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Octane rating is only the ability to resist detonation. It is of course corrected for the energy content of the fuel. That means they are comparing the engine power available in a test engine by using octane fuel with the same engine using E85 and finding the E85 will produce 100% power * 75.3% available energy * 104% before detonation. Which still means E85 produces 78.3% of the power of the gasoline, even though it only contains 75.3% of the energy.
 
I notice little stickers at almost all the pumps now, that says: May contain up to 10% ethanol. Hadn't noticed them before, but now I can't find a pump that doesn't have it.
 
hmmm - other than hearsay, is there any real evidence that ethanol in gas actually damages parts of our cars?

T.
 
Well, haven't seen any formal studies. The only parts that I have personally seen fail, in what seems like ethanol related failures, are older rubber pieces. Mostly fuel lines. I haven't seen many fuel pump diaphragms fail that could be attributed to the ethanol. The other oddity that we have seen lately is a rash of needle/seat float valves fail with prolonged exposure to ethanol. Grose Jets seem to be fine. These are all "wear items" anyway so I wouldn't really say "damaging" to our cars.
 
I haven't seen a study done either, but after the switch of most gas stations to ethanol-laced fuel, there was a rash of failed rubber fuel system bits. Hoses began to permeate fuel, followed by ruptures. Carbs began leaking at o-rings, etc. It could be simply that the suppliers of parts for our type of cars weren't worried about ethanol until it became widely used.

The problem is that ethanol attacks the emulsifiers in regular rubber, which causes it to become brittle. Newer rubber uses different compounds to resist this.
 
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