Your thoughts are part of what I’m thinking. Perhaps it’s not as simple as the 10% Ethanol in the gasoline, but it’s very slight amounts of water or even other additives in E10 fuel that negatively impact the entire fuel mixture and this completely messes with the fuel system and onboard computers that control everything. I just know for a fact that I’m see a 10-12% jump in mpg in all three of my vehicles when running E0 (Pure Gasoline)!
You must live in rural VA. If you live in NoVa I doubt you could get E0 gasoline. I know that we can’t in Central Maryland. I don’t think I’d want to anyway, depending on how the octane is adjusted. E10 is the best alternative for adjusting octane rating, lowering air and ground pollution, and keeping cost down IMO.
I know of only ONE E0 gas station even remotely close to me (about 20 miles away). And in order to pump from their one E0 pump the car must be on a trailer. It’s used for the Race track 5 miles down the road. Maybe E0 is sold ar Marina’s. Don’t own a boat, so don’t really know.
Bull…Never seen it…never knew anyone who’s seen that. Been using E10 for decades. Owned 5 vehicles will well over 300k miles and ZERO fuel or engine issues. Current vehicles (07 Lexus with about 250k miles and my 14 Highlander with over 140k miles) - also have had ZERO engine or fuel issues.
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I think we only have 2 or 3 within a 10-15 mile radius from my house. And they’re significantly more expensive than E10 in the same octane. I’ll do it for the chain saw and things like that. The Lawnmower (before we moved to our new house with a significantly smaller yard) got E10 and never had a problem.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear in my post. I only have trouble finding specific octane fuels in E0 (pure gasoline). I always put 93 E10 fuel in my Volvo (per the owner’s manual, but you can run 87 if you want). It simply states for better performance and fuel economy to run 91+ Octane fuel 
. I run 87 E10 in both my 01 Toyota 4Runner and 18 Subaru 3.6, as they both are designed to run on 87 per both owner’s manuals. The V8 Volvo (with the Yamaha engine) is the funniest, as I’ve actually improved my fuel economy by 15% during long flat interstate driving by using 89 Octane E0 fuel vs. using 93 Octane E10 fuel even though the owner’s manual says using 91+ octane fuel will increase fuel economy. Laughable! Of course, there is no mention of Ethanol vs. Ethanol Free fuel anywhere in all three owner’s manuals. 
Correct! I believe all large metro areas have zero stations with ethanol free fuel, and if you find one or two in the suburbs they are probably charging $1 to $1.50 more per gallon. This is why I always try to fill up at home prior to going on trips. Fortunately, most places I travel still have E0 fuel at a reasonable price (very close to the break even point). I will not pay a premium to use E0 fuel. Some comments on this blog are really far fetched. How can anyone believe adding 10% ethanol to fuel is going to make a noticeable difference in air and water pollution? Yet, for a fact adding Ethanol to our fuel supply increases the cost consumers pay for fuel. People should research the cost of producing Ethanol and the cost of adding this same Ethanol to our fuel.
It’s a government controlled subsidy. It would be an entirely different discussion if Ethanol actually improved fuel economy. Consumers are paying a premium for E10 Ethanol fuel and for doing so they are getting worse fuel economy! Pure gasoline would absolutely be much cheaper if E10/E15 fuel did not exist! Duh!
Of course not. The other octane builders are often illegal ( e.g.MTBE) or very expensive compared to ethanol. Why would the auto manufacturers give you information you are unlikely to need? We understand exactly what you are saying. It just isn’t important, to be blunt.
and while you’re at it, look up MTBE while you’re there to read up on that nasty crap and why we use Ethanol instead. Does the reduction in Carbon Monoxide and Soot from a single vehicle make a difference? No, but when you multiply it by the hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road, yes it absolutely makes a difference.
I think your mileage gains are at the far end of the curve, and the difference that most people gain in mileage from going from E0 to E10 is quite a bit lower than what you’re reporting
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I think you’ve been very fortunate with your small engines. I have a good friend that owns a small engine repair company (he actually has a large operation with several employees) and he is always telling me the #1 problem they see is people running E10 fuel in their trimmers, blowers, mowers, outboard marine motors, etc. So, if 10% ethanol fuel causes all of these types of gas engines to not even start ( that is the #1 thing - these engines will not even start running, but they turn over and over), how can ethanol be 100% good for larger car engines. Obviously, cars are starting and running fine on E10 fuel, but that’s not really my point.
I didn’t explain well. I think the owner’s manuals should let consumers know “You may see a reduction in fuel economy by using gasoline containing Ethanol”, but no way that’s going to be there! The government would probably never allow it. Example - My 2018 3.6L flat 6 Subaru Outback stated on the window that it gets 20 City/27 highway. However, using E10 fuel I’m getting 17 in the City and 24 Highway, but when I tried using E0 fuel for just a few tanks I was getting the 20 City and actually 27 on the interstate. That is a ridiculous difference for a new car!!! Who knows, maybe the E10 labeled fuel in my area of VA is really 15-20% ethanol due to very little oversight/quality control. I just know my math and even the onboard computer is showing this huge difference. It’s truly crazy and worth it for me to use E0 fuel whenever financially viable!
I was responding to your post about car engines…NOT small engines.
Small engines are not the same as a car engine. But I too haven’t had a problem with my small engines either. I own a couple lawn mowers that are over 20 years old. The real test would be people who own landscape companies that are mowing every single day. How are their engines holding up using E-10?
They’re built/designed differently.
Then why did you say it was?
Ethanol has caused problems in older cars that weren’t design to run with Ethanol. Some of the gaskets and hoses didn’t hold up too well. Car engines are designed to be used with E-10. Or a flex fuel vehicle using E-85.
My primary issue is the mpg difference on all three of my vehicles, and it’s no different in the winter here in Virginia other than 1-1.5 mpg with no A/C running. Spent a week in the White Mountains this past Christmas/New Year’s. Beautiful area and we had about 12-15” of snow. It was that trip up to NH that I got 27.5 mpg on E0 fuel in my Outback. Car was fully loaded, including 100 lbs. on roof rack, with three adults.
Sorry! My response to you was meant for pyrolord314
I, like millions of consumers, would appreciate full disclosure! We aren’t getting anything close to that and the 3% reduction in mpg the EPA claims is a total joke. 75-80% of my driving is on highways and interstates. So, perhaps for some reason I can’t understand, highway mileage is more drastically affected. I do have several friends, all in Virginia, that claim the same 10-12% difference. Any idea why? One has a Ram 4WD truck, another has a Ford Explorer and another has a Jeep Cherokee. So, including my three vehicles, were talking American, Japanese and European vehicles. 
You opened my eyes, Mike! 
If you paid attention, I place that exact thing down below:
Then you re-stated my own point:
which I actually pushed aside, as it really does not matter for the point raised by @Skeptic-Virginia that he observed some MPG difference he can not explain, yet he admitted to using 89 and 91 in his experiments:
since it is well expected to have better MPG on E0 and in the same time to get better MPG on 89 and 91 on the SOME (!) modern vehicles, it actually helps to get his question answered
I know you like discussing the topic of “designed or not designed” and “timing retarding”, but to preserve everybody’ sanity, let’s not drift off the discussion point.
I specifically said “ADAPTS timing” to make you happy, would it not suffice?
Again, other than the lawnmower, I almost always run the E0 in those. I think the as long as the fuel is fresh, a lawnmower will be fine with E10. A definite issue with E10 is that it doesn’t have a long shelf life. At the end of the mowing season, any leftover gas would go into the cars, and the snowblower would get fresh gas before a storm. All of our premix gets Stabil added to it if the oil we added doesn’t include a stabilizer.
As far as Ethanol good vs bad, it’s a multidisciplinary issue here. There are a lot of tradeoffs back and forth (as have been discussed over and over in this post) with Ethanol in gasoline. Given PA’s high gas taxes and how much of a premium E0 is, I’m not planning on switching to E0 anytime soon.