Here's an interesting bit of information for ethanol fans. Every single marina on the lake where I work now offers only non-ethanol fuel. Why? Because generally speaking, the boat population is significantly older then the automobile population. These older boats were never designed to run with any ethanol in the fuel. So when gasoline with ethanol was introduced / crammed down our throats, everybody started seeing all sorts of problems we'd never seen before. Our carburetor work went up over 3X. Some folks might say that's good for business, but every single one of those customers was ticked off. Since everyone has gone non-ethanol, things have gotten pretty much back to normal.

And as for the person who posted saying he had an engine in his car specifically built to run fuel with ethanol and it runs like a bear, it probably does. But, it was designed and built to run on it. Folks like me who have dumb old carbureted high performance outboards that were never designed to run the stuff might have a different opinion.

So in answer to the OP's question, ethanol is generally pretty bad stuff for the general population. Politicians and farmers love it though because it makes them big bucks. Do you trust your politicians in the UK as much as we trust ours? I hope not.

Here is my story the first time Ethanol bit me in the azz...5 years ago..

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...k-ethanol.html

It does vary from one State to another. Fuel in Missourri is almost all E10 fuel. It is not labeled like in IA and NE on the pumps. About the only non ethanol fuel at land stations is 92-93 octane and that is only non ethanol if it says so on the pump.

there's a big dif between E85 and the the crap E10...we run E85 in our LS1 turbo drag radial car..love it..no intercooler...1000hp+ but we are not talking about that kind of set up here...and normally running either my checkmate or the gibson regularly have had no issues...BUT smaller engines that sit with carbs are where the issues show up badly....

I never mentioned the car was built specifically for e85, don't know how you got that impression. I built the engine 5 years ago to run on pump gas, e10 here in NY. I started running e85 about a year after it was built. I didn't change anything other than the tune to add more fuel and alter the timing curve. I even put 1/3 e85 in my daily drivers from time to time to clean everything out. Never had a problem doing that. They were 1996, 2002 and 2009 bone stock all original from the factory.

Also for anyone that doesn't know, ethanol is a super detergent (the reason I put it in my daily drivers from time to time). It will stir up any junk in the tank/lines/carb/anywhere. It will also deteriate the fuel tanks in an older boat that are molded in. I have heard of a ton of stories with gas tank issues made of fiberglass.

There are people using E85 with carbs btw. I'm not sure what they do to them as I run fuel injection.

you have to be able to flow 30-40% more fuel with E85 than gas...my fuel system is set for 2500hp gas to be safe with 1500hp E85....

I have been running E-85 in my boats for 3+ years, no issues. I is a 19' Schiada GN type boat with a twin turbo Race Arrow motor 1050 hp on carbs that I am currently converting to a Holley EFI system. Another is a PS circle boat that I have converted from a MFI on alcohol to single Dominator on E-85 to run the GPS 95 class in circle boat racing. A proper tune will require 30% more fuel than gas, period. Ethanol will eat fiberglass tanks, so they are a no no. I am currently building a 622 BBC twin turbo, EFI motor with expected hp of 2500 to run on E-85 for another boat that I plan to race in the Parker 300 enduro and use as a family ski boat the rest of the year. I love the stuff and would never consider running race gas or AV gas in any high performance marine engine again. I have put all kinds of aluminum both bare an anodised in buckets of E-85 for 6 months with no damage whatsoever. Lots of' Old Wives 'Tales out there!

Ethanol as a stand alone fuel used in engines designed or modified to use it is fine, I have no problem with it. The problem as I see it is blending ethanol with gasoline. That is where all of our issues come from. Plus, burning blended fuel actually creates more nasty compounds that cause pollution than either one burned alone(gasp!). They should sell both straight ethanol and straight gas, stop blending and stop subsidizing.

We ran E85 in my brothers boat all last season, it ran great plan on running it again this year.

They already have stopped subsidizing. A year ago.