89 Ethanol Free?

[CoachTony]

I have a Mountain Runner Premium Tune. A brand new Maverick gas station opened up near my house. They have 89 Octane Ethanol Free Gas. I seem to remember someone telling me that if you can find ethanol free that the real octane number is higher when it comes to using in a tuned vehicle. I don't remember who or where that came from. Wanted to see if it is true.
In Indiana where I lived previously I could get Ethanol Free 91. They had big signs saying for, "Off Road Use Only", but most riders I knew bought it.

 

[Steve in sunny Fla]

It seems like a conflation of terms going on there. Octane rating is established for whatever the fuel is, and that’s the rating.
89 with no ethanol is equal to 89 with ethanol. 89 is 89, as long as it’s the same rating system. We’re talking the US rating system for our purposes.
The difference in stoich value is .5 so ethanol fuel will be slightly leaner if the tuning was done for pure gas. That might be where the message is getting jumbled.
What that means is if the tuning was done for 10% ethanol gas, pure gas will be slightly richer. This doesn’t change the octane rating though.
Steve

ETA all of my tunes are built with 10% ethanol gas as that’s the most common fuel type available.

 

[CoachTony]

It seems like a conflation of terms going on there. Octane rating is established for whatever the fuel is, and that’s the rating.
89 with no ethanol is equal to 89 with ethanol. 89 is 89, as long as it’s the same rating system. We’re talking the US rating system for our purposes.
The difference in stoich value is .5 so ethanol fuel will be slightly leaner if the tuning was done for pure gas. That might be where the message is getting jumbled.
What that means is if the tuning was done for 10% ethanol gas, pure gas will be slightly richer. This doesn’t change the octane rating though.
Steve

ETA all of my tunes are built with 10% ethanol gas as that’s the most common fuel type available.

So, long story short, and boiled down because I have the technical knowledge of a hammer: I cannot run the No-Ethanol 89 in my bike?

 

[freebird6]

I can in mine....that's why I got the Mountain Runner .....not the Mountain Runner Premium.....because up here in Muncie we can find ethanol free in 89 at Tipton, Elwood, Bluffton...and so on...but no 91. Since I ride well into the winter I never know when it will be my last ride .....so I start running ethanol free in late October.

 

[Steve in sunny Fla]

So, long story short, and boiled down because I have the technical knowledge of a hammer: I cannot run the No-Ethanol 89 in my bike?

Remember that up to 50% throttle you can use 89, but over that i really want you to run at least 91 octane.

 

[CoachTony]

Remember that up to 50% throttle you can use 89, but over that i really want you to run at least 91 octane.

That is what I thought. Just wanted to check. I remembered the half throttle deal. I can buy 91 most places here in AZ. I just thought maybe if the Ethanol Free would work, I could use it from the local station.

 

[CoachTony]

I can in mine....that's why I got the Mountain Runner .....not the Mountain Runner Premium.....because up here in Muncie we can find ethanol free in 89 at Tipton, Elwood, Bluffton...and so on...but no 91. Since I ride well into the winter I never know when it will be my last ride .....so I start running ethanol free in late October.

There are several stations in South Bend/Mishawaka that have Ethanol Free 91. I ran that in my Yamaha GTS 1000 as much as I could. It ran so much better with the Ethanol free.

 

[Steve in sunny Fla]

I have ethanol free gas in my toyota sequoia right now , a Very nice 2001 4wd, and it runs baby butt smooth. Noticeably smoother than with 10% ethanol. Your Yamaha was jetted for pure gas, so I’m sure you’re right that it preferred pure gas.
Steve

 

[ONOBob]

Pure gas can be impossible to find, unless you live around a lake.