I have a question... living in Michigan, I never thought much of it (because I didn't know much different) that wherever I went to go to buy gas, all the blends... 87 through 94 octane, all had 10-15% ethanol blended into it. Now that I live in Iowa, I noticed that most gas stations here sell pure 100% gas in regular 87 and premium 91-93 octane... but the 89 octane here (almost everywhere) has the ethanol in it (I assume it's 87 watered down with ethanol). 87 octane here is $1.94 right now, while 89 is $1.89 (cheaper 'cuz it's Iowa and that's where the corn is).

My question is, which would really give more horsepower in the regular 2.0-liter Neon? 87 octane that's 100% gas, or 89 octane that's probably an 85% gas / 15% ethanol mix? I wonder if anyone has dyno'd fuel ratings and blends like this or expiremented, and if so please reply to this post cuz I'm curious!

 

it really makes no difference just buy whats cheaper. in our cars it will burn the same no matter what

 

Where are you at in Michigan. Where i am 89 octane is 1.79.

 

First of all the octane rating realty has nothing to do with the amount of energy or power in the fuel. Octane is simply a rating of how fast a fuel burns, the higher the octane the slower it burn thus eliminate detonation ping which is an issue in high compression engines. The misconception that high octane fuel has more power is due the fact that in a high compression or turbo engine, you are actually getting a larger volume of air and fuel compressed into cylinder. More fuel + more air = more power. So, using a fuel with an octane higher that the engine requires does not result in a gain in power or economy. On the other hand using too low of octane can result in pre-detonation which will result in power and economy losses.

Gasoline is made up of many, many hydrocarbon compounds (probably hundreds) and every batch is somewhat different. However, there are all blended to give the proper octane rating and several other combustion and energy characteristics. In a gas/ethanol blend the ethanol is just one more hydrocarbon that must be balanced into the blend.

One advantage is that ethanol burns cleaner which may be of some help in eliminating carbon buildup in cylinders.

 

Octane referes to how many hydrocarbons are in the fuel. The more hydrocarbons to burn, the slower it burns. If your vehicle is not a flex fuel vehicle, don't use E85 or anything with ethanol/methanol. They are both alchol based fuels. Alchol absorbs water so it dilutes your fuel and it will rot out your fuel lines. Flex fuel vehicles have epoxy coated fuel systems.

 

Well I completely understand octane ratings, thus why in the 42,000 miles of life in my car I've never put anything above 89.5 octane in it...

I am talking about performance of the fuel, i.e. - energy/power in the combustion chamber. 100% 87-octane gasolene has 150% more explosive energy than 100% pure ethanol does, but 100% pure ethanol also has an octane rating of 130... but anyway, most gas stations in Michigan sell all of their 87 through 94 octane fuels witha 10 to 15% blend of ethanol or methanol in it, and the same goes for Iowa (except in Iowa the 89 is cheaper than the 87 by about $0.09 because the cheaper ethanol additive blend is from corn and it's grown in our backyards and turned into ethanol right here in Iowa)... that being said, it's almost impossible sometimes to avoid putting gas in your vehicle that isn't the 90/10 blend because that's mostly what everyone sells, regardless of what kind of vehicle you drive.

 

Gas has 115,000 BTU per gallon
Alcohol has about 76,000 BTU per gallon

If you replace 10% of fuel with fuel with a lower heat content you will loose available heat energy for the heat engine in your car to move something. So you now require more fuel lessing fuel milage.

Choice between 87 100% gas Vs 89 at 85-90% gas take the 87.

 

Well... first off alchohol, ethanol, and methanol have completely different molecular structures. Although all of these DO give off less BTU's than gasolene, you have to keep in mind that when gasolene burns in our cars, many of those "unused" BTU's go out our tailpipe instead of being used in the combustion chamber. Our engines do not come close to harnessing all of the potential power of gasolene... but are not high enough compression to harness that of alcohol or ethanol either.

This is why many higher-compression engines in Pro- and Modified-Street IHRA events burn pure alcohol instead of say, 114-octane gasolene. The alcohol burns more efficient, cooler, cleaner, and more COMPLETE inside of the combustion chamber as opposed to that of gasolene.

Indy-car racing is also supposed to switch over to 100% ethanol fuel next season, because those engines can harness all of the benefits of burning this similar 130-octane fuel...

So who knows!

 

bla bla bla too many big words

 

ok heres the deal. yes the gasoline is watered down with ethanol. it is a fact. it is cheaper so deal with it. it WILL NOT ruin anything on your car. in this day and age of computers, our cars burn all fuels the same way. no matter the octane, there will be no power increase/decrease. that only worked on older cars but out timing is set. unless you buy a standalone and tune it to a different octane, there will be no difference.BUY WHAT IT CHEAPER lol because you get the same with everything