Originally Posted by dbj216

I lived in Iowa and Minnesota for 67 years. Ethanol is a big business for corn growers and towns with ethanol plants. Moose is right, the energy content of ethanol is less, thus less miles per gallon. You can run 85% ethanol fuel in your "flex fuel" vehicle if you want to, but your mileage will suffer. I think I read the energy spent growing and processing corn to ethanol is a bit greater than making straight gasoline. Ethanol does burn cleaner, lowering emissions. The government subsidies supporting ethanol, along with many other farm commodities is a classic case of "corporate welfare". If we had a choice, I bet many of us would not pay the extra $ per gallon for ethanol blended fuel. But many states mandate its use for the sake of clean air.

I do not remember reading NOT to use 10% ethanol blended fuel in my ATV, and I know I have filled it up with ethanol fuel many times. I better go back and check the manual.

David

Originally Posted by dbj216

Hi Moose: No ethanol in our diesel that I know of. There is soybean oil in biodiesel. Your truck, and mine, can take the 20% biodiesel. I don't run the stuff as we had trouble initially in Minnesota with it gelling at below zero temps (years ago). I understand that has now been resolved. Modern diesels run very clean with all their engineering advancements like ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, high pressure direct injection, exhaust gas recirculation, selective catalytic reduction (DEF injection), and particulate filters. All this required in the 2008 model year. These processes cost efficiency (miles per gallon) and add complexity, but the exhaust is very clean. Generally speaking, a diesel engine is about 30% more efficient than a gasoline equivalent.

Now, if only there were more diesel options in the ATV / UTV market. Hydrex is the only one I know of with a diesel ATV.

David

Originally Posted by dbj216

Hi Moose: No ethanol in our diesel that I know of. There is soybean oil in biodiesel. Your truck, and mine, can take the 20% biodiesel. I don't run the stuff as we had trouble initially in Minnesota with it gelling at below zero temps (years ago). I understand that has now been resolved. Modern diesels run very clean with all their engineering advancements like ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, high pressure direct injection, exhaust gas recirculation, selective catalytic reduction (DEF injection), and particulate filters. All this required in the 2008 model year. These processes cost efficiency (miles per gallon) and add complexity, but the exhaust is very clean. Generally speaking, a diesel engine is about 30% more efficient than a gasoline equivalent.

Now, if only there were more diesel options in the ATV / UTV market. Hydrex is the only one I know of with a diesel ATV.

David