Gasahol anyone?

**CharlesW** · 10-02-2005, 03:14 PM

Since we had such a good exchange of info on Dino vs. Synthetic oil, I thought some discussion on Gasahol, (gasoline with 10% Ethanol added), might be interesting.

It is at least 10 cents a gallon cheaper here which is abot 4% to 5% less, but I`ve read that Gasahol delivers about 4% to 5% less mileage. The theory being that alcohol contains less energy than regular gas. Seems like a tradeoff to me.
Any thoughts on this?

Charles

**jaybs02** · 10-02-2005, 07:50 PM

An interesing topic, from a money to milage point of view it seems like its an even tradeoff.
I wonder what other tradeoffs there are such, as power, what type of effect is it having on my cylinders, exhaust system and so on.
Here in NY it is automatically done during the winter months, but I don`t know why.

"J"

**bigron62** · 10-03-2005, 12:02 AM

i used to run gasohol it clogged my fuel filters faster though. i think it had a higher octane rating also

**tubafeak** · 10-03-2005, 06:44 AM

Alcohol is a generally cleaner burning fuel when compared to gasoline. It has many of the same combustive properties as gasoline which makes it a good candidate for gas mixture. The real problem is that Ethanol (the alcohol that you all know and love

:beer_smil ) has about half the BTUs of gasoline. Because of this you need twice as much fuel and air flow to make the same amount of power. You`ve probably seen the flex fuel taurus that can run up to 85% ethanol, the only difference in that engine compared to the other one is bigger injectors. A friend of mine got his dad`s corvette and ran it for a week off of everclear (the authorities came to his house to investigate a possible plot to overthrow the government, they were amused when they learned the final destination of all that liquor), higher performance cars already move that much air and fuel so they`re easier to convert, you just have to change the ignition pulse timing. I personally think gasahol is a good way to keep gas prices down, and it`s cleaner burningness can`t be a bad thing.

**Scimmia** · 10-05-2005, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by tubafeak

You`ve probably seen the flex fuel taurus that can run up to 85% ethanol, the only difference in that engine compared to the other one is bigger injectors.

I checked the owners manual of a friend`s Taurus a while back, and it has the FFV 3.0 listed as lower compression than the non-FFV 3.0.