I will never buy gas with ethanol. People don't realize that they get less mileage with it and it doesn't save enough to be worth it.
He's not talking about E85, or Gasahol, he's talking about regular unleaded. They changed over from MTBF to Ethanol as an additive to ALL gasoline for oxygenation. Any gas that says "oxygenated" has some ethanol in it (and that's gonna pretty much be every pump in America). It's as high as 10% in some places to get back to the same level of oxygen as the MTBF used to be, and that's significant enough to cause problems with some older fiberglass and older natural rubber (not silicone or neporene).
As far as E85 goes, I know a number of guys that drag race with it for several reasons. Yes, it has less energy/volume. This means that you have to open your jets up approximately 15% to avoid leaning out the gas. Some would look at that and immediately state that you'll get poorer fuel mileage. But if you DESIGN an engine for E85 you actually gain in several areas. For starters, E85 is over 100 octane. This allows you to run much more ignition advance for more horsepower (for the drag guys this is good). Now, if you were designing a car to run E85 you could gear it lower to take advantage of the increase in horsepower, and overall you wouldn't lose any fuel mileage. Also, E85 (and all alcohol in general) burns cooler making it further ideal for an engine that's running on the brink of overheating already (again, good for the racing guys). And lastly, E85 greatly reduces emissions.
Should you all go out and buy a tank of E85? No. It takes money, effort, and careful planning to make a vehicle that runs on E85 well. You need newer neporene lines and seals EVERYWHERE, a coated gas tank to resist the effects of water or alcohol, and a fuel system that doesn't contain pot metal. I just wanted to clarify that E85 is not simply a crappy fuel source, and that it does not necessarily yield lower MPG. In fact, Saab reported designing a car that ran on regular gas OR E85, and it actually got better mileage and more horsepower out of the E85. The way they accomplished this was that the car sensed when it had E85 and it cranked up the boost pressure from the turbo, taking advantage of the cooler-burning and higher-octane of the alcohol fuel, to yield more horsepower which allowed the transmission to upshift faster and remain at a lower rpm.
The issue of food vs. fuel, however, is for another more political debate. Fact of this thread is that ethanol is in ALL pump gas now, and for some machines that means you have some modifications to make.
