I want to get to the bottom of this ethanol killing my mpg
Ok I have 493,000 miles on my 88 cherokee. I have 220,000 miles on my Clubwagon 74,000 on my WV thing 172,000 on my Voyager and on and on. My commute is 110 miles round trip NOT counting extra driving around.
in a few weeks (making payments) I will have a 94 metro xfi
So I have a pretty damned good idea on fuel economy. I have been taking mpg readings for 20 years over more than a million miles of driving. (I wish I recorded it all in one place etc.. would be interesting)
anyway since ethanol I have seen a 15-25 % drop in fuel economy across ALL of my vehicles. So has my father and so has my mother.
in the MILLION PLUS miles including 400,000 miles on my cherokee (it had 92,000 when I got it) I have NEVER ONCE IN TWENTY YEARS REPLACED A FUEL PUMP. neither has my dad neither has my mom.
Since ethanol EVERY SINGLE CAR WE HAVE HAS HAD ITS FUEL PUMP DIE. Every single one no exception. Ok except the VW thing but only cause it has not driven in 4 years so it has never tasted ethanol.
thats 7 Fuel pumps in an 8 month period. anyone who says thats coincidence is a moron :-) hehe (just joking but you get the idea)
I have also had to replace 5 O2 sensors something else I have NEVER had to replace in a million plus miles and 14 years of driving.
SO I want to do some tests WITHOUT ethanol to confirm my MPG returns without the ethanol. alas its illegal to sell gas in pa and nj without ethanol.
I got an ethanol test kit and now I only buy gas from stations with the lowest actual ethanol levels. Wawa is good 7-8% so is sunoco 8%
My cherokee used to get a SOLID 22mpg and thats lifted mud tires skid plates tire on the roof the works. I have 493,000 miles on this truck I KNOW what its mpg is.
I just put a new engine in it. (bought a $900 beater on ebay with a virgin engine 119,000 miles) swapped them runs like new again.
On the first run I got 21mpg on 3 year old gas! first fill up 17mpg second fill up 13mpg !! next 5 fill ups 13-14mpg O2 dies 8-10mpg replace O2 back up to 13-14 mpg
I get gas at wawa instead of el cheapo gas station mpg is now 17-19 mpg. Go back to el cheapo 13-14 mpg
I measure the ethanol. 8% wawa 11% el cheapo.
Then the idea hits me. My dads old motor home has 35+ gallons of more than 4 year old gas in it IE pre ethanol.
I siphon out 15 gallons to fillup the cherokee 19mpg!
I siphon out 14 gallons to fillup again 22mpg!
I am out of old gas and have to use ethanol gas again 19mpg
next fill up 17mpg
To this day I have to fight tooth and nail to get past 17mpg on a truck that historically got 22mpg DAILY.
SO I want to do more tests but HOW to get non ethanol gas? any suggestions?
I know how to REMOVE the ethanol. just add water till all the alcohol seperates from the gas then pour off the gas.
problem is ethanol is an octane booster so the gas you will be left with will be about 84 octane which I am thinking might not be good for the engines?
what do you think? ALSO
another idea. RACING fuel is pure gas. What kind of "mixture" ration of 84octane de ethanoled gas and racing fuel would i need to use to get the right roughly 87octane the engine expects?
I want to "make" about 200 gallons of non ethanol gas to do some REAL A B A B A testing to see if the ethanol REALLY is having that much of an impact.
suggestions? is there anywhere close by (100miles or so) from SE PA where I can get NON ethanol regular gas? delaware? maryland? NY?
Thanks!
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