol content in gasoline to 10 percent by volume?
Yes. We expect that the Federal Energy Act requirements will lead to a required national average ethanol content of 10 percent ethanol by 2012. However, California has had 10 percent ethanol in it’s gasoline since the beginning of 2010.
How much ethanol is in the gasoline I buy in California?
Currently most gasoline contains 10 percent ethanol by volume."
Maybe you folks don’t go anywhere but my experience is if you are out of state at a strange gas station, you need to pay attention to the stickers on the pump.
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Our std gas is 87 octane and is 10% ethanol.
88 octane is 4-7 cents gal cheaper since it has 15% ethanol
E85 is 25-30% cheaper than 87 octane.
I might have to look at 88 pump and read sticker
E85 has an octane rating of 100-105+ depending on the mix, although it doesn’t give you more power, it will increase the engines tolerance to detonation or pre ignition allowing for a much higher compression ratio, so you can run a boosted engine on E85 and make it live versus having the expense of running racing gas… On the dyno E85 does not give you much advantage on a N/A engine capable of running 91 octane, but since it greatly reduces the intake charge you can run much higher boost without the need of an intercooler and or race gas… Most of your street vehicles running higher boost/HP run E85…
I am probably not explaining that right lol, but I know E85 would not benefit my N/A hot rod, but if I wanted to add a Procharger and run 1,000+ HP then it would be better on E85 at that time…
And you will use about 20-25% more fuel when running E85, so it cost less but you have to use more…
Not all states require the ethanol sticker.
Fifteen states that don’t require stations to tell you if the gasoline contains ethanol: (alphabetically) California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Ohio.
Royal Farms, a Mid-Atlantic convenience store chain, uses the E88 term.
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I looked at some of their locations on Google Maps. So far I’ve seen only “Unleaded 88” and “Regular 88” on every sign and pump. Here is one example.
Feb 2018 photo.
Gas was in $2 range. Diesel too.
What happened!
The last time I got gas at a Royal Farms store in Elkridge MD they called it E88. I found it odd and slightly confusing until I looked into it. That was at least a year ago.