[James64]

I know for a fact that my car got 10% better gas mileage on 87 octane ethanol free gasoline. I tracked it. Gasoline has more energy in it than ethanol. Then the government switched us to E10 (even though it takes more oil to produce ethanol fuel (from corn anyway), go figure). Anyway, my gas mileage dropped. Every mechanic that I've ever talked to says that E10 is not good for an engine. In fact, it will lead to more junk building up in your fuel injectors.

Locally, I can only buy 89 or 90 octane ethanol free gasoline, not 87. I believe that modern car engines will adjust the timing to account for the higher octane. I don't know if the Spark will. I'm guessing that 89 octane will not hurt the Spark because the Operators Manual says to use 87 octane minimum.

It's not the octane level that I'm after. I just think we are better off without ethanol.

So, I'm just wondering what everyone else is experiencing or what they are using.

 

[Cormacs]

All vehicles post 2008 were designed to run with ethanol enriched fuels so no harm should come from running ethanol. All though it is proven that ethanol enriched fuel does get less mileage not due to the energy factor but due to the fact ethanol is oxygen enriched. It makes engines run leaner requiring more fuel to get the perfect stoichiometric fuel ratio. I've been a mechanic for 20 years and have taken courses on the subject matter.


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[wizzer]

The spark is an open loop system that doesnt compensate for different types of fuel like a car engine does. Therefore changing fuels with different energy and viscosity levels will affect how it runs. Pure fuel is best for marine and small engine use .