15% Ethanol?

[MastuhWaffles]

Wow a post from me woah.

Anyways I saw the gas station selling 15% ethanol 88 octane fuel now that's cheaper than 10% 87.
They say it's usable in vehicles past 2001 but the government is always sus. Is this usable in the 07 Ranger? Is there anything I should be concerned about if I fill up with it?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I don’t trust anything the government has to say on the whole ethanol thing. That said, I know it would be safe in a flex fuel vehicle, but I have no idea how advisable it would be for anything else.

I do know that the 10% ethanol will eat non ethanol safe rubber line. Doesn’t really seem to really affect decent quality fuel injection line though. I’ve had to go to that on a couple tractors even though they’re carb. Regular carb rated line and non fuel line will pinhole until it’s weeping like a soaker hose…

 

[19Walt93]

The higher the ethanol content, the lower the MPG. I don't think it will hurt the truck, try a few tanks of it and see if the loss of mpg is offset by the price.
It takes more energy to make ethanol than it produces, the only reason it is in our fuel is political but if it saves you money I'd run it.

 

[sgtsandman]

For what it’s worth, my 2011 manual says to use no more than 10% ethanol.

Me personally, I want as little ethanol in my fuel as reasonably possible. I wouldn’t run it.

 

[rubydist]

Anything that can handle 10% ethanol can handle 15%, but the energy per gallon is lower so your gas mileage will go down about 1mpg. So you have to do the math to see if it really saves you money or not. I would run 100% gasoline if I could find it here in this part of the world, but that's a no go here.

 

[sgtsandman]

Anything that can handle 10% ethanol can handle 15%, but the energy per gallon is lower so your gas mileage will go down about 1mpg. So you have to do the math to see if it really saves you money or not. I would run 100% gasoline if I could find it here in this part of the world, but that's a no go here.

There is an option close by for me. The price per gallon is about $1 more and the place being open on a regular basis has been spotty. It is a crappy off brand fuel and the fuel mileage wasn't particularly better. So, I went back to 10% I have on occasion run across a station here and there on trips that had it and the fuel mileage was markedly better. If we had that here, I would say the extra cost would have been worth it and might have balanced out but we don't.

 

[RonD]

Yes, 15% ethanol would be fine to run in a 2007 Ranger

Yes, you do lose power so MPG goes down
Ethanol has less energy per gallon than gasoline, same as gasoline has less energy per gallon than diesel

If you get Lean codes then switch back to 10% or less, you probably have some vacuum leaks already so the LTFT(long tern fuel trim) was high but not high enough to set Lean codes, the higher ethanol content will raise LTFT a few % because injectors have to be open longer

I can see the maximum 10% being recommended by Ford back in 2011 because there really wasn't any 15% being offered just E85

Ethanol damage to fuel systems was way way older fuel systems, pre-1990's at least

 

[ZMan]

I tested this in my F150 last year. I lost a full mpg, negating the initial cost savings of 30 cents. It needs to be more than 30 cents cheaper to be worth it.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Ethanol damage to fuel systems was way way older fuel systems, pre-1990's at least

Everything here is E10 and even my 70s stuff was fine with it unless it sits not running for 6mo+

 

[sgtsandman]

Everything here is E10 and even my 70s stuff was fine with it unless it sits not running for 6mo+

70s stuff is all you own, isn’t it?

 

[19Walt93]

I run E10 in my Holley carburetd Mustang and Ranger, during winter storage they both get a heavy dose of Marine Stabil. The Mustang runs 93 octane and doesn't like 6 month old gas at all so I drain most of it in the spring and feed it to the truck and my Escape. I would prefer non ethanol gas but it's only available here as off brand 90 octane that spark knocks in the Mustang. It also is a lot more expensive so my lawn equipment gets E10 with Stabil.

 

[powerstrokekid]

I run the Unl88 from sheetz (15% ethanol ) in my 351w it runs fine and still seems to get the same mpg. Sometimes it’s so much cheaper like $1.99

 

[rusty ol ranger]

70s stuff is all you own, isn’t it?

I wish sometimes.

I never had many vehicular issues untill i started moving beyond 1979

 

[Roert42]

I wish sometimes.

I never had many vehicular issues untill i started moving beyond 1979

Why would you have bought a new vehicle if there was nothing wrong with your old one?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Why would you have bought a new vehicle if there was nothing wrong with your old one?

Honestly the reason i gave up on buying 79 and back stuff, espicially trucks, was the fact it was getting stupid hard to find just good solid drivers. Everything was a restored showpiece they wanted obscene money for...or its a beat to hell pile of shit. Nothing in between.

80s/90s stuff is getting that way too.