Anyone using E15 Gas? (88 Octane)
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I have tried 88 octane. I snapped this pic the last time I filled up. I didn't want to go as low as 87. I was using 91 octane before. I didn't notice any decrease in gas mileage from when I was using 91. Power seems to be about the same. I didn't hear any pinging. So I guess these engines truly are set up to use higher ethanol. By my pump said no more than 10% ethanol. I thought that 88 octane had 15%? Maybe they put the wrong label?
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There's no fixed relationship between ethanol content and net octane at the pump - it all depends on the total blend formula of the specific fuel in question.
In my market area 87 through 93 octane are all widely available with no more than 10% ethanol content.
In this case we're talking about E-15, which in my area is also 88 Octane.
Yeah, I've seen that all over since the mid 2000's. Read about the 88 octane gas here. Notice how they say, "88 Octane gasoline is a newer gasoline blend that across Minnesota and other states. It consists of 85% gasoline and 15% ethanol, so it is sometimes called E15.". So I'm wondering if there is two different 88 octane gases going around. One with no more than 10% and the other 15%. Or is the 88 octane at my pump mislabeled as 10% when it's really 15%? I tried it and didn't notice any decrease in fuel economy from any excess ethanol, so I'm wondering if it's truly 10%. The way the article is writing about it, all the new 88 octane fuels coming out have 15% ethanol. If I didn't have that E85 sticker on my fuel tank, I'd be worried.
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this post doesn't answer the original OP question but.... I have heard cars that fill up with 100% gas (o% ethanol) will get better gas mileage. You tend to find these gas stations near lakes since boats tend to use ethanol free fuel. https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html
Plus small engines like lawn mowers and weed whackers prefer ethanol free fuels - even the 2 cycle engines.
Plus small engines like lawn mowers and weed whackers prefer ethanol free fuels - even the 2 cycle engines.
I'm willing to bet that the previous fuel on that pump was "Mid-Grade" (89 Octane) and they didn't remove the sticker on the pump, since E15 has 15% ethanol on purpose.
@Buckeye - Thanks. Threads like this do tend to get off the rails a bit. I have used 91 (E0) gas in the MKC and it was MUCH better, both performance and MPG. It was in a boating community and on the way back home, we averaged (per the trip computer) 29.6 MPG with an average speed of 67mph (includes stops). Car ran smooth. The difference is crazy. I don't get that kind of return on 93 (E10) fuel which is why I was curious about this 88 (E15). I do notice that on 87 (10) the power pulls way back after 4500, on 91 and 93 it pulls harder to redline. Anyway, maybe I'll throw a tank of it in there... See what happens.
Each vehicle responds to fuels differently depending on how they are tuned, the compression ratio and having a turbo or not. I had a Camaro back in the day and if I ever put 89 octane in it, it would ping like crazy. I always had to keep 93 in it.
I used to have a Mustang with a Cobb tune and I had the tune set up to require 93 octane. It gave it a lot of low end torque. Some cars I had, it didn't make no difference what fuel, such as a Passat or Jetta.
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The 2.0 in my '14 Ford Escape was rated at 240 HP with 93 octane gas. With 87 octane the HP dropped to 231. I'm pretty sure the Lincoln MKC 2.0 and 2.3 motors both reach their advertised HP (240, 285) figures with 93 octane fuel. They will run fine on 87 octane, but with less HP and performance.
What is everyone's take on this as far as safe if used alot. I am seeing a chart from edmends that Ford says 2013 on is a "YES" and Ford is Lincoln, but I do not see in my manual and I dont have a gas cap on my 2015 MKC that would say anything about flex. The engine already runs on 10% so adding 5% does not seem like it would be that bad and more octane never hurts especially when 5 cents a gallon less than 87 (what it is in my area). If I saw it and they did have two version and one was 10% I would feel comfortable. There is that AAA warning article you see out there making it sound like that 5% is going to wreck your engine and then many site saying its fine. Heard even better gas mileage, but I would hate to do any damage to the engine as I want to take this car to at least 160K miles. Thoughts on it being safe for the long run (assumes 88/E15 stays around) Anyone been using it exclusively (more than just a few times to compare performance)?
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