Will 15% ethanol damage my engine?

Maintenance/Repairs
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21

I read the article, and the only word that popped into my head was…huh?

Thans for the link.

22

Whitey, that’s hilarious. Leave it to The Onion to come up with an article like that.

“The goal is to make it seem politically advantageous for legislators to keep the American people in mind when making laws,” Weldon said. “Lawmakers are going to ask me, ‘Why should I care about the American people? What’s in it for me?’ And it will be up to me and my team to find some reason why they should consider putting poverty and medical care for children on the legislative docket.”

That quote sounds so true that I’m tempted to buy the whole thing. Marvelous.

23
Preliminary tests conducted by GM on their engines showed problems in 50% of the engines tested.
What was the percentage of GM engines that had problems with 100% gasoline, 49%?
24

One needs to follow the money to see who he’s really representing. If, in fact, there really is any truth whatsoever to the article. The word “sdvertisement” keeps popping into my head for some reason…

25 
 First, yes, 15% ethanol may damage your engine.  The EPA can say it's fine for 2007+ cars if they want, if the car maker doesn't say it it's not true.   From what I've read, excessive ethanol in fuel damages some fuel pumps, and it can damage fuel lines and injectors, due to corrosion of the components.  

 For those who say this is some theoretical occurence, I heard on my local news (here in eastern Iowa) that they are wanting to push through E15 here within perhaps 3 months.

 Personally, I find this assinine -- E10 is compatible with most vehicles, and E85 is sold at a few stations (and could be sold at more) for those cars that can tolerate lots of ethanol (quite a few Ford and GM models the last several years.)  Why go for a half-measure that both has less ethanol than it "could" but still has enough to damage vehicles?
26

Mountainbike, I am not sure if you get it or not, but the Onion is a fake news organization. It is political satire.

Maybe this article will give you a better idea. http://www.theonion.com/articles/tony-romo-asks-doctors-to-xray-his-stuffed-animals,18309/

27

Well if 10% ethanol reduces gas mileage by 2 percent, will 15 percent reduce mileage by 3%?
http://www.fuel-testers.com/MPG_gas_efficiency_E10_ethanol.html

28 
 Based on raw numbers, yes.  Here's the numbers (I found off a web site) -- gasoline has 29 MJ/L (megajoules per liter).  ethanol has 19.59 MJ/L (32.4% less than gas) (but noone uses straight ethanol.)  E10 then has 28.06 MJ/L, 3.2% less energy.  E85 has 21 MJ/L, which is 27.6% less than gasoline.   But, it's not that simple!

 Here in Iowa, the ethanol is used as an octane booster -- You can get regular 87 octane gas or 89 octane E10 (and something like a 90 or 91 octane gas maybe -- for some reason I haven't seen so much as a single station state wide with 94+ like I've seen in other parts of the country.)  What happens is, the ethanol has less energy content -- BUT since it has a higher anti-knock rating a smart engine computer can turn up the ignition timing, which INCREASES the energy gotten out of a certain amount of fuel.

 The result, on my 2000 Regal I have run tanks of 87 octane gas and 89 octane E10, I keep expecting to see some difference and have not been able to measure one -- despite the car saying it only needs 87 octane, it does have a knock sensor and I think it turns the timing up just enough to prevent a mileage drop.  

 Timing can only be advanced so far -- the E85 fuel vehicles can't entirely make up for the lower energy content, but instead of having a 27.6% drop in mileage, it's typically closer to 10-15%, if the engine management is smart, and 25-30% if it's not.  (Edit: Although I've just read Saab has a model they sell in Europe now that gets the same mileage off E85 as it does off gas -- since E85 is usually at least 96 octane, they just cranked up the compression and effectively treat the E85 like race gas, burning it efficiently enough to make up for the lower energy content.)
29

Hysterical. Especially the one about North Korea.

Thanks. I was unfamiliar with the “Onion”. I need to get out more.

30

I suspect it’s more complicated than that. I suspect that ethanol burns at a substantially different rate than gasoline, affecting the ability to use the contained energy at the most effective place in the power stroke. The simple numbers would suggest about a 1mpg drop for most vehicles with 10%, but in the real world they seem to drop 2-3mpg.