Ethonal...mixed In Gas.....good/bad?

i was at a exxon today.....filled up my truck...as usual...
except i usually us amacco gas........
while i was filling..i saw a sticker that said...contains 10% ethonal...
wtf is that......? and why is it in there gas?
ammaco doesnt put that in theres......
is this something i should care about...or is no big deal....

just wonderering........

ethonal the stuff used in some race cars, it adds one hell ofa punch to gasolien, my g pa use to do it in his old flat head ford. I wouldnt worrie about it, in fact if it costs about the same, i would use it. basicly it is colorless oderless, and if youve ever seen a drag race with somone getting out of the car waving their hands like they are on fire, but they arent, they are, its the ethonal burning, thats in like a 99% concintrate, a 10% is nothing to worrie about

it'll actually clean out your fuel tank, and system.

During the winter if you always use this fuel you shouldn't need gas line antifreeze.

The 1 problem that you might have, and several people complain about is while it's cleaning your fuel system out you might lack performance. It's just because it's burning all the built up crap from your tank.

It might take 2 - 3 tanks full to before you regain the performance. And it's probably a good idea to change your fuel filter then

I believe every gas company puts up to 10% ethanol in their fuels. They do up here in snowy Canada!!!!

It will not hurt anything, but in fact make your engines emissions cleaner. It's all part of this "clean air" kick that's happening now.

very interesting.........
thanks for the info......all

I've heard ethanol gunks up plugs. Is this true?

no, it burns totally nothing left behind to gunk

While ethanol may not hurt your car I haven't seen any proof that it does anything to help it. In fact it takes more ethanol to make the same power as gasoline so we get slightly worse MPG with it in there. That's why race cars that use alcohol which is similar, have to run an air to fuel ratio of something like 7 to 1 while cars (even race cars) using gasoline run a ratio around 14 to 1. dugie6551 is right. All companys put some ethanol in their fuel so there is no getting away from it.

^ no it does not take more etonal to make the same amount, more is needed to burn proporly, but it produces one hellofa punch, the mileage is worse then gas dont get me wrong there, but the power out put is much greater, not worse

Lets not confuse the myth with facts now.Ethenol is corn alcohol {I suppose you could drink it]used in most pump gasolines as an extender Read as water down or thinner. Not much if any effect at 10% on performance or milage. At least not detectable by the seat of ur pants. Methonal is raceing groge and bad 4 u and yes you need a whole lot of it to produce the same bhp/lbs as gasoline but because it is none explosive High vapor flash point its safer. Untill u mix a little Nitro with it and then u can crank the compression ratios and timeing leads way up off the charts and now we are talking kick in the seat of the pants stuff.BEAR PAWS said that!!!

yeah i inserted my foot into my mouth, methonal is what im thinken, although all alcohals in high content of corse, is flamable

fFigure i should saya little moreon nitromethanol before somebody goes out and trys to mix nitroglycerin with some bad booze. The nitro in nitrometane is nitros oxide aka laughing gas and the "boys" mix it with methanol ,occ benzine{bad stuff too] toluene at diff ratios to increase O2 content of the fuel. More O2 more and faster burn thus more POWER.
This works: wan,t more safe street power,add 1 gal toluene {avail most good hardware stores or chem supply } to 15 gal higher octane gasoline.
this is Cheater fuel and as always if a little is good then more must be better.Untill u have the BIG BANG and then u know it was too much.On the Street I've run as high as 30% but the" pay off " better be high.

BEAR PAWS!!!

Ethanol has slightly less energy in it than gasoline does, but 10% ethanol, as already said, has very little effect on power or gas mileage. If you've never used ethanol before, and never used fuel system cleaner, replace your fuel filter after the first tank you use. Fuel system blockage was the only real problem with ethanol when it was first introduced. If you've got a fuel injected engine (pump in the tank), you shouldn't have a problem with complete blockage, but you will notice less performance.

Too much alcohol in gas can be bad for carburetor gaskets and seals unless they are designed for it. I've had problems with lawnmowers and chainsaws because of the alcohol in pump gas.

I'd be suprised if the ethanol is to blame for that. I've ran ethanol in my truck (carbureted) for 40,000 miles with no problems.

Most Alcohols will eat most rubbers. [Sex and drinking is another forum] and yes Martha the diaphram in most small chian saw carbs will rot out from alcohol additives. the good news is that most manufactures are starting to use alcohol impervios seals and diaphrams . Now back to cars ,since thats why we are here, the seals and fuel press regs used now a days are inperv. to alcohol because of the big push afew years ago for 'GASOHOL" which we [AMERICANS] resoundingly rejected [we paid more for less] so then "they" slipped "it" to us in the form that the orig. poster first asked about. So to recap, we pay more for less.However if u want to run an all alky carb you've got to use special gaskets seals and acell. pumps.
Yes!!!~ acetone, love that stuff too. But in large doses toluene will give u a bigger bang both in power and broken parts which to me also translates into HP. Which brings me back to the "PAYOFF". When I run 20% and up I better be sure I can win and the bet is high enough to justify the risk of blowing up for.Under 18% is very streetably safe. That is alot of MPG on acetone. Did u leave out a decimal point? Cus I never seen those kind of numbers and i've used a couple thousand gals of the stuff.
Bear paws!!!

No decimal points were left out, however my carburetor is far from being in good working order (snapped screw here, JB Weld there). It was running WAY too rich, so the better fuel atomization helped a lot more than if everything was in good order. Also, increased mileage peaks at about 3oz per 10 gallons, after 6oz per 10 gallons, mileage decreases VERY quickly.