Ethanol 10% fuel

[pddredduece]

I live in central Fl. Most all of the fuel here is 10% ethanol. I run 87 regular unleaded in my 1994 Chevy c1500 with 5.7 v8. The fuel milage has drooped from 14 mpg around town to 12 mpg or less than 12 mpg sometimes. I run BP 93 supper unleaded in my 2005 Deuce 95" motor that has 10.8 comp. The build & tune was done in May 2006. The numbers were 111.5 hp &105qt. STD. I don't know if the fuel back then was 10% Ethanol. My gas milage is down on my Deuce also from 45mpg to about 42mpg highway. I would like to know if the 10% Ethanol fuels are causing a loss in HP & TQ. Have any tuners seen any loss in HP &TQ in like builds before Ethanol and after Ethanol in fuels? Thanks for you posts.

[Doc 1]

I live in central Fl. Most all of the fuel here is 10% ethanol. I run 87 regular unleaded in my 1994 Chevy c1500 with 5.7 v8. The fuel milage has drooped from 14 mpg around town to 12 mpg or less than 12 mpg sometimes. I run BP 93 supper unleaded in my 2005 Deuce 95" motor that has 10.8 comp. The build & tune was done in May 2006. The numbers were 111.5 hp &105qt. STD. I don't know if the fuel back then was 10% Ethanol. My gas milage is down on my Deuce also from 45mpg to about 42mpg highway. I would like to know if the 10% Ethanol fuels are causing a loss in HP & TQ. Have any tuners seen any loss in HP &TQ in like builds before Ethanol and after Ethanol in fuels? Thanks for you posts.

Pat
It takes more volume of of the E10 fuel (10% corn) to deliver the same power or energy as 93 rated gas. Since it takes more volume of the E10 to match the power of gas and your injectors are tuned for the better gas you will loose mileage, because there is less power from the E10 with the same volume, and if there is less power then you hp/tq is down also. Cars and trucks today have a set up in the ECM called Flex Fuels that is set up to map either gas or the corn gas. We will see something very soon in the motorcycle industry that will allow one map to handle different fuel volumes, these systems are being worked on a s I type this to you.....you might see it as early as 2010....we'll see.  

[harleywood]

Actually most anything will run on E10. However, since ethanol has a much lower BTU's than gasoline, you get a subsequent drop in fuel economy. This is the fallacy the government perpetrates. The net effect is any gas 'savings' is basically a wash. My own car sees a 2mpg drop with E10 as well as my bike's 3-4 mpg drop. As far as Flex Fuel vehicles, these engines can run on E85 (85% ethanol). They have wide band O2 sensors that can read the change in fuel, thereby sending a that info the the ECU which, in turn, increases the flow rate to the injectors to match. There are only limited parts of the country where E85 is even available. As an aside, E85 has become the darling of the hot rod, supercharger/turbo set as it allows them to really crank up the boost.

[kdietz]

It takes more volume of of the E10 fuel (10% corn) to deliver the same power or energy as 93 rated gas. Since it takes more volume of the E10 to match the power of gas and your injectors are tuned for the better gas you will loose mileage, because there is less power from the E10 with the same volume, and if there is less power then you hp/tq is down also. Cars and trucks today have a set up in the ECM called Flex Fuels that is set up to map either gas or the corn gas.


Can you use this same logic to explain why I get better MPG at 14.0 AFR than at 14.4 AFR with my bagger?

[pddredduece]

The state of Fl. did a dyno test on a single cylinder motor with 10.0 t0 11.0 comp. They ran the motor up to 5000 rpms. The motor put out more TQ, but used more fuel using 93 octane fuel that was 10% ethanol. The test didn't show HP loss or gain. The results of the test were written not a dyno chart. The test didn't talk about HP!

[Coasty]

I live in central Fl. Most all of the fuel here is 10% ethanol. I run 87 regular unleaded in my 1994 Chevy c1500 with 5.7 v8. The fuel milage has drooped from 14 mpg around town to 12 mpg or less than 12 mpg sometimes. I run BP 93 supper unleaded in my 2005 Deuce 95" motor that has 10.8 comp. The build & tune was done in May 2006. The numbers were 111.5 hp &105qt. STD. I don't know if the fuel back then was 10% Ethanol. My gas milage is down on my Deuce also from 45mpg to about 42mpg highway. I would like to know if the 10% Ethanol fuels are causing a loss in HP & TQ. Have any tuners seen any loss in HP &TQ in like builds before Ethanol and after Ethanol in fuels? Thanks for you posts.

As pointed out about winter/summer blend it was correct several years back unknown to the majority of people there is no longer a summer/winter blend.  The standard blend use to contain MTBE methyl tertiary butyl ether used as
an oxygenate and to raise the octane the so called summer blend.  In the winter months the cold weather States used the winter blend which was nothing more than gasoline containing 10% ethanol (E-10).  MTBE was the replacement for lead which boosted octane and once touted by everyone to be an acceptable replacement.  However, it was discovered MTBE is both an environmental and health hazard even contaminating the ground water. The new
additive of choice replacing MTBE is 10% ethanol which is now sold all year round the so called winter blend has gone by, by.  Some States may use as much as 20% ethanol for their winter blend hence reducing the MPG.