Oddball Update

Last week, my dad and I were getting together to grab some dinner when he mentioned that our community gas station was switching to a 10% Ethanol blend, colloquially known as E10. “Guess I won’t be getting gas there anymore,” he lamented.

Not that any of us have gotten gas at our once-convenient community station lately. Their prices have been absolutely the most expensive of any station in all of southwest Florida for at least the last 6 months, for reasons unknown. And now they’re switching to an Ethanol blend? To guys like my dad and I, who are both very protective of our automotive investments, this set off red flags. Messing with the recipe for gasoline seems like an almost universally bad idea to us — and particularly for me, after a bad batch of gas cost my Trans Am its fuel level sensor.

I’d heard some rumblings about E10 over on my favorite GTO message board, but nothing substantial. In an attempt to get informed about the stuff, I started hunting around for further information. Based on what I found from a myriad of different sources, here are some facts about E10:

• It will run just fine in almost any car made from 1998 on, as well as certain older models.
• Florida state law requires all gasoline sold in Florida to be 10% Ethanol by 2011.
• Fuel mileage will decrease when using E10 (probably by about 1-2 MPG).
• Since it contains more alcohol, E10 is more susceptible to water intrusion and has a shelf life of approximately 3 months. This is especially pronounced in hot, humid areas (gee, like Florida!)

Essentially, being Florida residents, we might as well get used to E10 because pretty soon we’re not going to be able to get anything else. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have any classic cars down here, eh? (Which reminds me, there are a lot of folks with old hot rods in Florida, thanks to our year-round sunshine — I wonder what they are supposed to do?)

In addition to that, I might as well stop fretting about E10 because it looks like Apple and I have been putting the stuff in both of our cars already. Since I’ve visited a couple of gas stations in town, I am seeing the “Contains 10% or less Ethanol” stickers everywhere. I think I probably put the stuff in the goat a couple weeks ago when I filled up, and didn’t even realize it. In fact, two weeks ago I didn’t even know E10 existed — I thought there was only regular MTBE gasoline and E85.

You may be wondering, why are gas stations being forced to convert to E10 at all? Ethanol replaces MTBE, both of which are added to gasoline as an oxygenate. MTBE apparently is a cancer risk, and in cases where underground gasoline tanks leak, it can contaminate ground water. Its replacement, Ethanol — a fancy name for regular alcohol — is not a carcinogen and would not pose a health risk if leaked (although the other substances in gasoline undoubtedly would).

So this is not about saving you money (since it may not), it’s not about improving fuel mileage (since it will actually worsen), it’s about preventing pollution. It’s also being propped up as a push toward renewable fuels because the alcohol content is made from corn and other crop byproducts.

For my dad’s case, there should be no problem putting E10 into his Trans Am — I have seen forum users state that they run E10 in their 1998 Trans Ams with no problems at all, and that GM in particular started designing their fuel systems for Ethanol compatibility as far back as 1986. Indeed, E10 has been a requirement in some areas of Texas and the Midwest for years now.

Note to self: I guess I’ll have to make sure to put some Sta-bil in my gas tank before we head off to Thailand next time. Other than that, I probably won’t worry about E10 any further.

Now the only real question left in my mind is, what about cars like our ‘79 Trans Am? If older cars aren’t supposed to run E10, but E10 is all you can get, what do you do? I’ve posed the question over on the GTO forums, so perhaps I’ll soon have an answer.

Tagged as Cars, E10, Ethanol + Categorized as Cars