[AT] unleaded gasoline/"winter gas"???

Steve W. falcon at telenet.net
Sun Dec 4 14:11:50 PST 2005


Yes and no. Yes they do blend gasoline differently depending on season,
location, and local emissions standards. These are what you hear
referred to as "Boutique fuels" by the companies because they have to
formulate these different fuels and get them to those areas while other
areas use the same blends year around. Diesel is the same way. Up in my
area they start blending for cold weather about early November and it
stays blended till around March - mid April. They do it to make the
fuels vaporize in the cold weather as well as to keep them at a higher
pour point so they will still flow. Want to see what happens if they
don't. Take a quart of summer diesel and put it in the freezer. In about
3 hours it will look like candle wax and be almost solid.  Care to guess
what the tow bill is for a vehicle with that stuff in the tank? Gasoline
doesn't gel up like diesel does BUT as it gets colder the vapor point
goes down which means it will not ignite as readily in the engine. It
also doesn't burn as completely either. The problem is that all the
blends of gasoline and diesel take more energy to produce, they also
yield yes energy when they burn. So the fuel price goes up do to the
costs of production, AND you burn more fuel as a result of the fuel
mixes as well.

The NO is that they don't usually add in just more butane. The additives
are specific as to areas of use and what is allowed. There are about 20
different formulas and each is different.

Now if your talking Propane, then yup, They add in more Butane in the
winter to allow it to vaporize better and prevent regulator freezing. If
you want to know when they drop the mixed propane just watch the flame
on an appliance. More Butane makes the flame yellower and it produces
less BTUs as well. So again you use more fuel in the winter.

Want to read enough about gasoline to make you never want to see it
again?
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/autos/gasoline-faq/part1/

Steve Williams



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Wilkens" <jwilkens at eoni.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] unleaded gasoline/"winter gas"???


> This gasoline talk raises a question that came up last week...    It
gets
> pretty cold in my neck of the woods and a local chainsaw/lawnmower
> repairman said our gas is "winterized."  He says they put more butane
in
> the winter gas for more volitility and easier starting.  Never heard
> anything like that!  Is there any truth in it?    John W.
>
>
>
>




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