If you can actually find ethanol free gasoline (Impossible to find here. Even V-Power now contains ethanol), I would suggest that. You will get better mileage. Also, make sure that the gasoline you get is Top Tier. Here is a list of brands that are Top Tier. http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

Just in case anyone comes in and tells you that running a higher octane than 87 will lower your mileage, or its bad for an engine "designed" for 87 octane, ignore them. All cars in the US are tested by the EPA using ethanol free 93 Octane gasoline (except for California spec models, which are tested with 91 octane), and your Canadian Camry has the same engine as the one in the US.

 

+1 dont listen to anyone saying you will get better or worst. try it out for yourself and see it the only way to know for sure.

 

I use 87 with 10% ethanol in my 02 4cyl with no problems and get between 28-32MPG Hwy. If I am far enough away from the Wash DC Metro area and can get straight 87 I have gotten up to 36MPG. That being said ethanol does reduce the amount of energy in a gallon of gas thus the lower mileage. Octane ratings measure the resistance to detonation (knocking/pinging) not the amount of energy per gallon. You may find that an engine runs better on a different octane than another but I suspect that may be to a slight difference in tune (you can run higher timing advance on higher octane) than the gas itself. Other than a drop in MPG I don't see where up to 10% ethanol does any harm in cars designed to run it. If the Gov't and the ethanol lobby have their way and increases the mandatory blend to 15%+ we may start to see failure in fuel system components.

 

In our rural area of Nebraska, we have a choice: E-10 87 and E-10 89. I understand that all gasoline sold in the US has to be oxygenated. Does 91 and 93 octane fuel make that unnecessary?

 

The detergents (oxygenate) and the octane rating, are two completely different things and have nothing to do with one another.

Increasing the octane rating does not make a gasoline clean better.

Also, the minimum amount of required detergents in the US is not enough to adequately clean an engine. I posted this Top Tier gasoline link that explains this better earlier in the thread. http://www.toptiergas.com/deposit_control.html

 

Not all fuel has to be an ethanol blend. There non-ethanol fuel in some rural VA stations. And at marinas and General aviation airports. You can thank the ethanol lobbyists that we have as much of it as we do.

Lobbyist(s)- (noun), people or groups of people that ensure we have the best damn politicians money can buy.

 

The detergents (oxygenate) and the octane rating, are two completely different things and have nothing to do with one another.

Ethanol not detergent is used to oxygenate and enhance octane. Ethanol replaced the previously used MTBE (environmentally dirty) for this purpose as was tetraethyl lead before that. Detergents do not oxygenate the fuel. But you are correct that the level of detergent and the octane rating are 2 completely different things.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygenate

http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/fuel_oxygenates.html

Looks like we were both wrong and both right. I did not know that ethanol added oxygenation.

EDIT: But in regards to the original question, what I said is true, as the octane rating has nothing to do with how well gasoline cleans. You can have an 87 octane gasoline of one brand that cleans better than a 93 octane gasoline of another brand.

 

I've thought about this question for a long time.

IMHO, 99% of the people say even 10% ethanol is potential harmful for car engines.

My local Shell station only has "10% Ethanol....." sticker above the button for regular
gals. The mid-grade and premium gas don't have the sticker above them.

I once chatted with the station manager while getting the annual safety inspection
done there. He claimed that the 87-octane gas has 10% ethanol in it 100% of the
time.(during the seasons as required by regulation) However, the 93-octane gas
is ethanol free most of the time. When pressed, he said that the station only gets
about 5% business from selling 93-octane gas, so the 93-octane gas doesn't always
have ethanol. At least he was honest about it in telling me to get 93-octane gas
elsewhere, because their 93-octane was more likely to be "stale" because of low
demand.

 

My experiance in the 2.5 2010 Camry is not so good. When we were at holliday in Germany, the standard fuel is 95 octane gasoline with 5 % ethanol. after driving about 200 miles on this fuel, I had an fould core in my gauge. This code had something to do with emission. after resetting the code, it came back after another 50 miles. I decided to drive the tank nearly empty and filled it with fuel without ethanol.
After that, I did a reset of the Fould code.
Now, after a half year, the fould code didn't come back. My conclusion is, that ethanol caused that fould code.

 

That is not normal behavior. Your Camry is actually designed to use gasoline with ethanol content as high as 15%.

So either the gasoline was bad/dirty, or there is something wrong with your car that needs to be fixed.

 

For a time we had gas stations in Iowa that sold 89 octane with 10% ethanol and 87 octane without ethanol. For a few years I did tests on my 2000 Accord to see the difference. My conclusion was that the gas mileage was essentially the same in the warmer months and took a marginal hit in the winter, about 1 mpg difference. If you assume a 20 gallon tank and full refill every time, that's only an extra 20 miles to a tank for whatever extra you're paying. It was usually a dime difference for the 87 octane here (not a misprint, thanks gas taxes), so an extra $2 for 20 miles. In general, not worth it.

 

To all who selected 91 with no ethanol. Could you state you're reasoning please.

 

They could also state what engine they have as it seems some are prone to reduce timing and mpg suffers hence why they may prefer no ethanol gas. Other factors to consider are that no ethanol blends are primarily offered in the summer and you tend to get better mpg during that period due to a number of factors.

 

..

I think you both are correct… So shake hands and come out figh… Opssss… If he is in New York his hands are already shaking from the cold!

Have a warm one.. Don S..

 

cold? not as cold as my hometown in Minnesota last week... minus 37 degrees when I visited.

glad I don't live there any more...

did I mention that it was MINUS 37 DEGREES!!!??? :help:

 

So far it seems people are voting more for the ethanol content versus the octane rating. Very interesting, and that's what I would expect. I like this threads topic.

The only place that I have found doens't have 10% ethanol is like PVT said, at boat marinas. My marina only offers 89 octane with 0% ethanol. That's the only option. If I remember right, it was $4.85/gallon, when regular pump 87 octane w/ 10% ethanol was about $3.50-3.75 or so. So significantly more expensive.

I'm worried about the effect that the higher 15% ethanol content may have on my boat motor.

 

I could be mistaken, but my manual said "if you use anything other than 87, you could cause problems"

 

Yep, you are mistaken. The manual says a "minimum of 87 octane required". It does not say you shouldn't go above 87 octane, it says that it is not recommended to go below 87 octane. The only exception is in Colorado where they sell 85 octane at very high altitudes, but that is because the altitude artificially raises the octane rating. So 85 octane gas acts like 87 octane gas at high altitudes.

As I said earlier, all cars in the US are tested using 93 Octane during the EPA fuel mileage tests, except for California spec models which are tested with 91 Octane.

No car manufacturer in their right mind would design an engine to run worse or be damaged by using gasoline with octane higher than 87 as that would hurt their EPA numbers.

 

I could be mistaken, but my manual said "if you use anything other than 87, you could cause problems"

I believe the manual says 87 or higher.

 

I get the 87 octane mostly cause I'm cheap. In the DC metro area even the 91+ octanes have 10% ethanol so I am not going to pay 50 or more cents a gallon extra to get the same mileage. The only way I get better mileage is with no ethanol gas. The octane seems to make no real difference in either performance or mileage.

 

My 2AZ pings like an SOB without 93. That is no matter what 87 I use. My Corolla doesn't at all.

Needless to say the Camry now gets ridiculously expensive 93. The 2AR probably doesn't suffer from that, but would also likely benefit.

 

I think "most" consumers prefer ethanol-free gasoline. Unfortunately, it's just not available
in 99% of the gas stations. (except the few states that don't require it)

That got me thinking.(rare occurrence) With so many "snake oil" additives on the market,
how come no company has come up with a way to get rid of the 10% ethanol in the gas
that you buy?

I don't know anything about chemistry.(despite getting A+ in high school and college-level
chemistry many many years ago) It seem to me that a device can be fashioned so
that the average consumer can separate ethanol and gasoline in the average home garage.
Ethanol and gasoline mix together, but perhaps a special additive can be added to a jerry
can of gasoline to make the ethanol or gasoline heavier. All the consumer has to do is
to let the heavier one settle to the bottom and drain upper portion which is pure gasoline.
(or drain off the ethanol floating on the top 10% of the can?)

Yes, I know it sounds like a dumb idea, but I'll be happy to shell out $99 for such a device.

Ethanol attracts water into the gasoline. On a daily driver, it doesn't matter that much.
However, one of my cars is only driven once a month, which means the gasoline just
sits there while the ethanol increases the water content of the gas tank. Water plus
the oxygen create runs in the tank, fuel line, or other engine parts.

 

That got me thinking.(rare occurrence) With so many "snake oil" additives on the market,how come no company has come up with a way to get rid of the 10% ethanol in the gasthat you buy?

The ethanol is also an octane booster so if you separated it out you'd would end up with somewhere around 84-85 octane and would be below the recommendations for most vehicles.