Has anyone else used the NEW 84 octane gasoline yet?

[Omaha Steve]

I've been burning 10% ethanol in my gas since the late 70's. I got a shock at the pump last Friday. They now offer 2 ethanol blends and premium.

The first offering is 90% 84 octane and 10% ethanol. That is the cheapest gas they sell with an 87 octane rating. This is what we will be buying from now on.

The second offering is 84 octane with 10% ethanol and premium no lead 91 octane. The octane in this blend is 89. The price increase is noticeable because of the premium in it.

The third and finale offering is straight 91 octane premium unleaded. Premium will be the only gas at the pump that doesn't contain ethanol in Nebraska.

There are over a dozen stations in Omaha that sell E-85, a blend of up to 85% ethanol and the balance unleaded gas. I used it for about 500 miles of driving this summer in a rental car. There is a loss in mileage, but compared to the much lower price you come out ahead.

http://www.agpartnerscoop.com/images/E0172501/july13noaddr.pdf

Midwest Pipelines to Discontinue 87
Octane Unleaded Gasoline

FULL story at link.

[KamaAina]

1. Tell me again why so much of the corn crop goes for ethanol.

I'm all for alternative fuels, but why not use sugarcane like the Brazilians do? Using corn drives the price up. That hurts poor people in places like Mexico.

[tammywammy]

2. The use of corn for ethanol was an awful decision.

It never should have been done in the first place.

[mysuzuki2]

6. What I don't understand about corn based ethanol is why they don't

use the stalks for the ethanol and use the kernals for either animal or human food. Believe it or not, sugar can be made from corn stalks. If you have sugar, you can make ethanol. In fact, one theory is that maize was first grown to obtain sweetener from the stalks rather than for the kernals.

[NickB79]

25. The stalks are vital for maintaining soil fertility

The rotting leaves and stalks provide vital biomass to keep the soil healthy. As it is, we already rely largely on synthetic fertilizers to keep the land producing.

Remove the corn kernels AND the stalks, and you are literally strip-mining the land and keeping it on life support with massive injections of chemicals.

[PoliticAverse]

9. Because of corporate welfare, that's why. n/t

[Omaha Steve]

10. After the starch is removed the left over corn mash is feed for livestock

Last edited Tue Sep 24, 2013, 07:29 AM - Edit history (1)

Switchgrass ethanol is finally coming on the market in the US!

[AngryAmish]

22. Because the Iowa Caucus

It really is that stupid.

[KamaAina]

23. Of course.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. E10 is hell on power equipment.

I spend more time cleaning carburetors than I do mowing lawns and sawing firewood.

I'd limit my use of E-85 to rented cars too.

[Lee-Lee]

4. My dad loves his boats, and to him ethanol is the devil

I have learned to never even mention it near him, unless I want to hear and hours rant about how much it has cost him with his boat motors.

[kenny blankenship]

14. There may be pure gas available somewhere (relatively) near you

They have a station locater here : http://pure-gas.org/

Some marinas may have ethanol free gas. I can buy a season's worth of such gas (90 octane, straight unleaded) at an oil supply service company, luckily. The nearest marinas are too far away. Even the oil service co. is too far away for me to use it to fill up my car, though. Maybe I'll buy 5 gallons at a time for a motorcycle, when I'm in the vicinity for other reasons, and bring it home in my car.

[Eleanors38]

20. Seems the ethanol mix "dissolves" rubber fuel-conveying patch hoses.

This is esp. Vexing for small engine devices and outboards which still use carbs and are often used infrequently, allowing the stagnant fuel to stew in the rubber hoses, producing fine black particles which find their way into needle & seat float valves and main jets.

Cars now use FI, whose fuel conveyance is through metal lines. My solution, and an old one applicable to any engine which sits unused, is to start and run the motors more frequently, and R&R rubber fuel lines more often.

[FarCenter]

5. EPA to require refiners to blend 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuel

http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/07/epa-to-require-refiners-to-blend-16-55-billion-gallons-of-renewable-fuel/

EPA is run by idealistic idiots. They want more corn ethanol used whether it is practical to put that much in motor fuels or in spite of the fact that it takes almost 1 calorie of fossil fuel to make 1 calorie of corn ethanol after you factor in all the energy requirements of tillage, fertilizer, pesticides, harvesting, transportation, malting, fermenting, distilling and blending.

[oneshooter]

7. Seems that even Al Gore regrets pushing it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/al-gore-corn-ethanol-subsidies_n_787776.html

[JVS]

8. How much cheaper is it?

[Omaha Steve]

13. 18% today

http://e85prices.com/Nebraska.html

That is 62 cents less on average.

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Neither of my cars would even start with 84 octane fuel (and the truck is diesel). n/t

[REP]

12. 92 is the lowest I can put in my car - and I can use ethanol if I want to replace the engine

[Omaha Steve]

15. From Consumer reports: Most recent studies have shown a positive energy balance for ethanol

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2011/01/the-great-ethanol-debate/index.htm?loginMethod=auto

Snips.

Most recent studies have shown a positive energy balance for ethanol of between 23 and 40 percent.

We put our 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe FFV through our full series of fuel-economy and acceleration tests while running on each fuel. When running on E85 there was no significant change in acceleration. Fuel economy, however, dropped across the board. In highway driving, gas mileage decreased from 21 to 15 mpg; in city driving, it dropped from 9 to 7 mpg. You could expect a similar decrease in gas mileage in any current FFV.

We also took our Tahoe to a state-certified emissions-test facility near our test track in Connecticut and had a standard emissions test performed. We found a significant decrease in smog-forming oxides of nitrogen when using E85. However, ethanol emits acetaldehyde, which the EPA lists as a probable carcinogen and something that standard emissions-testing equipment is not designed to measure. But that might be a relatively minor evil, however.

"Acetaldehyde is bad," says James Cannon, president of Energy Futures, an alternative-transportation publication, "but not nearly as bad as some of the emissions from gasoline."

FULL story at link.

[energumen]

16. not sure what 84 octane would do to my car

Probably confuse the he** out of the ecm and would then require a reset
Not going to find out
Have no problems with putting it in a rental though

[Omaha Steve]

18. You can't buy straight 84 octane at the pump

It requires 10% ethanol to get to the 87 octane requirement. And since they don't ship 87 unleaded anymore, you now have to buy premium to avoid ethanol in Nebraska.

[NightWatcher]

17. I use non ethanol gas in my truck

It's hard to find, but there's a place in town that sells the non-corny gas. I prefer not to damage my vehicles just so corn farmers get a subsidy. Seek out non corny gas

[madokie]

19. In the owners manual of our focus

it plainly states not to even try anything under 87 octane so I won't try the 84.

Its a FFV so I tried it on E85 and with it I couldn't tell any difference in power but I could tell a difference in mpg. Figuring miles per dollar it was a better deal but the more frequent fill ups is enough to keep us from using it plus the manual says that if we feed it the high corn diet we have to run a tank of regular unleaded in it every oil change so that tells me that the corn isn't good for it somehow.

[Recursion]

21. Is this another GTA thread? (nt)

[snooper2]

24. Run that for a year and see if it passes emissions

I had to run a full tank of premium in sister-in-laws old Altima before I could get it to pass this year