Hi! I'm here to start a conspiracy theory that refiners are doing... things... to stretch gasoline products. Working through the conspiracy theory checklist, I have: No proof Sketchy anecdotes that support my conclusion Time to kill Access to a public platform No access to petroleum QC equipment or methodology -- So, in the past 48 hours I've seen a new Jeep throw some rumbly misfires. A brand new Nissan Altima did the same- a car I rented from Hertz in Minneapolis a few days ago. Then, an hour ago, my own Mazda in Pennsylvania had an odd stumble in the idle when I drove it to the market. Are refiners allowing more junk in their retail gas lines? 2% water instead of 1%? I'm the wrong kind of petrochemical engineer to be doing detailed roadside analyses of fuel products.
Clearly this is a counter-conspiracy theory that the corn lobby paid you and your colleagues big money to propagate because there's about to be a huge announcement about damage from ethanol in gas to finally being well documented enough that Gen3 Prius owners, as well as owners of many other makes and models will be able to file endless class action lawsuits against the corn lobby who's been providing falsified data for decades. Stay tuned to: http://www.pure-gas.org if you want to find out the truth!
That's OK. As we see here in PC, lackeys (or useful idiots) for the API have been banging on that drum since those HORRIBLE days during the Carter years when they started putting hooch in gasoline. 2% water in gas? Really??? I would think that PRIUS people above all others would be the FIRST to repudiate that idiotic notion! As in.....WHAT causes the Prius Death Rattle?!?! SO.... Water and Gas do not get along well - and water is heavier so it will settle into the bottom of the tank when the car is parked. The API lobby is always yammering on about how E10 absorbs water. The API tells them to say "hydroscopic" a lot so people will think that they know what they are talking about - but HOW MUCH WATER will E-10 absorb before it becomes saturated - AND....what happens after THAT? eh? (I'm betting that this amount is a LOT less than 2%!!) Not all cars have comically small gas tanks - but SOME do....so we will use a 15 gallon "fill-up" as an average. 2% water in a 15 gallon fill-up is not "a few ounces" - it's 0.3 fluid GALLONS......38 OUNCES! 4.75 CUPS! These are, of course, 'freedom units' but even if you throw down the 'metric' card 2% or even 1% is a NON TRIVIAL amount of water. Think that's going to get "absorbed" by the ethanol? Think it's going to be mixed in with the gas, or swirl around like some "lava lamp?" I don't! I think it's going to hang out in the bottom of the tank......where the FUEL PUMP is. That means that it is possible that you will get a bunch of MOSTLY WATER injected into your cylinder bores at some point. I doubt the car would even START with that much water in the gas and it it DID start I doubt you'd be knocking down 30+ MPG!!! One of the reasons that I really do not mind using Walmart gas is that the media (which is to say leftists) HATES Walmart - and we ALL know that they hate "Big Oil!" If their fuel was CONTAMINATED by water, just how long do you think it would stay quiet?
