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Originally Posted by joelk
i plead ignorance. perhaps someone can help me understand. i was under the impression that ethanol additives to gasoline raised the octane of the fuel mixture.
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Nope. It's a different additive.
Ethanol is a fuel component that displaces some petrolium based gasoline in the mix. It actually contains less energy per volume than petrolium gasoline.
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if that's the case, and people driving performance cars need higher octane gas, then why do people look down on using ethanol? does it damage fuel line components in other ways?
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Yes. It's corrosive to many components that have been used to date, but using ethanol tolerant components in production is not a HUGE challenge. GM and Ford have done it I believe.