Switching to gasoline without ethanol

[Chobobulous]

In Las Cruces NM every Pic Quic has ethanol free gas. Its normally the same price as ethanol if not cheaper. When i drove by today it was 3.07 i think for reg non eth

[rbrown]

I need to move.

[Bert]

Once when I ran out of gas close to my place, I ended up adding a gallon of kerosene I had thought was gasoline. The Festiva sure ran strange then! I had to keep the revs up high to keep the motor running; which sounded like some sort of formula one race car, getting the few blocks back to the apartment. The muffler had fallen off a few thousand miles before, completing the effect.

I guess so! And must have been a carb car too boot because I can't imagine the ECU of an EFI knowing what to do with fuel/air mixture readings of kerosene trickling or sloshing around un-vapourized.

[CharlieZ]

We ain't seen nothin' yet. The EPA is pushing for E-15. The AAA and other auto groups are raising a stink. Corn is king! ADM & Cargill have a lot of political clout. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know how that battle will come out. Maybe not today or tomorrow but we'll eventually be forced into EVs whether we like it or not.

[Bert]

In theory if ethanol or some other biofuel could be made cheaply and efficiently, without having every arable plot of ground covered in corn, we could tell the Arabs to stuff it. The Middle east would revert back to a desert full of nomads with no economic means to make trouble.

[bobstad]

Never too loose to juice!

I guess so! And must have been a carb car too boot because I can't imagine the ECU of an EFI knowing what to do with fuel/air mixture readings of kerosene trickling or sloshing around un-vapourized.

"No way Jose,' " my car is a '91 with factory EFI. I had to keep the motor screaming at higher revs than I've probably ever used before or since; just to keep running, the quarter or half mile to where I lived. I remember I had to stop to wait for the light at the corner of Myrtle and West in Eureka, CA which made me imagine that somehow a cop car would have to intervene; with a young friend and her son then about four years old aboard; often my companions on various adventures those days, who now herself has come down with multiple sclerosis-while he is thirteen years old in Arcata, CA trying to bear up with his Mom a medical marijuana patient, as a pauper depending upon the kindness of others.

I'm reminded here of the very first tankful of ethanol added gasoline I ever used; purchased in Taft or Maricopa, CA driving south on California state highway 33 May of 1984 motoring towards a summer in Dallas, TX with friends, in the '66 VW "square=back" sedan I lived out of most of the dozen years from '82-'94 we co-habitated together-probably as close as I'll ever get to connubial bliss; which is still a long ways off if you ask me?

Earlier that year, when changing the plugs-the first time after the very first of four engine rebuilds I was forced into by various malign circumstances as a non-mechanic used to oil changes challenging my mechanical acumen; a corrupt shop ABC Motors in Centralia, WA had cross-threaded a steel spark plug insert on the #3 cylinder-whose spark plug hole threads, I'd managed to strip when not mindful enough to use anti-seize compound on every and anything, involving other than steel or cast iron.

If anyone doubts the amount of unlawful surveillance in my life I'm constantly forced to endure, this story should give an adequate imagination some thoughtfulness. Leaving Maricopa, CA California state highway 33 soon begins the two mile long "Grocer's Grade" which I undertook with the temperature that early afternoon in the shade, topping out at around a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. I still remember as I'd filled the tank, noticing the label on the pump mentioning the ethanol content; wondering about the ramifications of using food potential product as automotive fuel, and the serious social ramifications of such a questionable habit of conveyance-as automobiles.

I'd nearly pulled that long Grocer's Grade, and was in the middle of shifting from third down to second as two things happened nearly simultaneously; the first a smirking, dark-haired full bearded character whose lean rabid look was profoundly offensive, passing me going the opposite direction in a black VW Beetle, going downhill just after he'd topped the grade; and in an instant later with the car in neutral, the seizing of the #3 cylinder's rod and bearing-which leaking air from the cross-threaded spark plug insert had allowed to become even more super-heated, than is typical of the always too hot #3 cylinder in Type III VWs. I'd had the mechanic at the shop in Centralia ride along with me as I demonstrated how the motor was missing as I revved to shift from third to fourth gear; which had always wound easily past 70 mph in third before then, while after his work was obviously missing noticeably at that same speed.

Someone I had the impressions of, as a person not able to resist his being easily manipulated in circumstances he'd been forced to endure; whose relative innocence and fear was very palatable I could easily relate to myself, contrasting easily with the smug corrupt shop owner's self-assurance and invulnerability. Where my only apparent sin, was then in ultra-right wing Lewis county in Washington state; having spent the winter living on California state unemployment insurance payments in a leftist radical household: Where one of my father's uncles Elmer Jastad was the mayor of Morton, WA that's a mountain community in the eastern part of Lewis county, where he owned the pharmacy whose fire station now bears his name-also a five term state legislator as a conservative Democrat, just prior to my entering The Evergreen State College in the state capital of Olympia, WA several years before.

When the rod bearing seized, I had still had enough momentum to coast into the parking lot of the small gas station at the top of the grade; where since there is no running water, my having an air-cooled VW seemed a little humorous, considering I'd overheated anyway. Operated then by an old widow woman dressed in black, whose thinness seemed well capable of preventing her being overwhelmed by the prevailing heat; nice enough to allow me to leave my car there I promised to soon return for, who'd been comforted by my ready identification of myself as someone a decent and sober citizen-then she was scandalized by the company I kept when returning with two Ojai friends Tony Burgher and Daniel Hathaway to use Dan's hopped up pickup to tow the VW back to Ojai; as we'd all been nursing frequently enough changed cans of either Budweiser or Coors to fuel our joint enterprise-smoking a few of those too, along the way.

I remember getting a ride out of there after I'd broken down, with someone driving an overheated Mercury Cougar-since I habitually carried for drinking and other purposes, about ten gallons of water in a couple of large plastic containers made for restaurants they purchase cooking oil in which are easy to get for free and work great as spare water containers: While also noticing at that same station, during the whole experience of getting my VW to Ojai from there to park awhile until I could make repairs; a car sporting a KRAB radio bumper sticker, which used to be Seattle's famous listener supported radio station part of the great Pacifica network-founded by Sex And Broadcasting author Lorenzo Milam; though by then KRAB which went under in Seattle whose bandwidth was absorbed by commercial crappola, had become some sort of station based in Bakersfield, CA from what that bumper sticker claimed.

One other odd enough experience on that same Grocer's Grade I'd often traveled going north to south or south to north, crossing California lengthwise; was seeing a huge semi truck load of carrots which had rolled over going downhill, whose brakes apparently had failed. Wow, that is sure a lot of damned old carrots! Too bad there were no close by electrical outlets; as someone with a juicer could've gone wild.

[sketchman]

We ain't seen nothin' yet. The EPA is pushing for E-15. The AAA and other auto groups are raising a stink. Corn is king! ADM & Cargill have a lot of political clout. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know how that battle will come out. Maybe not today or tomorrow but we'll eventually be forced into EVs whether we like it or not.

I'd personally happily have an EV if they'd build a decent one for decent money, but well.....

[bobstad]

I'd personally happily have an EV if they'd build a decent one for decent money, but well.....

wtf is an "EV"? Adm's m8? Whtchout fr tht surpnt!

[Bert]

wtf is an "EV"? Adm's m8? Whtchout fr tht surpnt!

Electric Vehicle! Tesla makes a real screamer 0-60 in 3.5? seconds (electric motors are 100% efficient and have incredible torque) but it's batteries that concern me. Like a cordless drill the run time decreases every time a battery pack is recharged. At what point in a vehicles' life do you decide to fork over $5 Grand (a guess) just to replace the batteries?

[Festevil3]

My buddy has been working on an all electric aspire



I will have to get more pics, he is done with it now. He has a 110 mile range, batteries alone were 2,000 usd

[blkfordsedan]

We ain't seen nothin' yet. The EPA is pushing for E-15. The AAA and other auto groups are raising a stink. Corn is king! ADM & Cargill have a lot of political clout. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know how that battle will come out. Maybe not today or tomorrow but we'll eventually be forced into EVs whether we like it or not.

Actually, the Ethanol plants are hurting right now. Many have closed permanently or were at least closed for several months earlier this year. Most of the government subsidies for Ethanol no longer exist. The price of corn is astronomical, and the resale price of Ethanol is dictated by the price of oil (which is down). There's very little profit for the Ethanol plants as a result. The bad part is this; the plants not only employ a lot of people, but the also help support a network of other industries and businesses. Its very similar to the Auto Industry in that respect. Another aspect is that the bio-energy companies who own the Ethanol plants are the ones doing the R&D for alternative fuels like bio-mass. With out the funds from Ethanol production, they have no money to spend on such research.


Im not sure how ADM and Cargill play into this exactly. They are direct competitors of the Ethanol industry....farmers sell their corn either directly to the Ethanol plants or to the grain companies. With Ethanol on the decline, the grain trading companies can better dictate the "buy" prices to the farmers.

[bravekozak]

Did you hear about the cars that filled up with jet fuel the other day in Jersey?
Is any ethanol in it? Aviation grade alcohol?
I wonder if they were able to take off?
Just kidding. They stalled.

[Movin]

Jet fuel works great...in a diesel!

[Bert]

Jet fuel works great...in a diesel!

Yeah, and I don't think it's cheap.

[Movin]

Its not but a guy that had to move rather quickly to Argentina was buying up stuff at auction
from military base closures and ended up with a rather large supply. Even a couple years old
the truck fleet "liked" that fuel better than the low sulpher expensive stuff.