In the slimiest political tricks ever pulled on all motorists in this country, Ethanol-laced gasoline was foisted off on the motoring public in the name of Holy AGW, despite the actual science showing that as far as carbon goes, it's a push, at best, and more likely harmful to the atmosphere compared to pure gasoline.
Then there came the Big Ethanol Schmooze, in which we were sold a bill of goods which ran food prices through the roof, used scarce tax dollars to build spendy ethanol plants that were made unprofitable when oil dropped below $95/barrel in 2008/9, when EVERY OIL TRADER SAID IT WOULD! If gasoline isn't selling for at least $3.35/gallon, you LOSE MONEY adding Ethanol to gasoline, and you don't show much of a profit on Ethanol until gasoline gets over $4/gallon, at which time the rest of the frigging economy goes into the toilet, so what have you gained? A few votes in flyover country, I guess.
But, that's not why I'm on an Ethanol rant today.
It's about the other bugaboo of E10 fuel (and it will be worse with E15, when the EPA pulls the pin on THAT suicide bomb vest). It's about a phenomenon called Phase Separation, wherein the alcohol, which is basically just dumped into the tank truck in proportion to the real gasoline when the truck is filled for it's delivery route at the fuel jobber, DOESN'T BLEND PROPERLY. There isn't much actual "blending" in the best of conditions, although the jobbers would have us believe that there is.
So, what happens after a period of rest is that the alcohol and the gasoline, two different types of compounds that really don't LIKE each other, begin to separate. The fuel companies have told us that it takes over a year for this to happen, but I'm here to tell you now that it happens in 12 weeks.
On the 9th of November, last year, I filled a couple of Jerry Jugs with E10, and marked them with a Sharpie. On the 8th of this month, I poured them into the tank of the Little Black Truck, a modern vehicle (99 Mazda B2500 with Ford 2.5-liter Four) with OBD-II engine computer control. When I drove the truck today, after letting it sit for several days after putting the 3-month-old E10 in it, it barely ran. I had some time, so I hit I-84 East from Troutdale, to "burn out" the bad fuel (bad fuel is the ONLY cause of misfire in an OBD-II engine). At first, I could barely maintain freeway speed, but as I got to the limit of cell phone coverage and got off the freeway about 10 miles East of TTD, I noted that the engine had smoothed out some, and ran (barely) at idle instead of stalling. I tooled around on some mountain roads, then wound my way back to Gresham, and the truck was running reliably, but not well.
Back home, I got out my siphon kit, and a clear quart jar, put the intake tube right down into the bottom of the tank, and siphoned a quart out. It came out with no visible water, but it had this strange look in the jar, like I was looking at mirages or something like that.
Phase Separation. One microsecond, the injectors were inspritzing gasoline, the next microsecond, alcohol. the computer can't adjust fast enough to deal with phase-separated fuel, so the engine runs crappy. I ran a few miles over the worst roads in my 'hood, at slow speeds, taking all the potholes, just to shake up the fuel tank, then I stopped and bought 6 bottles of Heet isopropyl alcohol and poured that in the tank, to eat any water that might have been in the bottom making things worse.
I really should drain the truck's tank and start over, but the $10 worth of Heet will probably save the day, IF THE CRAPPY FUEL DOESN'T SEPARATE SOME MORE BEFORE I GET IT BURNED UP!
Al Gore, you may kiss my rosy red patootie. Between screwing up diesel fuel by removing the sulphur (a natural injector lubricant) and now adulterating gasoline with Ethanol, you are the cause of MUCH unhappy motoring.
You forgot the best part of that al/water/gas fuel crap. Your mileage will typically drop in the same ratio as the al/gas ratio. The first time I put a tankfull of that crap in my 2000 Isuzu, I noticed that my mileage dropped from 20mpg to 17-18mpg - ~10%.
So the fact is there is ZERO saving of petrol 'cause I have to buy 10% MORE fuelto go the same distance.
If the new repub majority had any guts(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) the first thing they would do would be to defund the epa budget by the same amount that this fiaco is costing the rest of us.
Posted by: emdfl | February 16, 2011 at 06:09
I can buy that here, but I have to buy it at a boat marina, in jerry jugs. It's illegal to put in a road vehicle, but my chances of having my tank dipped is probably less than of crashing the vehicle on any given day. Cost IS a factor, boat gas is up to $4/gallon here now. It is mid-grade, with zero Ethanol though.
Posted by: Rivrdog | February 15, 2011 at 06:51
If you think E10 is bad, just wait. E15 will pretty much vaporize the seals in your engine. I buy what they call "recreational gasoline" up here in Wisconsin, which is 91 octane and no ethanol. It's expensive as hell, but both the Ragin' Mrs. and I have to use it in our vehicles. Otherwise our gas mileage crashes, the engines run like crap, we have no power when we push on the pedal, and god only knows what damage is being done to the vehicles.
Now compile that with the fact that you cannot get as much energy out of ethanol as you need to create it. We're burning fuel to make fuel, and it's a losing end game no matter what.
I get pissed just talking about ethanol.
Posted by: Ragin' Dave | February 15, 2011 at 04:14