Corn making the grade at fuel pumps and auto showrooms

The price of gasoline may never be at $1.50 a gallon again. But midwestern corn is shaving the cost by a noticeable margin.

Corn is changing the cars people drive and the type of fuel they choose in Sidney.

Before the 1980s it was simple to fill up. Drivers just pulled in and selected the grade, measured by octane. Today the type of car often decides for its owner, because of ethanol blends. Some stations even offer E85 fuel, containing 85 percent ethanol.

Older vehicles can burn 10 percent but prolonged use can cause difficulties with gaskets and fuel injectors. Dan Havorka of Havorka Motors said,

“The seals in the fuel pump and carbonators are not compatible with ethanol,” explained Dan Havorka of Havorka Motors. Using a blended gas in non-flex fuel vehicles is possible, but it is recommended that drivers then run a higher-octane gasoline or use fuel additives to clean out the fuel system.

“You can get away with the regular 10 to 15 percent blend,” said Ryan Patterson of Wolf Auto. “But if you do that regularly every time you fill up--and now we’re into the hot season--you will find that you could vapor lock, some surging, some lugging, you will plug fuel filters quicker and have slower acceleration, because it’s chewing up the fuel filters. You can gum up the fuel injectors, I recommend if you’re your running ethanol blend in older cars occasionally run a higher octane gas in it and maybe get some octane booster, some injector cleaner and put it in the tank every now and then.”

The growing number of flex fuel pumps in Nebraska could lead to a surge in new car or truck sales, but research has shown that flex fuel decreases power and records lower mileage.

“Flex is great, we have a lot of ethanol gas pumps and ethanol blends, with the flex fuel it allows you to put anything you want into the tank without harming the engine the fuel filter the fuel injection system,” Patterson noted. “With traditional gas you’re going to get more optimal fuel performance out of the vehicles than you would with E85 ethanol, especially coming up on the summer time. The hotter it is the less usage you get out of corn fuel.”

Most manufactures install a yellow gas cap on vehicles capable of using E85, though some have it printed on the gasoline compartment.

“The 2010 Impala it will take E85 and a lot of my Tauruses will take E85, but some won’t,” Havorka pointed out. “When you open the gas tank door it will usually tell you, in fact I have some gas caps that say no E85.”

Flex fuel is different than the hybrid classification. Hybrids feature electric and gasoline powered engines operating in concert.

“The Hybrid is designed for cities—stop light to stop light stop and go traffic,” Patterson said. “You don’t see a lot of hybrids here because you have wide open driving, country driving.”

Today it is mandated that all states provide a type of flex fuel. In 1988 Colorado was the first state to mandate ethanol oxygenate fuels for winter use.

Flex fuel cars are becoming more popular; Wolf Auto estimates that half to three quarters of sales are Flex Fuel vehicles with sales around 150 to 200 vehicles.