E15 or E85 Fuel in Vortec Engines

[HotWheelsBurban]

That's what I'd expect. REALLY old stuff like squarebodies are carb (except 87-91 IIRC) and carb engines HATE ethanol. I remember reading a post on a classic car forum and a guy's first gen mustang ran like s*** when he tried E85 in his stock 289 with a carb. He did say though that regular (10% ethanol) works fine though. That seems to be what most people agree on in terms of ethanol percentage.

Buc-ees is a common gas station in the south. I've never heard of Murphy's before. Up here in MN we have Holiday and KwikTrip/KwikStar. They're everywhere but don't often carry ethanol free gas where I live. It may vary by location.

I'm not sure if Murphy Gas is nationwide or not. You'd think, being part of Walmart, they would be? Probably some places they can't have gas stations. Some of the WMs in Texas have them in the parking lot, and others are close by; across the street/freeway, a block or so away.
I try not to go there to get gas unless I'm in a rental car. Our first '99 Burb, we went to a Walmart gas station because it was the cheapest one in the area. Wasn't so cheap after more than $1000 in fuel system repair.....

 

[Boots97]

I had a friend who had a 2011? HHR, and it was set up for flex fuel. Her mechanic told her that if you ran E85, you needed to keep running it. Going back and forth was not good for the fuel system....

That's what others have told me as well.

 

[RichLo]

If you daily drive your truck, dont worry about the E15. Its just the long term storage that kills Ethanol gas.

I have a 300-gallon gas tank for my property maintenance vehicles and I fill it once when gas is cheap and it stays good for 5+ years before I need to worry about re-filling it with fresh stuff. That tank gets 'Farm Gas' 87 octane - ethanol free, only available with bulk farm deliveries and you need to register your property as a hobby farm to get it.

My classic vehicles and boats get 91-93 octane ethanol free because I know it will stay good for years if I dont drive them for whatever reasons. Anything that I drive regularly... the trucks, and daily driver car gets E15 because I burn through it fast enough and its a lot cheaper at a few stations near the twin cities. Like 30c/gal cheaper than 87 octane E10.

 

[Erik the Awful]

On the flip side, yesterday I was at a gas station and noticed they had 90 octane non-ethanol fuel, but it was unfortunately more expensive than 93 octane premium. I'd probably buy it for my mowers if it was local.

If you daily drive your truck, dont worry about the E15. Its just the long term storage that kills Ethanol gas.

Nope, the nearest gas station to my house only sells non-ethanol gas and it goes bad just as fast. There's something more at play there.

 

[Scooterwrench]

I can't understand why the government would want to waste good corn liquor putting in fuel tanks. It wreaks havoc in motorcycle fuel tanks that have no galvanizing in them.

 

[Scooterwrench]

Nope, the nearest gas station to my house only sells non-ethanol gas and it goes bad just as fast. There's something more at play there.

Two things that kill gasoline are plastic containers and phase separation where the ethanol falls out of suspension. Recently I had an issue with my homemade stump grinder where the ethanol dropped to the bottom of the gas can and caused the thing to run bad and almost impossible to start when cold. Had to drain the tank and float bowl,blow out the carb and replace the fuel filter. Had to throw away about 3gals of gas. Wasn't a total waste,burn pile went up nicely.

 

[Scooterwrench]

The older fuel systems are not made to handle much ethanol. There's been a LOT of discussion about this on the GM squarebody forum, apparently the ethanol is deadly to Quadrajet and other Rochester carbs( their rubber parts anyway).
There's some chains that do offer ethanol free gas; in Texas, Buc-ees does, and some of the Murphy Gas locations near or at Walmarts. Murphy Gas is a division of Walmart.

I love the Q-jet so I've figured out how to make it work with the 10% they sell down here. First is to use an air an air gap intake then least two 1/4" thick carb gaskets,use only brass floats and lower the float level a little and take the expander spring out of the accelerator pump cup. On hot days I still have to do a clear flood to get it to fire without grinding to ring gear teeth off and burning the brushes out of the starter.

 

[df2x4]

IIRC 93 or 95 octane should be ethanol free?

I think it really depends on the specific area and station. Around here it seems like everything is 10% ethanol unless specifically labeled ethanol free.

On that note... I tried running ethanol free fuel in both of my '97s (from a non top-tier certified station) and got noticeably worse mileage. When I swapped back to E10 from a top tier station the mileage came back. IMO filling at top tier stations is more important than ethanol content unless you're going to be storing the fuel for long periods, as mentioned.

EDIT - Here's a tool to find top tier certified stations near you.

https://stationfinder.toptiergas.com/

 

[98 Nitro]

That's what I'd expect. REALLY old stuff like squarebodies are carb (except 87-91 IIRC) and carb engines HATE ethanol. I remember reading a post on a classic car forum and a guy's first gen mustang ran like s*** when he tried E85 in his stock 289 with a carb. He did say though that regular (10% ethanol) works fine though. That seems to be what most people agree on in terms of ethanol percentage.

Buc-ees is a common gas station in the south. I've never heard of Murphy's before. Up here in MN we have Holiday and KwikTrip/KwikStar. They're everywhere but don't often carry ethanol free gas where I live. It may vary by location.

That is why Holley has some E85 carbs, or kits to modify their standard carbs. It is a cheap 100 octane or so fuel and nice for hi compression muscle car engines, otherwise totally worthless and reality is should never have been made and is not "green" like the government says, neither are EVs or renewables for that matter.

 

[98 Nitro]

I think it really depends on the specific area and station. Around here it seems like everything is 10% ethanol unless specifically labeled ethanol free.

On that note... I tried running ethanol free fuel in both of my '97s (from a non top-tier certified station) and got noticeably worse mileage. When I swapped back to E10 from a top tier station the mileage came back. IMO filling at top tier stations is more important than ethanol content unless you're going to be storing the fuel for long periods, as mentioned.

EDIT - Here's a tool to find top tier certified stations near you.

https://stationfinder.toptiergas.com/

I ran some 90 octane ethanol free gas in my 98 truck and my 98 bassboat and both seemed to like it but it was a top tier gas. If only it was not so expensive I would run it all the time.