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Old 12-10-2008, 12:43 PM   #11 (permalink)
gto78
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Port Saint Lucie, FL
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From my experience with the change to E10 fuels I've had a pretty big drop in mpg on my Altima and Explorer. The Altima is pretty new, only 12K miles on it, 4 cylinder, and got 34 mpg as the window sticker advertised. Then 10% ethanol fuel came out and the mpg dropped to 29mpg, and on top of that I have to drive 5 mph slower to get 29mpg, or else it's even worse. The explorer also lost about 2mpg.

Ethanol is worse for rubber hoses and aluminum lines, even though the car's are "supposedly" built to handle the ethanol due to some government rules, however in the long run they probably will have more maintenance issues related to ethanol and/or corrosion in the fuel system.

*I read a story on mpgresearch.com from a guy who removes the ethanol from gasoline in his garage. He puts the gas into a 5 gallon can. Then he pours in 1/2 gallon of water (10%). He shakes it up and then lets it sit. After a while the water and alcohol are combined and settle together to the bottom of the can. At the bottom of the can is a drain valve, he opens the drain valve until the water/alcohol (approx 1 gallon) is done pouring out. What's left is pure gasoline with no ethanol. If you've ever seen water in a fuel can it's very obvious, they don't mix at all, and it's very easy to drain water out of gas. All aircraft have a drain valve for water in the fuel tanks, you let it drain until suddenly it changes to gasoline, then your done. There's no worries about it being safe either, unless you have poor eyesight.

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