New E15 Gas Can Ruin Your Engine

[1wrxtra]

Saw this today on the Drudgereport. Here's the link and a snippet containing the gist of the article for you all:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/study-...rticle/2520078

The fuel industry's American Petroleum Institute tested the 15 percent ethanol gas approved in 2010 and found it gums up fuel systems, prompts "check engine" lights to come on, and messes with fuel gauge readings.

"Failure of these components could result in breakdowns that leave consumers stranded on busy roads and highways," said the industry report. Worse: API said the fuel problems--not found in E5 or E10 blends--aren't always covered by auto warranties.

The industry prefers pure fuel to an ethanol mix, but the report isn't likely to slow the administrations green push, according to a Washington auto lobbyist.

The key points from the API report are below:

The additional E15 testing, completed this month, has identified an elevated incidence of fuel pump failures, fuel system component swelling, and impairment of fuel measurement systems in some of the vehicles tested. E15 could cause erratic and misleading fuel gauge readings or cause faulty check engine light illuminations. It also could cause critical components to break and stop fuel flow to the engine. Failure of these components could result in breakdowns that leave consumers stranded on busy roads and highways. Fuel system component problems did not develop in the CRC tests when either E10 or E0 was used. It is difficult to precisely calculate how many vehicles E15 could harm. That depends on how widely it is used and other factors. But, given the kinds of vehicles tested, it is safe to say that millions could be impacted.

In 2010 and 2011, EPA gave the green light to use E15 - the 15 percent ethanol gasoline blend - in model-year-2001-and-later cars and some other vehicles. EPA's action was irresponsible. EPA knew E15 vehicle testing was ongoing but decided not to wait for the results. Why did EPA move forward prematurely? Part of the answer may be the need to raise the permissible concentration level of ethanol so that greater volumes could be used, as required by the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. Most gasoline sold today is an E10 blend, but rising volume requirements under the law can't be met much longer without going to higher blends. When Congress passed the law, it could not know it was creating this problem. Today we know. The answer is to repeal the RFS before it puts millions of vehicles and many motorists at risk.

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[SCRAPPYDO]

I would think the real hazard would be with Hybrids, that run on EV most of the time honestly. The gas hardly ever gets used and then seperates. This could cause issues if the gas engine kicks on once a week or even once every 3-4 weeks.

but overall, Ethonol is a corn lobby BS push that needs to DIE

[Calamity Jesus]

Anyone who runs a carburated engine is probably already familiar with the side effects of crappy ethanol blends... motorcycles, classic cars, lawn mowers, marine engines.. etc.

[a2cpc]

Drudge...my go to for Automotive News!

[Balantz]

Washington Examiner, my go to for news!


...said no one with a brain, ever.

[Not-EWRX]

Ethonol is such a waste of resources.

I can't wait for the same thing to happen with natural gas.

[neg_matnik]

But, our turbocharged Subarus LOVE ethanol though. It's not a bad way to increase octane level. I'm currently adding between 3 and 3.5 gallons of E85 at each fill up (the rest is 91 AKI Cali E10). The ECU is happy, the engine is happy; I'm getting maximum allowed timing advance everywhere in the rev range even when it's really hot outside. That just would not happen with 91 AKI Cali gas on its own.
To me, the only real downside of using ethanol is that it's being made out of corn and it's an expensive, no so efficient, process.

[SCRAPPYDO]

Maybe where 91 is the max you may like some E85, but in the rest of the country that has freedom gas with 93 available...we do not need it.

[Optimus Prime]

Corn Ethanol is a waste of resources, sugar cane Ethanol is not.

Besides, most tuner shops notice cars dyno higher in states where E-15 is the standard vs states where they are not.

[skywaffles]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

Maybe where 91 is the max you may like some E85, but in the rest of the country that has freedom gas with 93 available...we do not need it.

[scott_gunn]

I'm not a fan of ethanol unless we can produce it better somehow, but I find a study, coming from the American Petroleum Institute, that is full of "could" and "maybe", to be worthy of my dismissal.

I'm sure it will suck for lawn mowers, weed eaters, and boats. I doubt it will cause any significant issues in automobiles.

[neg_matnik]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

Maybe where 91 is the max you may like some E85, but in the rest of the country that has freedom gas with 93 available...we do not need it.

I know and I agree. But, it does not look like decently knock resistant gas will be available in Cali anytime soon .
But, I think the issue goes further than California and States that are limited to 91 AKI gas. There are mountain areas all other the country that only carry 87 AKI gas. You just can't find premium gas in some of these areas.

[Sid03SVT]

First off, holy crap where have I been? I only knew about E10 and E85 being regularly available, second of, I thought everyone had 93 octane available? and third, probably the most important, should we really trust the API's findings? I'm with Scott_gunn.

[Calamity Jesus]

Ethanol can be great.. yes.. but if you're using it to raise low quality gas up to 87 AKI (such as in the E15 being cited for the article) it's a crappy ethanol blend.

[neg_matnik]

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

Corn Ethanol is a waste of resources, sugar cane Ethanol is not.[...]

I'm not sure using sugar cane is any better than using corn.
In the case of Brazil, farmers are tempted to stop producing actual food and are planting sugar cane instead. In addition, wannabe farmers are cutting down the rainforest to plant sugar cane.
Back home (a small island in the Caribbean with over half a million souls), we would quickly run out of land to grow enough sugar cane to sustain both our sugar/rum consumption and fuel needs. And, yes, we have to have that rum .

[fredzy]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

I would think the real hazard would be with Hybrids, that run on EV most of the time honestly. The gas hardly ever gets used and then seperates. This could cause issues if the gas engine kicks on once a week or even once every 3-4 weeks.

but overall, Ethonol is a corn lobby BS push that needs to DIE

Yea I thought drudge covering this like this was pretty ironic. I guess for people who think incorrectly that the E15 push is just a green thing then it makes sense. God forbid we preserve our world.

But considering that the whole point of it is greed (combined with the awesome wastefulness of using food for fuel) drudge should be selling I <3 E15 t-shirts.

[SCRAPPYDO]

Guess you were wrong about Drudge..

Makes you wonder what else you were wrong about huh?

Stereotypes can be very true and usually are in some circumstances, but not always...