Im seeing a lot of service stations selling 10% Ethanol(HESS) in there gas. Has anybody else purchased fuel from HESS?

Does Ehtanol affect the octane rating???

Just wondering if it affects performance....

 

ethanol blends sucks (for your car); stay with "pure" gas if you can find it in your area. due to the less efficient burn of ethanol gas, you will notice the following when using gasohol blends:

- slightly higher fuel consumption
- slightly higher operating temperatures
- dirtier tailpipes

 

Thanks.....

I have seen that my tail pipes are getting much darker faster. Not sue if it from the Ethanol or the Turbo Spooling

 

In NY we only have 10% ethanol. We have no choice. It is an oxygenating agent for emissions. I have not had a problem with any of our cars and we have had ethanol for years. I believe 10% is the max our cars can handle.

 

Sure you do. Find a station that sells 100 octane race gas. No ethanol there.

 

I had problems getting my M3 to start up when they first introduced 10% only ethanol, it would literally sputter and not turn over in the mornings, so I would have to start it twice. I could swear it was fuel related, but I havent had the problem in my M5 and now my dad's M3 doesnt have it anymore so I guess the kinks were worked out, but nothing good about 10% ethanol, performance wise anyway.

 

Fuel consumption goes up a little(when its only 10% ethanol, you wont notice), operating temps are LOWER and not higher. Ethanol has a high octane rating(I know many guys that run their boosted street/strip cars on E85) so a little extra boost wont hurt. I dont know about the darkened tail pipes though. Ethanol does affect cold weather startups, but you wont need to worry about that unless you are using E85, which is 85% ethanol.

 

whats effect of methanol blend gas?

 

Many ststes have to sell oxygenated gasoline - they used to use MTBE until they found out how dangerous it was. Now ethanol is the additive of choice. In Denver area oxygenated gas has to be used from Nov to Feb (pollution issues) but I really think it's being used year around probably the same in California. I haven't had any issues running it in the P-car or in motorcycles.

 

I believe Porsche recommends using only "Top Tier Gasoline" (do a Google search), which has the proper amount of detergents in it. Unless I'm mistaken, Hess is NOT a Top Tier Gasoline. While Ethanol does degrade the performance of gasoline to some extent, the lack of detergents should be of far greater concern. As stated elsewhere ethanol is used primarily during the winter months to reduce harmful emissions. (Please don't get me started on global warming.)