Posted on 03/07/2020 6:50:31 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
I have no skin in the deal but I don’t buy the short engine life story. You see cars for sale with more miles than ever before around here and we’ve had ethanol fuels for decades. Most of the cars in Pick a Part are wrecks or blown transmissions, not failed engines.
The average age of vehicles on the road is an all time high.
And there’s very few guys who can actually rebuild motors anymore so it’s not like they all have been repowered.
https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/average-age-vehicles-us-roads-hits-118-years
The farmers did just about as well raising hogs, feeding them on corn, and selling cornfed pork.
Less work and less risk I suppose, but they aren’t making more money and we are paying more for pork.
Okay, after you next need to run fuel injector cleaner through your engine switch to ethanol free gas and see when (or if) you need to run it through again.
It’s not like you cannot conduct an experiment for yourself.
It could be interesting.
But, and I find this very frustrating, while crap in every other way ethanol is a cheap octane booster. Cheaper than other ways of boosting octane. So the refiners like it because they can refine 85 octane gas, dump ethanol in it and sell 87 or higher rated gas at market prices.
The fact that ethanol is NOT a cleaner (as regards air quality) octane booster is irrelevant in the political world of crony capitalism.
I have no objection to ethanol IF the government doesn't use its power to force it on us, that it must be subject to the market with no subsidies, mandates and all the other BS tricks the government uses. And IF we actually had a choice. Kentucky has some BS regulations that discourage retailers selling pure gas that apparently Tennessee doesn't have.
I’ve got a barn full of OPE that’s all > 20 yrs old, and a couple of 20 yr old cars, run all their life on E10.
I just don’t see the problems that seem to be rampant for some FReepers.
I did see a fuel line problem on one leaf blower some years ago but I think it was dirtbag Chinese polymers rather than fuels.
There is a record number of hogs being raised and slaughtered in the US, and the price recently is probably as low as it will ever get (inflation adjusted).
The older cars took the beating from ethanol; most newer vehicles within the past 12-15yrs have been re-engineered to accommodate E10 and soon, E15. There’s even E85 for flex-fuel vehicles; something I didn’t know until I did the research.
My 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo had 395,000 miles on it when I traded it in on the 2019 Jeep HEMI. but I’d gone thru 2 engines and 2 transmissions, 4 suspensions, a dozen sets of brakes, yet only 3 sets of GoodYear tires. It took E10 just fine.
Sugar cane or hemp makes better and cheaper ethanol, but the tariff on cane is huge and hemp is still banned because of THC content, though I use non-THC CBD pro-sports level 5 ointment (400mg), daily, and it’s become a massive business now.
/duck&cover
No ethanol. It’s been a long time since I have seen leaded gas.
You may be paying more for pork, but you ain’t paying it to the farmer.
Slaughter prices for barrows and gilts are about $.10 a pound lower now than 10 years ago.
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