The Great Non-Ethanol Experiment

Last week I got to wondering what kind of mileage and how much of a power boost I'd get from burning non-ethanol gas in my truck, so I waited until I was almost empty, then I filled it with 87 octane pure gas. There's about a 60 cent a gallon difference in price between corn and pure gas.

I did the mileage thing then and was getting 16.08 mpg from E10 87 octane gas. That's my everyday driving, some in town and some at highway speed.

This morning I refilled it with non-ethanol and saw my gas mileage went up a whopping .6 miles to 16.68 mpg, a very slight improvement. Woo-hoo. So much for saving money burning pure gas.

While the mileage didn't improve enough to make it worth my while, the increase in performance was noticeable. When I fired it up at the gas station the first time, about 30 seconds later, just enough time for the fuel in the filter and gas line to clear, the idle smoothed out nicely. It wasn't idling rough to begin with, but there was a slight improvement. Pulling out on the road, I reached my highway speed faster.

So there's that.

And in case you're wondering, I'm driving a 2001 F-150 with a new 5.4 liter Triton engine that has about 2500 miles on it.

I know, I know. I had the shop drop that long block in there back in January, and I've only put 2500 miles on it so far. I can't afford to drive the damned thing. Hell, I haven't even done my first oil change on it yet. 

Fuck Joe Biden.