Refilled with non-ethanol 91 octane ...

[Hershey]

will see if any improvement . Refilled with 8.28 gallons of the 91 w/o ethanol . Eco showed 40 and there were 3 bars left . That would leave about 3 gallons of 87 w/ethanol . So not completely w/o ethanol . There were wet roads , winds up to 25 , plenty of hills , and temp in the mid 60s'. The 41.1 is getting home after the fill of 91 w/o E .

[edmscan]

Good luck in your quest .. however I filled my tank about a week ago with Shell "Gold" 91 Octane Ethanol free gas and so far ... I would have to say it is disappointing as I am not seeing any improved fuel economy. I think that I will be lucky to get as much as I normally do, but it will be a week or more before I know.

[Hershey]

May not help with the colder mornings . Had frost a few times .

[sickpuppy1]

I'd always been told that octane would not help mileage, unless what your running is too low for the engine requirements. IE: High performance engine require higher octane, low performance engine runs on lower octane, and running higher octane in a low performance engine does not help. Going ethanol free could help, yes, but arent all Shell fuels ethanol free?

[WeeYari]

There are some PetroCans in the Maritimes that offer ethanol free gas in all grades. Tried using ethanol free 87 while I was out there this past summer. Disappointingly, not a lick of difference in mpgs or detectable performance.

[Hershey]

The 91 was the only one without ethanol . The 87 + 89 have it . The gas stations with the 91 w/o E are about 47 miles away . Went shopping there . so stopped for a fill .

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by sickpuppy1

Going ethanol free could help, yes, but arent all Shell fuels ethanol free?

Only the Shell Gold 91 Octane is Ethanol free, the "bronze" or "silver" contain up to 10% Ethanol.

Here in Alberta it is about 16 cents a liter more (or 61 cents a gallon more) for the 91 Octane vs the 87 Octane.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Nothing about fuel economy, but may be some food for thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQghB4asSnI


Oh, and when ever I fill up with premium gas, I actually get worse gas mileage. I try to fill up with premium once a month for cleaning purposes.

[baseballfan416]

The way it's been explained to me, AND PLEASE!

Correct me if I'm wrong but...

Higher octane burns faster. Our cars are designed for a slower burn (hence, the reason most people don't see much benefit with higher octane). Yes, the compression is somewhat high for our cars, but the timing (primarily at higher rpms) is way too low for what it could/should be, and won't take advantage of a potentially quicker burn.

Meanwhile, the corn free aspect is of benefit because it burns at a lower temp.

Combine the two factors and it's basically a wash... If you could actually get corn free 87, it'd help because it'd be a slow burn as well as a cooler burn.

[daf62757]

Originally Posted by WeeYari

There are some PetroCans in the Maritimes that offer ethanol free gas in all grades. Tried using ethanol free 87 while I was out there this past summer. Disappointingly, not a lick of difference in mpgs or detectable performance.

What are the "Maritimes"? Nova Scotia, St. John?

[edmscan]

I just finished my tank of Ethanol Free Shell V Power Gold gas .... and the results are well "Nothing to write home about". I got 638 km and 36.88 liters. This is 5.8 L/100 KM or 40.55 US MPG.

Interestingly, this is EXACTLY the same fuel economy that I got with "regular" 87 Octane 10% Ethanol gasoline.

So .... looks like the Ethanol free doesn't give you any better gas mileage. I watched a YouTube video recently and it showed that for cars like the Yaris, there is no difference in performance in the higher grade gasolines.

I think we have shown that there is NO benefit to spending the extra money to get higher grade gasolines.

[Hershey]

Just did a refill of SUNOCO 87 w/E10 . Took 9.358 gallons at 1 click and 386.3 miles on Trip B . Thus 41.28 m.p.g. with 91 octane w/o the E . There was about 3 gallons of VALERO 87 w/E10 still in the tank of the 91 w/o E . The Eco-Meter showed 39.5 and there were 2 bars left before the fill of SUNOCO .

[charles nelson]

Ethanol (10-85%) contains significantly less energy than 'pure non-ethanol' gasoline.
(Google it) My Flex-Fuel vehicle gets much better mileage, about 20%, with non-ethanol.
But here in MN, the non-ethanol usually costs more than 20%...so you get better mileage but end up paying more per mile. On a very long trip with the Flex-Fuel truck...I traveled a lot longer distance per tank fill in those states with non-ethanol. I have also tried 85% ethanol, at a much reduced price, but the truck's mileage sucked so badly that it wasn't worth the lower cost.

[mirapatec]

If the cost of the non-ethanol (pure) gas is equivalent to the cost of the E-10, I feel you would be better served running with the non-ethanol gasoline as much as possible. Just my 2 cents.

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by Hershey

will see if any improvement . Refilled with 8.28 gallons of the 91 w/o ethanol .

Gas with a higher octane rating will only improve your gas mileage if your car requires the higher octane rating because of a high compression engine like my VW Scirocco 16V. When I put in cheaper gas, it used more gas to compensate, and it ran like crap.

On the other hand, if your car is rated for regular gas, just use that, because you will not see an improvement in gas mileage.

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by Kar98

Gas with a higher octane rating will only improve your gas mileage if your car requires the higher octane rating because of a high compression engine like my VW Scirocco 16V. When I put in cheaper gas, it used more gas to compensate, and it ran like crap.

On the other hand, if your car is rated for regular gas, just use that, because you will not see an improvement in gas mileage.

Actually iirc even in the owners manual it states that you are not supposed to use non-ethanol gas whatsoever. Because of this alone regardless of the octane rating he very well may not be wasting money IF he gets that much better MPG out of it. I tried as much as possible when I was living in central AL to use the non-ethanol gas even though it was more expensive and usually after the first couple tanks netted on avg 3/4mpg better. Never bothered to do the math on the "savings" or "spending" but I can tell you that it ran better and I did get a much better response out of it. I really wish at this point that I would have been able to be tuned properly and had a solid dyno run to tell the difference if any between them. It just would have been intriguing to see if it were a placebo effect or not.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by daf62757

What are the "Maritimes"? Nova Scotia, St. John?

One of the most beautiful regions I've ever visited. Most people I know (Americans and others) use the terms 'The Maritimes' and 'The Atlantic Provinces' interchangeably for the combination of four provinces, but that is technically incorrect (I've never asked any Canadians I know what reference they use ). The Maritimes include three Canadian provinces: New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS), and Prince Edward Island (PEI). These are three of the four provinces of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). With NL included, I spent about a month of the approximately four months I spent in Canada in 2006 (right before I bought my Yaris) in those beautiful Atlantic provinces. Another point of confusion is that St. John's is in NL and Saint John is in NB (and neither is St. John).

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by baseballfan416

Correct me if I'm wrong but...

Higher octane burns faster. Our cars are designed for a slower burn (hence, the reason most people don't see much benefit with higher octane). Yes, the compression is somewhat high for our cars, but the timing (primarily at higher rpms) is way too low for what it could/should be, and won't take advantage of a potentially quicker burn.

Meanwhile, the corn free aspect is of benefit because it burns at a lower temp.

Combine the two factors and it's basically a wash... If you could actually get corn free 87, it'd help because it'd be a slow burn as well as a cooler burn.

Actually Higher octane gasoline burn slower than regular grade gasoline, i'll leave you to do the research..
As the car is designed with economy as one of its main features the engineers who built the engine specify in the owners manual which gasoline to use for optimum performance in the engine they engineered.
Those thinking higher than needed octane levels are going to increase mileage and power have fallen into a very old marketing scheme/gimmick whereby the petroleum manufacturer gives the impression that the higher octane is a measure of quality instead of detonation characteristics,nice trick as many people go out and fill their cars with unneeded higher octane fuels and the fuel company laughs all the way to the bank.
http://www.handymanusa.com/articles/octane.html