study: gasoline without ethanol increases wear & tear on engines - aromatics are the problem

[Bill USA]

15. since 'we're' talking single cases here.. another study had two vehicles that did far

Last edited Mon Jul 6, 2015, 04:57 PM - Edit history (3)

better than the average.

[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #000000;"]Wait: on edit. this is a study done by the Fuel Freedom Foundation. here's the link: http://www.fuelfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/white-paper_GGE-Sept-2013.pdf

on average the several cars tested on E85 got 17% better fuel efficiency than the BTU content estimate predicts.

THe 2011 Chevrolet Impala 3.9 L V6, using E85, achieved 25.7% better fuel efficiency than the BTU content based estimate.
The 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt 2.2 L, using E85, achieved 37.1% better fuel efficiency than the fuel BTU content estimate.

But this was in cars of considerably lower compression ratio of 12 to 1. All they did was modify the spark timing to take advantage of ethanol's higher octane. There is also matters of piston design. Believe it or not, this can make a difference.

They were using E85 to get these improvements in fuel efficiency. You didn't specify but my guess is you were using E10.


the fact remains that the performance of the Chevy Impala and Cobalt show that it is possible to achieve much better fuel efficiency with ethanol if you set the engine up right - especially with proper spark timing (to take advantage of ethanol's higher octane) - to get much better fuel efficiency with ethanol than we currently are getting in current FFVs.