I wonder how Moonshine would burn in our Mustangs?

 

Ethanol also leaves behind a weird gunk in the air intake.

 

Ethanol has been federally mandated as an additive to all automotive gasoline and will be upped to 15% by 2015. The idea behind it is to reduce our consumption of foreign crude oil by burning ethanol produced from corn here in the states. The production of ethanol is really inefficient and highly subsidized to make it feasable. The idea to subsidize it is to make it prevalent and generate the infastructure so we can use it wide scale. There are better alternatives than ethanol that can be produced form plants grown in the states that are being looked into.

On a performance note- E-85, 85% ethanol gasoline averages an octane of about 115, significatly higher than 87 that most use. There is also less energy in ethanol, thus more consumption to produce the same power. The advantages of the high octane of E-85 is wasted unless you use really high compression pistons in your car, like 12 to 1 or higher, or have a super/turbo charger that supes it up.

On its effect to engines, it is a fuel just the same, alcohol essentially.... dry and dries the rubber components on your car. Flex fuel vehicles have different rubber components to accomodate the dry fuel. Running a blend like 10 or 15% is insignificant in effect to your rubber. My old VW allowed 15% ethanol without any significant effect on the rubber.

It was added in the winter because it absorbs the water/condensation from your fuel and burns it with the rest of the fuel in your engine, essentially like adding iso-heet... iso-propyl alcohol I beleive, I haven't looked at what exactly is in it in a while.

For more info on the future of fuels, I refer you to the June 13-15 issue of USA today, page 2A

 

The problem with using corn as a fuel additive is it's raising the price on everything else. Farm animals eat corn, now the price for their feed has gone up so we have to pay more for milk and beef.

There has to be a better way!