Recommended Octane Level

[mdrburchette]

Ethanol and methanol are corrosive to certain metals and rubber. Years ago, NC gas stations sold a "winter" blend that I remember caused havoc to carbed cars so I try to keep my Fiats away from it. Methanol is the required fuel for our go kart racing, but when we're done for the night, we run regular gasoline through the carb to minimize damage from the methanol. We still have to replace the diaphragm regularly.

[MNspiderman]

If your referring to E85, which has approximately 109 octane. I was skeptical and curious to that stuff myself. We have it all over the twin cities. #1 you burn through it twice as fast as gasoline because its alcohol based. Sometimes it will make your check engine light come on (big woopie) and in the long run if your car doesn't have o rings, seals, gaskets and sometimes lined fuel tanks that are designed for ethanol products, it can deteriorate internal parts after time. I've run that stuff in my turbo cars, they love it. I've run it in my Eclipse GTV6 and it brings the motor to life. But i don't run it too often because when I run it. I tend to run it with my foot in the floor boards because its like ripping out your 4 banger and moving up to a V6 for the day. Just do a search for E85 in Google and check out the blogs in Mitsubishi, Nissan, etc. The real E85 site just gives you a bunch of politically correct mumbo jumbo so you will want to become a part of the E85 Conspiracy. So in a nutshell you can run E85 in any car you want too. but with caution to your internal seals and linings. You may have starting issues sometimes as well but not often enough to worry about. At least thats how it goes over here at the race shops.

[mdrburchette]

The E85 may have been the pump gas but we run M1 methanol in our go karts:

M1™
M1 Racing Methanol has a 99.95% minimum purity - the highest purity available in the U.S. With M1, engines run cooler and are less subject to corrosion. VP uses only lined drums which prohibit rust, corrosion and metal deposits that can contaminate fuel delivery systems. Recommended for all methanol-legal racing applications.

I buy this in 55 gallon drums. Come on over and I'll sell you a gallon for $5.