"Tim Hickey" wrote in message ...
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:43:07 -0500, "Paul Dow (Remove CAPS in
address)" wrote:

rich wrote:
... And from what I've read, premium auto gas doesn't contain ethonol.

I would verify that. It's probably dependent on the area of the country
you're in. I think selling non-ethanol gas in Iowa is a capital offense.
I know in New England there were 3 airports getting autogas, but
starting in 2009 the fuel suppliers are going to be adding the ethanol
earlier in the process, so they can't get it from the area distributor.
They would now have to go to Canada to get it which of course makes it
uneconomical.


Non-blended gasoline is widely available in Iowa. The Iowa legislature
took a run at making a requirement that all fuel sold in the state
contains ethanol, but that law did not pass. I am not even sure that
it got further than being a proposal. Our neighbors in Missouri are
not as lucky. All their fuel is blended with 10% ethanol, except for
a premium, higher octane fuel. Which is available, but not all
stations carry it.
Iowa did try to sneak a law past that says that retailers no longer
must post on the pump that a fuel contains ethanol. The theory was
that out of state drivers would see the ethanol label on the pump, and
choose not to use it. This only goes to show how sneaky some lawmakers
can be. Rest assured that I wrote several letters to express my
concern about that.

As a side note, it is beginning to look like the bloom is off the
ethanol rose. It never was a good idea anyway, and we see in the
newspaper here that many ethanol plants are shutting down. Mainly
because the price of corn is so high, but also because demand is down.
Putting ethanol made from corn in our gas will not solve our energy
issues in this country. (don't get me started!)

I have ran over 10,000 gallons of regular gasoline through my Zenith
CH-300 with a Lyc O-320, 150 horse. This is over the last 21 years and
1700+ hours. I think that the retail pump claims an octane of 87 for
straight gas. I would not be too worried about running a higher
octane, (maybe it is 91 octane?) through a 160 hp Lyc. Volumes have
been written about this, and as always, you are responsible for your
own actions.

I now test every batch of fuel that I buy, and make sure that it does
not contain ethanol. I have two 40 gallon ferry tanks, with an
electric pump for filling the plane, and so far, it has worked out
quite well.

Tim

Zenith CH-300 Driver.

How do you test the fuel you are buying? I would be very wary of any auto fuel. I have the auto fuel STC for the c-172,
but I have not been able to find any fuel in the last year or so that is not contaminated with alcohol here in MI.

There is no federal requirement anymore to label pumps that dispense alcohol contaminated gasoline. Are you saying that
Iowa has a specific law that does require this label?