You might be on to something!

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http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-RESIZED-1.jpg
1991 300E - 212K and rising fast...

I just finished reading An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage. He says that it takes 4/5 gallon of fossil fuel and hundreds of gallons of water to make 1 gal of ethanol. His point was that it is foolish to use food crops to make fuel when other forms of cellulose are readily available. This has to do with around $7 billion in subsidies. Follow the money. All I know is that it made my 1980 KZ1000 MKII with 28mm Mikuni smooth side carbs, run like crap.

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2009 E320 Bluetec 117,000
1995 E300D 306,000 Sold
1996 Ford Taurus LX 130,000 Sold
1985 300TD Still 225,000 Sold
2016 Ford Fusion 24,900

There is a documentary called "Food Inc.". Also touches on the subsidies. So much is made form corn, yet it is always sold way below the cost of production. If it was not, ethanol would not even be a practical fuel.

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

You CAN make ethanol from any plant matter though, you could be making it from the corn husk instead of the corn itself.
I make used to make ethanol in a bucket....I called it 'beer' though

Hey how about if you ran the tractors and such on the farm using ethanol...does that make it better?

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cheers!!

All the blather, opinions, and purely anecdotal "evidence" is fine, but let's see what the very company which designed and built the vehicles has to say.

"The vast majority of all Mercedes-Benz cars and all Maybach, AMG, and smart vehicles with gasoline engines can be run on E10 fuel.

"Exceptions include: the first generation of four-cylinder direct injection engines [Europe-only]; as well as vehicles in which a 3-way catalytic converter is not installed; or, vehicles with carburetors."

Above is my own translation from German. An English-language version specifically for the U.K. is here:
http://www.daimler.com/Projects/c2c/channel/documents/1991242_Daimler_Bioethanol_fuel_E10_unsuitable_vehicles_en.pdf

I temporarily cannot access MBUSA.com, but they also have posted a notice to customers stating essentially the same thing. Note that 10% is the maximum ethanol percentage of any non-E85 consumer fuel sold in the U.S. currently - one erroneous post to the contrary notwithstanding.

Are there any fuel additives that are recommended to successfully remove the water/any other effects of ethanol?

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL

Get a carb kit for the Snapper and a gal can of carb cleaner. NAPA or any part store has the can for about 20 bucks. The spray stuff won't work. Take the carb off the engine then completely disassemble it.

I always twist the adjustment screws to close counting the # of turns and record each before I remove them for cleaning.

The cleaner will soften the buildup of the amber-like substance that clogs the small passages of the carb. Drop the carb in the dip screen that comes inside the can and leave it over night. Take the parts out and blow the passages out with an air compressor. Scrub the parts in hot soapy water and rinse. Blow them dry with air.

The kit comes with a diagram which will guide you through reassembly.

If you never want to go through this again, buy real gas for your weedeater, lawnmower and all outboard motors.

Most of the guys that buy and sell small engines are making a living off folks who use ethanol.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

After having to replace the fuel tank, fuel pump, and fuel sender in my 96 Honda Accord (<30K miles) after it sit for about 3 years, I started doing research on E10. What I found was that it will eat up anything if given enough time. It has less BTU content which gives the engine less power and less mpg. It especially effects low compression engines. The newer cars with vvt can run higher compression and compensate for the lower grade fuel. Ask anyone who has run E85 in a flex fuel car and see what they have to say. Less power, higher cost per mile. Ask a marina operator what kind of fuel they have and they will tell you they only have Non_ethanol because the ethanol will distroy a boat engine and possible eat holes in the fiberglass tanks many boats have. Ask at any airport and they will tell you that the FFA forbids ANY ethanol in their fuel.
You can build a ethanol powered dragster engine and get 1500+hp but it will only get .07 mpg. The new cars that were designed to run E10 will do fine. The fuel systems are sealed up better so less water in the system. Engines could be designed to run pure ethanol and do great. The problem is a lot of us have cars designed to run gasoline, not ethanol but we are forced to (almost) to use a fuel our engines were not designed to use. We have our Federal Goverment to thank for that. I hear they are going to raise the ethanol content to 15%. They say any car built after 2007 will run fine with it. Not a word was mentioned about the older cars. I guess they are trying to help the economy by making everyone buy newer cars.
I am sorry about the rant, but we have been served a raw deal by the big corps and the government.
We just got back from a 400mile trip. I searched out stations that sold non-ethanol gas and and got 20 mpg on the road and my old 84 ran like a new car. Over the last few years, I would get 16 to 17 mpg and the car did just OK. Type "non ethanol gas" in a search engine (google) and you can find a web site that list all stations in the US that sell NON Ethanol. It will cost about the same as diesel but your cost per mile (if you have an older car) will be less than it will be with the E10. OK, I will shut up.

Paul

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84 500 SEL (307,xxx miles)

While this sounds great, as does the post after yours about finding non-ethanol gas stations, I searched and it's next to impossible to find a station that sells plain gas anymore. If only 4 in my entire city sell pure gasoline, I find it hard to believe they'll continue to do so within a couple years. Are there any additives at all that you know of for cars to combat these effects? I'm going to be quite unhappy if I have expensive furl system repairs on my 92 500. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I remember years ago, my uncle used to run lead additive in his 60s cars since the only gas you could find was unleaded.

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL

No sir. I guess the 'snake oil,' salesmen haven't realized there is a market yet.

If you drive and keep the tank full, moisture won't bond with ethanol and settle in your tank. That leaves you with changing the hoses. Get familiar with the underside of your fuel tank.

As far as lawn equipment, make the trip for the good gas or learn to rebuild carbs.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Unfortunately, as its a one-day-a-week driver usually, I fill it to halfway and that's it. I just filled up with ethanol-free 93 and plan to do so from now on!

Can running "plain" gasoline do anything to clean up any mess the E10/E15 leaves behind, or is it more once it's there, you've got to clean it?

Why aren't more people talking about this? I've never heard anything about the effects of E10 or E15 on lawn equipment, but it's apparently causing a lot of problems!

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL