Is ethanol in gasohol a form of sugar in the gas?

[wingandaprayer]

In the movies when you want to wreck someone's gasoline engine by carboning up the valves till they stuck you poured sugar in the gas tank. Does 87 octane ethanol - gasoline blend (gasohol) have the same capability chemistry wise? Ethanol is from grain sugars & political processes right?
Or is the risk mainly from ethanol's ability to abrorb water until it saturates and drops out to form a corrosion layer in fuel system components?
Or both?

[unionjack]

Probably yes, but on a slower scale.

10% ethanol gives you 12-13% less MPG. also every gallon of ethanol requires 1.5 gallons of imported regular fuel in production, hence the reason we have to pay so much in taxes to subsidize this total waste of resources.
Also now that the corn is all going to ethanol the food prices have all skyrocketed too!

[Granpah]

In the movies when you want to wreck someone's gasoline engine by carbonizing up the valves till they stuck you poured sugar in the gas tank. Does 87 octane ethanol - gasoline blend (gasohol) have the same capability chemistry wise? Ethanol is from grain sugars & political processes right?
Or is the risk mainly from ethanol's ability to absorb water until it saturates and drops out to form a corrosion layer in fuel system components?
Or both?

Ethanol is the end product of the fermentation of sugar

C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2

glucose + yeast --> carbon dioxide + ethanol.

C2H5OH is the chemical formula for ethanol, a liquid that boils at about 80 °C. Sugar is a white solid crystalline compound looking like the stuff you put in your morning coffee. Alcohol burns clean forming CO2 and water. Heating sugar forms caramel or at higher temps, coke. That's what gums up an engine when fuel is doped with sugar.

Alcohol sucks in water, increasing the water content of gasoline. Watered fuel rusts gas tanks and winds up inside the combustion chamber (cylinder) accelerating corrosion.

Yes: Ethanol is from grain sugars & political processes. The U.S. government generously subsidizes companies like Archer Daniels Midland to produce gasohol.

The immediate beneficiaries of ethanol subsidies have been large corporate corn farmers (as opposed to Old MacDonald) and, most significantly, the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation of Decatur, Illinois (ADM). The world's largest grain processor, ADM produces 40 percent of the ethanol used to make gasohol. Meanwhile, the company and its officers (and lobbyists :twisted: ) have defended ethanol as they generously contribute to both the Republican and also Democratic parties. The politicians have been generous right back. The Cato Institute estimates that every dollar of ADM's ethanol profit costs taxpayers $30 !

And here's the kicker. The public is bamboozled by the argument, ADM MUST be subsidized by the government (aka taxpayers' money hock: ) to offset the menace of dependency on "foreign oil." :^O The truth is, oil pumped out of the ground in Oklahoma, Texas, and California (also subsidized by U.S. taxpayers) winds up on the international market!

If this fuel scam isn't socialism-for-the-rich then what is!? hock:

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

[admin]

As far as I know ethanol/alcohol reduces power output, lowers fuel economy and since the alcohol draws moisture it can cause severe corrosion to fuel system components unless they are made of brass or stainless steel. Also, some rubber/plastic components can be attacked and decomposed by the alcohol. Our 1200's are not built to handle ethanol so try to stay away from it at all costs, if you can.

[Granpah]

In the U.S. I don't think you can avoid gasohol ... unless you burn diesel.

However, there's a list out there of alcohol-free fuel pumps for the U.S. and Canada. For example in Ontario, they list some 43 stations where ethanol-free gas is available. {I'm impressed by how far north the gasohol conspiracy [one dictionary def: "a secret plan by a group to do something harmful"] } has spread. For Toronto only two stations are listed as carrying ethanol-free fuel!}

In my neck of the woods, Missouri saturated the region with 10% (and as high as 14% !!!) ethanol-doped gasoline. So far as I can find out (from the above linked list) there's absolutely NOTHING in my city, and the closest alcohol-free pump is about 20 miles away.

The ONLY closer uncontaminated by ethanol fuel I can find is Avgas (airplane fuel) in nearby Maryville - Northwest Missouri Regional Airport selling for $4.76 per gallon. That's about $1.50 more per gallon than contaminated premium costs at most city pumps. But somehow, I can't imagine Maryville airport officials taking kindly to my heading down their runway on my GL1200, stopping by a fuel pump and saying: "O.K. fellas. Fill her up!" :oops:

[unionjack]

"But somehow, I can't imagine Maryville airport officials taking kindly to my heading down the runway on my GL1200, stopping by a fuel pump and saying: "O.K. fellas. Fill her up!"

So how many pounds of aviation fuel did your wing take?

Perhaps if you went with a buddy and asked for X pounds in the right wing and X in the left wings fuel tanks???

hock:

[Granpah]

Perhaps if you went with a buddy and asked for X pounds in the right wing and X in the left wings fuel tanks???

hock:

My guess. All four of us (2 bikes + 2 riders) would wind up in Homeland Security's local holding cell until we had a good explanation for why we came there to get ethanol-free aviation gas. After all, anyone who nowadays can't swallow :lol: :lol: :lol: 10% ethanol with his gasohol has got to be suspicious.

[Granpah]

NOW IT'S BOOZE IN THE SEA FOAM ISSUE

Sometimes I wander over to Honda Shadow.net to have a look-see. No sooner did I get there, a hot'N heavy Sea Foam debate is in progress. How could I leave my two cents out?

So I added a link to Randakk;s rave about alcohol in our crappy gas. Then I write that by adding Sea Foam and Sta-Bil to the fuel, carb and other problems produced by crappy gasohol can be helped. The following is a Shadower's comment and my reply.

"Originally Posted by jpr1968 View Post
Hate to tell you but Seafoam has alcohol in it. Here's a website that lists most if not all additives--http://fueltestkit.com/is_gas_additive_safe_with_e10_list.html"

To which I replied: "SeaFoam is made up of 40% Pale Oil, 40% Naphtha, and 10% Isopropyl Alcohol.

Adding let's say 4 oz of Seafoam (usually recommended) to 5 gallons of fuel has the following results.

1 US gallon = 128 US fluid ounces
so 5 gals = 640 oz. Now then, E10 gas is 10% ethanol = 64 oz of corn alcohol per 5 gals.
Adding 4 oz of Sea Foam to 5 gals of gas increases the alcohol content by 0.4 oz. That's an increase of 0.625% which seems negligible.

It's literally a drop in an ocean of corn alcohol in E10."

[admin]

I just keep my gas tank full and the throttle wide open as much as possible and so far over the past 10 years I have had no need for Seafoam or any other additives to make my bike run better and when I last opened the carbs the insides were spotless. I think that rather than adding additives to their bike's fuel they should just drive more to keep the carbs and engine clean.