Ethanol Does NOT Make More Power Than Gasoline

It may be a bold statement, but it’s true. Watch the video to find out why I say this.

Thank you for watching!

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[michaelblacktree]

If you have high compression or boost, E85 will improve knock resistance, which will help prevent rapid unscheduled engine disassembly.

That said, I've never heard anyone claim E85 has higher energy density. At least, not that I can remember. But some people (mistakenly) believe higher octane gasoline does.

[davidmiller]

I'm glad you brought up that ethanol takes on water. For that reason, I only use ethanol free on things that need to be stored for long periods like the snowblower, mower, and generator. It's only about 6 bucks over the course of a year to NOT have to tear down a carburetor and flush the jelly out of it!

Glad to see you back buddy!

[Ken-wuhr]

Ethanol Is a Hand out to The Corn industry. When I was Racing If You ran alcohol You Had to Run a Special Carburetor And a Fuel tank Almost 3 times the size of a Gas Fuel tank to Finish the Race . The Car Ran Cooler was the advantage

[hydewhyte]

A few years back, my daily driver was an '81 Olds Custom Cruiser, 5l Olds V8 with a Quadrajet. I decided to try something. Over several months I charted my fuel mileage and cost using regular unleaded with 10% corn. Then I switched to the same station's 91 octane, which cost more, but had no corn juice. At the end of the test I slapped it all into a spread sheet and one thing leaped off the page. It cost me less per mile using the Super.

[TheSleepingonit]

The corn lobby owes Congress one Hell of a knob shine

[ronwatson]

I think you're absolutely right Eric. I have a lawn care business and I've replaced a few carburetors due to Ethanol. I don't even clean them anymore because they're not worth saving due to rust and corrosion. Welcome back my friend.

[oldgoatherder]

I did an experiment over last summer, I have a 2023 GMC Sierra 1500 with a 6.2 L engine, I usually run the E-10 gas that is rated at 87 octane. I switched to straight gasoline with a 90 octane rating. With all highway driving, including 80mph on the turnpike I went from 17.5 MPG with E-10 to 20 MPG with the 90 octane pure gasoline. I did the calculations by hand, and I made sure that I was starting with just one type of gas in the tank.
I should have calculated the $ per Mile.

[haydendavis]

When I did a lot of small engine work ethanol (the issues from it) made me a lot of money.

[thatcarguyUZ]

E85 will make your engine go lean if it isn't set up for it as well. In fact I use this to my advantage once. I used to have a 1996 Ford F-150 with the 300 cubic inch straight 6 and at about 300, 000 miles the catalytic converter disintegrated. While I intended to replace the catalytic converter, I needed to save up money first. However my inspection would expire before I was able to replace the catalytic converter but I still needed to be able to drive the truck. Thankfully, the truck was equipped with dual fuel tanks so I ran the rear tank empty to the point that the engine ran out of fuel. I then dropped 2 gallons of E85 in the tank and I drove over to the inspection station on my front tank which had normal 87 octane gas in it. As the emissions test began, I flipped the switch to the rear tank and the hydrocarbons which originally were too high suddenly dropped because when it's switched over to E85 the engine went from running at normal mixture to running lean because the 87 octane gasoline was quickly replaced in the fuel line with E85. It got me through the emission test just fine and I passed. I had to quickly switch back to my front tank once the emissions test was over because the engine was starting to bog down and stumble because it was so lean. However, the numbers were good and that's all that really mattered.

[mit]

So, firstly, Ethanol is NOT a filler in gasoline. Ethanol is more expensive to make than gasoline, why would you use something more expensive as filler? Its actually used because ethanol has much higher octane rating than gasoline, and you can use it to boost the octane of cheaper, poor quality gasoline. It's actually used as an additive in that way.

As for your argument about the amount of fuel being less energy dense meaning it doesn't make as much power, while you are right that it is less energy dense, it also has a much lower stoichiometric air fuel ratio, meaning you can add much more of it to the same amount of air, compared to gasoline. Gasoline Stoich AFR is 14.7:1 and Ethanol is 9.7:1 . That means that you can burn more of it per pound of air, and if you calculate the potential energy per pound of air, it is in fact much greater than gasoline.

By your argument, Nitromethane, which has a Stoich AFR of 1.7:1 would be a terrible fuel and not make any power, but in reality because you can add so much of it per pound of air its capable of 10, 000hp plus in top fuel cars.

Most of your other arguments are pretty sound and good information, especially that just changing from gasoline to ethanol without a tune or more boost will net in no noticeable gains. Just thought I'd add a few other points.

[riceburner]

All my lawn mower videos ppl say DON'T run ethanol in small engines. I can't seem to find stations that have fuel with NO ethanol. And get fuel that has a green label stating "TOP TIER"👍🇺🇸

[TheLawnmowerLady]

Great video Eric! The biggest problem with ethanol in lawnmowers is Mean Ol' Mr. Gravity. Nearly all push mowers, and a even few riders don't have fuel pumps. As little as 1/2 tsp (2.5ml) of water in the carburetor bowl will prevent starting. Your car doesn't care so much with a fuel pump. A little bit of water in the fuel mix in your car gives a nice little steam clean on your top end.

[Ulford]

Very informative video Eric. Thank you.

[dB_]

Australians love this stuff. It’s less energy which is why it takes so much more to create same or more power. The trick is that the octane is much higher and allows tuners to really advance the timing which creates the extra horsepower measured on the dyno. It also cools the cylinders and reduces knock.

[Oblithian]

I am surprised i didn't hear more people presenting this style video sooner.

It may allow a more stable/ higher compression a/f ratio. But You also have to dump far more fuel into it, because it contains less energy.

I learned this in High school chemistry, just part of calorimetry.

[BRRDsAutomotive]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I have a 93 Roadmaster, 86 Thunderbird with 9.5:1 compression to a worked V6 (yes, the shitty 3.8 V6 lol), and an 87 C10 - all which run a central fuel injection setup. I’ll run 93-94 in my Thunderbird and she’s happy except when the temperature drops below 50 degrees, then it needs to warm up for 10 minutes or it will fall on its face. I do have 38 degrees of total timing in my ThunderChicken, 14 degrees of base and she is very happy, especially on warm days. My Roadmaster is normally happy but will lose 40-50 miles on a tank of fuel when running E10 87 pump gas. My C10 HATES ethanol, and will vapor lock sometimes on 90+ degree days, and you can hear the water sizzling in the throttle body. I run an ethanol remover in each vehicle and it helps tremendously. Luckily, I have a fuel station 15 miles away that has non-ethanol fuel - which makes all my vehicles happy!

[grant]

Ethanol is also able to burn completely with less air so you can pack more fuel in the air than pure gas. Stoichiometric air-fuel ratio 9:1 vs 14.7 to 1

[SmittySmithsonite]

Man, I've argued this point with people on the internet for YEARS!! Few ever got what I was saying. Lots of arguments ensued!! When the next one comes up I'm just going to link this video. Thanks, Eric! Saved me a TON of typing, lol. 😆

Side note, I made a good living off ethanol. The stuff caused so much damage to small engine fueling systems that I had a great 14 year run of repairing them. Saw all kinds of things! Everything from black sludge, to clear jello, to green powder, and everything in between! I still hate the stuff, though. Here in MA, they don't give us a choice - there's no E0 or ethanol-free gasoline sold at any pump in the entire state, outside of an airport or coastal marina.

[karljay]

What I understand is that you need about 1/3 more fuel when you're running E85. So you'd need different injectors and you'd want to have a fuel system that will handle E85. One thing about it making more power, it's not per gallon, it's just overall more power. So you drop the temps, you advance the timing and the same size engine will make more power.

I've heard of some using E85 and gas at the same time and the E85 is mainly to boost the octane and advance the timing and cool the temps.

Basically a 2nd tank, 2nd fuel line, 2nd injector and a system that will change the timing while doing this.

[jesseduke]

I remember you!! Ethanol simply has a high octane rating allowing for higher compression ratios wich does add power. However, if you used high octane gasoline it would make more power for less gasoline.