Premium vs regular unleaded fuel.

[PantheraUncia]

From what I understand, the overwhelming majority of the gasoline sold in the US is 10% ethanol. I would love to find a station that sells ethanol free gas.

http://pure-gas.org/

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Since when did running 87 equate to garaging a truck and making it a show vehicle? LOL

Yes you can quote me on that.

[McClintoc]

Forget octane numbers. Give me back my ethanol-free gas!

[SurrealOne]

Forget octane numbers. Give me back my ethanol-free gas!

That's pretty much where I am, too.

[RayVoy]

This is one of the times, I agree with @stchman completely (there have been times our opinions have differed, his fault ). All things being equal, regular gas is all that is needed in most of our trucks (high performance, tuned, not withstanding)

From what I understand, the overwhelming majority of the gasoline sold in the US is 10% ethanol. I would love to find a station that sells ethanol free gas.

In New Brunswick, the law only allows ethanol in the 87 gas, the high octane can not have ethanol added. This means, that 91 octane could, in theory, give you higher mpg, as the ethanol has lower BTUs than gas.

Many in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and up state New York sell it. This is because these areas get most of their gas from Canada not the refineries in New Jersey like the rest of the north east.

I/we travel in these states a lot (in fact, I spent the weekend in Maine) every pump that I have used, states that there is 10% ethanol added.
They probably do get the gas from Canada (I know Irving supplies a lot of New England), however, the mix is added at the fill station. Irving, and most other Canadian suppliers, mix according to the customers demands, so if customer wants 10% in all gas, the trucks deliver 10% to the customer's stations.

[Morpheus]

I run Plus gasoline here because most of the station's regular gas is 86 Oct where the manf asks you run 87. Plus is 88, so there you go. Past that, I notice no difference between plus and premium, but I do actually notice a difference between regular and plus. That, and Walmart gas makes my truck hard to start. Weird, I know. I have to agree with the post I read up there regarding performance vehicles. If I'm running a high compression fully built motor, I'm running as high of octane I can and at the strip I'm running race gas. As far as my stock 5.3L is concerned, if it doesn't like 88 oct, it can get over it.

[SupplySgt]

I'm not getting into the "regular vs premium" debate. However, for those wanting to know where they can find ethanol-free gas, I'd like to post this link

http://pure-gas.org/

I almost always get gas at the local Co-op for the Camaro. I'm not as picky in the truck since it's my daily driver and it's EFI so it can handle it a little bit better. The 73 is carbed so I avoid the 10% ethanol if at all possible (albeit it's nearly impossible when I take it on a road trip)

[Pikey]

Ethanol free fuel is widely available in Michigan. The issue is that most the time it is located it at a marina. They charge $2-$3 dollars more than "street price". I did notice that there is a gas station near my sisters home that sells it. I may take a drive by next time I am in the area and see how their prices look.

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I run Plus gasoline here because most of the station's regular gas is 86 Oct where the manf asks you run 87. Plus is 88, so there you go. Past that, I notice no difference between plus and premium, but I do actually notice a difference between regular and plus. That, and Walmart gas makes my truck hard to start. Weird, I know. I have to agree with the post I read up there regarding performance vehicles. If I'm running a high compression fully built motor, I'm running as high of octane I can and at the strip I'm running race gas. As far as my stock 5.3L is concerned, if it doesn't like 88 oct, it can get over it.

I have worked in a few gas stations in my lifetime. The plus is always the least purchased gas. People either buy the cheap stuff or the premium. We would have the regular and premium tanks filled 3-4 times before we had to have the plus tank filled. At two of the places I worked we received reports of vehicles running poorly after filling up with the plus grade fuel. After the owners of the stations spoke with the fuel supplier, they determined that the plus sat so long in our tank that it was no longer "fresh". I knew one of the customers that complained very well. He went back to regular and never had another issue.

[Morpheus]

I can see how that would work. I haven't had an issue running Plus at all unless it's Walmart gas. It always struck me as odd that Walmart gas was the only one but if nobody buys plus then there you go. As far as cleaning out the fuel systems and stuff like that, they make fuel system cleaner and I do that every time I change my oil. I'd run regular if I could, but I'm not going to run lower octane than the manf is asking for. Plus is the logical choice to me for that reason only.

[tbplus10]

If I could run on a half water, half gas mixture without nuking mthy engine and still get decent mileage ... I would!

Funny you should say that it is possible to run water injection and get some benefits but you have to be careful about how much spray you run so you dont increase the compression to much. My supercharged 99 Tacoma is running 3/4 gl water an hour along with methyl alcohol and regular unleaded premium doesnt seem to work as well with this mix. Ive got about 40k miles running this mix through Bosche injectors eith an added injector for WOT applications. Ive gotten a best of 502hp from a mostly stock 3.4 and improved mpg upto 23mpg running 35" tires.
like a.few others have noted premium does more to inhibit knocking with new engines its more important since its not as easy as adjusting the spark like older engines.
but unless you have a knock issue its taking money out of your pocket running premium.

[sierra11]

I use pure gas as much as I can on my boat and then sometimes in my truck. What kills me is filling up my boat with that because it is usually 75 cents to a dollar more and when filling a 130 gallon tank it hurts. The boat runs so much better though