Youre right.. I've got to wonder, besides us, who actually uses 93?? Not many cars require it, even if they did, not many drivers would pay for it... Even though we buy 93, it's probably boardering on stale product..

Wanna do some math, take a look into how converting farm fields to ethanol producing corn effects alcohol, vegies, beef, chicken, pork, tobacco, fruits, etc......

 

Well, I do, for one. I've always run high an octane as I can find, and I'm wondering about putting octane booster in along with it, to offset the drag of the ethanol. No engine mods, just stage 1 stuff.

 

I'm with you on the bike.. I've always run 93 in mine.. But they've all been turned up a bit and get a benifit from it..

On the car side, most folks couldnt care less and only use cheap stuff, even if its recomended... But the fact of the matter is, if they do happen to use it on most modern cars, their simply wasting money. Most cars will see no benifit at all.. Possibly a little better economy, not quite enough to offset the cost... Some new stuff may require it more in the future though....

 

Half my fleet takes premium: LS400, 4AGE 20 valve Corolla, Esprit Turbo and the bikes. I guess I could get away with cheaper gas in the bikes, but every thing else must have the highest octane I can stuff in it. Even the Rolla has like 10.8:1 compression.

 

I always test a couple tanks of low and midgrade in my four wheelers, compare the mileages, figure the difference in money spent and decide which to run. Thus far, midgrade pays for itself in my v-8 Chevy Silverado and the Taurus, but our Paseo does best on lowtest: midgrade is lost on the low compression, giving no extra mileage.

 

Here's a dirty little secret,,,at least the local Lawn shop's not telling their customers about this crap.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/hom...r-engines.html

I stay away from it all...and only run Sunoco Ultra 94 in the bike.

 

We have had it for many years here in So Cal. While it doesn't effect my bike very much it kills small equipment quick. Weed eaters and such don't last long without extra maintenance. I drain the tank each time I use mine. The crap goes bad real quick. I ride everyday so it doesn't sit in my bike.

 

Nice article, now I have to worry if maybe my 15K generator will take a dump during Hurricane season. BTW, I live just outside of Ft. Myers where these tests were done.

 

I was an auto mechanic in the 80's when Iowa first started getting ethanol. The thing we noticed is that older cars plugged alot of fuel filters in the beginning and had some fuel hose failures. I attribute this to ethanol being a solvent, and it loosened up all the crap in the gas tank and ate all the hoses not designed for it. I've run it in my cars since then with almost no problem. I in fact like it because it seems to keep the water out of the tank- so much so that you almost can't find Heet and other gasoline treatments here.

I normally run the high octane gas in the bike, but if it's not available/ convenient when I need to fill up, there seems to be no appreciable loss of performance with 10% ethanol. I just get more miles from a tank with the high test.

 

Colorado has had ethanol for many years and I have never heard of any problems.