Corn vs No-Corn

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Fri Mar 17, 2017 2:48 am

michaelsmiller wrote:

Corn is a fuel like anything else. It has only shown to be a problem with certain materials. These materials were phased out long before your 2002 Honda was built. The other down side of ethanol is that it does not have the shelf life of pure gasolene. I ran my Mazdaspeed 3 on E15 when I was out west last summer. Being a turbo car, it seemed to run much better. E15 premium was cheaper than regular. That being said, the use of ethanol has to go up in cars. I have read articles and they seem logical, that octane ratings have to go up in order to allow our internal combustion engine's efficiency to improve. Because of turbo's and direct injection high compression engines, many more cars today require premium than in the past. That's why the price of premium has gone up so much in the last few years. I've heard it said that 98 octane may be the fuel of the future. Water in gas is not a detriment either. It assures a controlled flame front and helps reduce combustion chamber hot spots. I worked on water injection systems for turbocharged engines in 1976 whiles in college. BTW, what fuel does NASCAR run? Yes, it's E15 98 octane pump gas, not racing fuel. For once in a long while NASCAR may be a technology early adopter.

My wee 1.0L runs 10:1 compression and up to 17.5 PSI on 87 Octane just fine. That said, I do run 93 in it because it seems to run a bit smoother. I think on 87 I can feel it pull timing to keep knock in check where with 93 it's able to pretty much allow full timing so I don't get the surge from it pulling and adding timing. This is purely from the butt dyno though, I don't mind the extra money since I average about 40mpg back and forth to work

brettmcwhorter · **Posted:** Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:14 am

Arthur McDonald wrote:

michaelsmiller wrote:

BTW, what fuel does NASCAR run? Yes, it's E15 98 octane pump gas, not racing fuel. For once in a long while NASCAR may be a technology early adopter.

NASCAR engines are rebuilt before every race. I don't think that's Brett's goal.

So true! Im at 30k miles on the clock right now and even now I think I've got worn out valve seals (smokes on warm starts).

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

A 15 year old car has rubber bits that are starting to show their age? I wish I had a monocle so that it could hilariously pop out for comedic effect.

Also, you do know that maintenance schedules have a mileage and time component right? The most well known one is timing belts after X number of miles or Y years, or oil changes with every 5k miles or every year (if it doesn't get driven that often for a road going car).

brettmcwhorter · **Posted:** Wed Mar 22, 2017 9:37 am

Andrew Jonell wrote:

A 15 year old car has rubber bits that are starting to show their age? I wish I had a monocle so that it could hilariously pop out for comedic effect.

Also, you do know that maintenance schedules have a mileage and time component right? The most well known one is timing belts after X number of miles or Y years, or oil changes with every 5k miles or every year (if it doesn't get driven that often for a road going car).

Haha, that actually would be funny Andrew :p

Yeah I have all the scheduled maintenance intervals, but dont see valve seals in that list. Nevertheless, could be a good excuse to also get the retainers upgraded as well.

brettmcwhorter · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:50 pm

Put 89 corn-free in the truck and towed the S to VIR this past weekend @ 13mpg, which is about normal. Driving it around this week I was able to get 18.6mpg, which is 2.6mpg from normal. Not sure if it was just the added 2 RON or if being ethanol free mattered more. Will have to run a tank of 89 E10 to find out.

George Bright · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:24 pm

The original fuel pump in my '81 Datsun 210 failed a couple of months ago. The rubber diaphragm from the pre-ethanol era is what failed. Maybe Japanese rubber is more ethanol resistant.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:03 pm

George Bright wrote:

The original fuel pump in my '81 Datsun 210 failed a couple of months ago. The rubber diaphragm from the pre-ethanol era is what failed. Maybe Japanese rubber is more ethanol resistant.

I had to replace the carb on my chainsaw because it got hard from ethanol as well. It uses a diaphragm carb and Craftsman doesn't even sell parts, you have to buy the whole carb. Luckily a whole carb was only 25 bucks.

There's no doubt it does affect certain materials, but cars have been made for a long time with the proper materials to handle it. My Miata has no signs of issues and it's 17-18 years old.

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