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General TR Ethanol free gas

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laneriddle

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Just noticed a gas station near me that is selling ethanol free gas. Is that something I should use in my Tr6?
they may only have regular grade. I don’t know what octane it is. I currently use premium pump gas with ethanol.
 
I am really looking forward to reading replies on this. Some folks feel any ethanol at all will wreck the car forever. Others, no problem with it. And there seems to be evidence for both sides.

Let the fracas begin!

Tom M.
 
If you can buy non-ethanol fuel, use it! Not only is ethanol hard on rubber parts, but it reduces your gas mileage.
 
Yeah, I try and use ethanol free when I can...I’ll drive a little out of my way to do so if required.

Cheers
Tush
 
If you're already running corn with no problems, might as well go on with it. All of the ethanol-sensitive components have already been replaced with ones that (presumably) are not ethanol-sensitive.

You will burn a bit more "oxygenated" fuel, but usually the price difference at the pump is enough to more than make up for the difference.

"Oxygenated" has been the law around here for over 20 years. Hasn't "wrecked" any of my cars, but I did have some fuel pump diaphragms that turned to goo. No trouble with replacements, though.
 
All things being equal, I'd choose the non-ethanol fuel but all things are not equal, one being the price. It is also very difficult to find here in the Northeast and that makes running it exclusively very difficult. I've run regular gasoline with ethanol for quite some time in several old cars without any known issues and will continue to do so unless something changes.
Tom
 
I'm not convinced that gasohol will do any damage to the car, but i wonder about tuning. Switching a non-ECU engine to a fuel with oxygen added (in the form of alcohol) should make it run leaner. Whether it's enough to matter, I don't know.

Ed
 
My engine seems to prefer 89 octane 10% ethanol over 87octane ethanol free.
Do you think the engine's compression ratio needs to taken into account more so than the presence of ethanol or not ?
 
I resurrected a sleeping Doretti and have used only non-ethanol gas since getting the engine going again. It may be silly (and it is definitely way more expensive), but my uneducated view is that the ethanol has some detergents or something that could loosen particles/flakes in the fuel system and muck things up. My TR2 runs fine on regular ethanol.

Dan
 
ed_h said:
I'm not convinced that gasohol will do any damage to the car, but i wonder about tuning. Switching a non-ECU engine to a fuel with oxygen added (in the form of alcohol) should make it run leaner. Whether it's enough to matter, I don't know.

Ed
Click to expand...
Until the next time you adjust the carbs. Unlike most carbs, the mixture adjustment changes the entire range, not just idle.

Years ago, I ran my TR3A on straight denatured alcohol (just as a test). Had to pull the jets down quite a bit (didn't bother trying to set the nuts since it was only a short term test); but it ran fine. Probably down on power, but I couldn't tell the difference by the seat of my pants.
 
I found pure gas recently at a local station. 91 octane I believe and now I have run two tanks through my car so there shouldn’t be any more mixture left. It seemed to run better to me (butt dyno only mind you) but at least now that the car is parked for the winter I don’t have to worry about separation and water getting taken up...
 
Here in Wisconsin we have a chain of stores called Kwik Trip. They have premium gas that is ethanol free. We kept a log of gas stats each time we filled up for about 2 years. It turned out the non ethanol gave better mileage, ran cooler, and better performance. It also caused a comment from PB about how clean the carbs were inside. They have stores all over the State so finding them all over the State (3 of them within 4 miles of our home) so finding them is not a problem. The log was just a habit and told a convincing story. But your car might tell a different story so I recommend keeping a log for your car.
 
The only reason to run corn alcohol in fuel is to reduce emissions. There are no other reasons to do so. In fact, the non-alcohol gas in Texas that I have found is cheaper than the alcy gas. So pay more for worse mileage. That's a no-brainer for me, unless you think your little Triumph runs enough to affect global warming. I know mine does not.
 
In some states, the gasohol is subsidized, so it is cheaper than straight gasoline. This of course makes it the popular choice, as intended.

Ed
 
CJD said:
That's a no-brainer for me, unless you think your little Triumph runs enough to affect global warming. I know mine does not.
Click to expand...
From a petrochemical input perspective, I'm pretty sure it's actually less efficient to grow and harvest the corn and then brew and distill it into ethanol than it is to just burn the fossil fuels in the engine. Corn ethanol is a subsidy for farmers, not any real effort at reducing reliance on fossil fuels or reduce GHG emissions.
 
E10 is about all you can get around here. I've been using it for years with no ill effects. Back in the day, we sought out "lead-free Amoco". Who knew that our valve seats needed lead?
 
pdplot said:
E10 is about all you can get around here. I've been using it for years with no ill effects. Back in the day, we sought out "lead-free Amoco". Who knew that our valve seats needed lead?
Click to expand...

Paul - here's a 1960s memory for you. Note the take-off on "The Bridge over the River Kwai" (Colonel Bogey) theme.

 
Here in Virginia, Liberty gas stations are the only ones that carry ethanol free fuel. It is only one grade and I think it is 87.

When I woke my TR it was with Sunoco 94 that does have 10% ethanol. The parts that will degrade are the steel fuel tank and tubing, my last fuel tank rusted badly inside and the baffles collapsed from corrosion.
 
pdplot said:
E10 is about all you can get around here. I've been using it for years with no ill effects. Back in the day, we sought out "lead-free Amoco". Who knew that our valve seats needed lead?
Click to expand...
Us, too,..for our Coleman Stoves and Lanterns
 
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