Ethanol-free gas worth it?

BigBlueDart

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2012 Mazda2 Touring MT
I will likely be able to answer this question myself in a couple of weeks, as I plan to run a tank of the stuff and see if I notice a difference in performance and fuel economy, but I thought I'd get the community's opinion of the subject. Anyone here notice a difference between running E10 gas vs ethanol-free gas? Also, the only places I've found around me that offer it only have it for a higher octane (98 in one case). It's as much as 40 cents a gallon more.
 
AFAIK performance should be worse, but fuel economy should be better. I have not tried it myself.
 
^^^^
I agree, fuel economy should be marginally better but, I doubt you'll see any performance gains.

Mike
 
I agree that fuel economy should be marginally better. In the absence of an aftermarket tune (doesn't seem like the OP has one), I'd also agree that the performance should be marginally worse.

With as many mods as the OP has on the car, however, I'd strongly recommend BigBlueDart to go with his fav ECU tuner (Dynotronics, OVT, etc.). The car will drive significantly better (after everything is dialed in), and the ethanol-free gas should also result in better power -- assuming that the car is tuned for that grade of octane. The only catch is, I wouldn't tune any ECU for a gasoline grade unless I know that grade is widely available all areas that I take my car to (include for road trips and stuff).
 
Good points, Traum. I intend to get a tune eventually, though car improvement isn't the highest on my free money priority list right now. Mine is one of those long, drawn out builds. That being said, I think I'm just going to fill up on regular sugar gas next go around. I starting to think a lot of the hullabaloo over the evils of ethanol are a bit overblown and that I'm likely plenty safe with E90 in a modern car.
 
With the few cars I've had, none of them have any real issues with ethanol-blended fuel. As a matter of fact, the VW 1.8T actually seems to prefer E90, with the engine running a bit smoother and more rev happy. The only times when I have issues with ethanol fuel is when a car needs to be stored -- in my case, that's with winter storage. Regardless of whether fuel stabilizer is added or not, the engine is noticeably less happy with E90 gas (compared to "pure" gas when the same thing is done) in a much shorter time frame.

For me at least, fuel brands make a far more noticeable difference than whether the gas is ethanol blended or not. With the exception of my cheap D17 beater Civic, Esso gas almost always make my engines less "happy", and this applies to whether the car has been ECU-tuned or not. Shell V-Power / V-Power Nitro+, on the other hand, seems to be the preferred juice of choice for both my ECU-tuned Miata and Mazda2.

I've seen more people having issues with ethanol-blended gas on their bikes, but it has been too many years since I sold all my bikes, so other than the same ethanol blended gas vehicle storage issues that I've already mentioned, I don't remember what my gas experience with them are like.
 
You bring up another interesting discussion that might deserve it's own thread: gas brands. I've honestly never really taken the time to experiment along those lines, myself. Perhaps that's what I'll do instead of the sugar-free gas experiment. Now is a good time to do it while prices are still crazy low.
 
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