I'm been trying to avoid it like the plague but it seems to be showing up in more and more gas stations. No telling what kind of damage this crap is doing to cars. Guess we will know in the next 5 years.

Why do they insist on forcing this crap down our throats. I'd rather not be supporting a product that uses up a food source to make fuel.

 

All cars should run on E85. Why? E85 = 100 Octane = More agressive timing maps.

 

 

Why? We have to many fat a$$es in the US already.

 

If I could find a car-sized nuclear power plant, that would be the best, then I could dump depleted uranium in particular idiots' coffee cups

editted to add: Notice to ECHELON... this was a joke... chill out

 

I can help with that, but you'd be better off going to an enrichment plant for DU.

 

but that would defeat the whole point of having a nuclear-powered car

 

I'll take a shot at the OP's question.

Scared of it? Yeah, somewhat. Don't like it? Not at all. Five reasons:

1) Alcohol has an affinity for water. I think it's probably safe as a 10% part of our gasoline, but I don't know that I'd like to have a half tank of gas sitting for a long period of time.

2) It will destroy certain kinds of seals. This is one of the reasons you can't use E85 in a car designed to run on plain old gasoline. The car manufacturers do allow for about 10% alcohol in gas when they design fuel systems, but generally no more than that.

3) Alcohol = worse fuel economy. Cars designed to run on E85 OR gasoline get far worse (about 33% less) mpg when they run on E85 than they do when they run on gasoline.

4) It takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy you get out of it. Lots of diesel goes in, in the form of planting the corn, harvesting the corn, trucking the corn, then trucking the finished ethanol to the refineries. (Ethanol cannot be transported in pipelines.)

5) The government is subsidizing farmers who grow corn for ethanol. "The government" is code for "my tax dollars." There are lots of things that I don't like my tax dollars supporting, but this thing really drives me crazy -- I'm supporting ever-higher prices for a product that does not pay its own way.

There is also the bit about "using a food source for fuel." This may be able to be solved by using cellulose to make ethanol, but the costs right now are prohibitive, and then we still have problems 1 through 5.

Brazil uses sugar cane to make ethanol. It works for them, and apparently has some advantages over corn-based ethanol, but our guvment, in their infinite wisdom, has slapped a big tariff on imports of cane-based ethanol, making it cost-prohibitive to import it. Protectionism at its finest.

/rant off.

 

What about global warming and protecting the polar bear? I don’t want to be responsible for murdering this cute little guy.

 

Not to mention they use a lower grade gas when they mix it with ethanol because ethanol is suppose to boost octane number...so you are only getting a 89 grade gas instead of a 92 when you buy 92 grade gas with ethanol in it.


Ethanol is a just a con to make a few politicians rich.