Should i try ethonal free gas?

[Tavi]

Octane is to rate the fuels ability to resist detonated. It has nothing to do with the energy in the fuel. Run the lowest octane your engine will run on. I know TBIs are fine with 85. I’d bet the vortec is too, but can’t say I know. But I’m sure someone here will confirm or deny.
Unless you have increased the compression or advanced timing running high octane will only waste money.

 

[df2x4]

^ X2. Unless your PCM is tuned for something different, run 87 octane. It's what these trucks were designed for. Any higher is a waste of money.

Also just an observation but I used to run ethanol free 87 religiously, and I actually noticed much better mileage when I went back to 10% ethanol 87 octane from a top tier station. I think gas quality and source is more important to mileage than ethanol content.

I've run top tier 87 octane with 10% ethanol in both trucks for years now. No ill effects and I'm still on the factory fuel spiders in both.

 

[dmacke01]

I did a test of this a number of years ago. I ran nothing but ethanol blend gas for a few months and then ethanol-free. I was driving a 1999 Jeep Cherokee 4.0.

On ethanol blend I got 17.5mpg. With ethanol free I got 19.1mpg. Didn’t notice a power difference but there was for fuel economy.


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[Thatfordguy]

Ive ran ethonal free, e10, and e15 with zero difference in mileage. I run e30 quite a bit and it only gets like a half a mpg less and runs great. I ran a full tank of e85 once and i ran like ****, got 9mpg, and threw a code.

 

[SierraDully]

Around here (Alberta) I'm Almost certain the only was to get ethanol free as is to buy premium gas. Thats around $1.25/litre and regular is .93/litre. Any cost savings on fuel consumption or repairs is more than offset with a ~30 cent difference per litre.
For my American friends that's
$3.52/gallon versus $4.73/gallon. Ouch.
Also, there are only certain stations that have it. For example, Shell has ethanol free premium gas, but not all Shell stations. They have made it harder and harder to find it here. I suspect that means they make more money off the ethanol blended stuff. Another 5 years I probably won't be able to find ethanol free gas around here.

 

[Nathaniel2g]

Around here (Alberta) I'm Almost certain the only was to get ethanol free as is to buy premium gas. Thats around $1.25/litre and regular is .93/litre. Any cost savings on fuel consumption or repairs is more than offset with a ~30 cent difference per litre.
For my American friends that's
$3.52/gallon versus $4.73/gallon. Ouch.
Also, there are only certain stations that have it. For example, Shell has ethanol free premium gas, but not all Shell stations. They have made it harder and harder to find it here. I suspect that means they make more money off the ethanol blended stuff. Another 5 years I probably won't be able to find ethanol free gas around here.

I know your feels. Down here on the East coast of Canada I'm paying $1.18 a litre for supreme. I believe regular is $1.04 right now. I have my truck tuned to run supreme and I get the same mileage but with better power, so I'm happy. I'd rather have a slightly higher fuel bill and more towing power than not.

 

[Biggershaft96]

Now this is just speculation for what ive seen but if it was avaliable here in town i would run gas with ethonol. I follow sloppy mechanics and The stuff he runs on ethonol always has reletivly clean combistion chambers compared to the other engines ive seen that are caked with black soot. He usually runs e50 or above though.

 

[biggbiker]

I have tried both, and non ethanol 100% gas gives about 1 MPG over the 90/10 blend. I do believe a tank of ethanol helps keep things clean.

 

[jkeaton]

Ethanol free here costs more than premium.

 

[Jiggie]

Intresting to see everyones thoughts. I wish my burb was a little better taken care of by its ptevious owners but it was a work horse and its showing the repercussions of it. Trying ti avoid the fuel spyder upgrade or any other major repairs other than ones ive done. I was thinking the ethnol free gas might be better for it. Maybe ill givr it a try and see how it works for me. Ill def stop paying for top gas though since its not needed

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