The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Since buying my 2018 PCX except for the first fill up by the dealer, I have been putting ethanol free gas in the bike. I drive exclusively city streets between 40-50mph and am averaging 83 miles to the gal.

I expected to get a bit better mileage using pure gas (89) octane and am wondering if the efi is set for ethanol based gas as it is the norm at the gas stations.

Since I know nothing about EFI, just curious if there is something set within the programming for specific gas types which would affect how the engine burns the gas. Not that I am complaining about 83 miles to the gallon... I want to use ethanol free gas because it can deteriorate fuel lines and other parts but was curious if
the programming would have anything to due with the mileage I'm getting?

Don't know if this information has been maintained or updated but I would appreciate a pure gas alternative. Looks like I would have to ride all the way to Joliet Airport. You are lucky

https://www.pure-gas.org/

d1ckyh wrote:I want to use ethanol free gas because it can deteriorate fuel lines and other parts

All Honda PCX (and Forza) scooters are intended for use with up to 10% ethanol (E10).
Absolutely no damage whatsoever will come from using E10 fuel in a PCX.
There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever from using ethanol free fuel in a PCX.

I've been running 93 octane (just used to putting that in bikes), and I think we're on summer gas without ethanol. They commonly run 10% ethanol over the winter here and I've never heard any issues with that eating the fuel systems. I'm averaging around 100mpg riding mostly 40 mph streets.

Riding habits make all the difference in mpg. If you have a lot of stop and go, and you are doing most of your riding within the city proper you will not get as good of miles per gallon as you had hoped to. Take it for a long trip outside of the city and you will see what I mean. We now mostly ride within the city and our mpg has dropped considerably from what it was when we did most of our riding on back country roads. Imagine going down from 110 mpg to 85 mpg. That is because we do a lot of stop and go, and 25 mpg runs now.

Ethanol can absorb water, so it's good to use non-ethanol if not runing for several months

I use Chevron 94 octane, which is overkill but the only gas we have without ethanol

gn2 wrote:

d1ckyh wrote:I want to use ethanol free gas because it can deteriorate fuel lines and other parts

All Honda PCX (and Forza) scooters are intended for use with up to 10% ethanol (E10).
Absolutely no damage whatsoever will come from using E10 fuel in a PCX.
There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever from using ethanol free fuel in a PCX.

x2

Ethanol is gasoline blended with alcohol and can absorb water yes. In years past gas tanks over the years acquired a significant amount of crud and the rubber of yesteryear chemistry was not very compatible with alcohols. The alcohol is very good cleaner and helps clean your engine as it also cleans gas tanks. The crud and dissolved rubber the alcohol lifted from the tank and hoses redeposited it in the jets of carbureters and injectors. This caused significant amount of problems . Manufacturers quickly redesigned hoses and components to deal with alcohol supplemented fuels. If you have anything relatively new your engine is quite happy with alcohol fuels. However since Alcohol absorbs H2o it is not advisable to lay up an engine in the outdoors where condensation can accumulate. Alcohol blended fuels have a slighly less BTU rating so non eth fuels will give you a slight margin in fuel efficiency, but the price offset will not be worth it.. Ethanol is fine for your engine.

d1ckyh wrote:Since I know nothing about EFI, just curious if there is something set within the programming for specific gas types which would affect how the engine burns the gas. Not that I am complaining about 83 miles to the gallon... I want to use ethanol free gas because it can deteriorate fuel lines and other parts but was curious if
the programming would have anything to due with the mileage I'm getting?

Neither direct, or indirect (e.g. knkck sensor) sensing has been implemented on our scooters- so the efi cannof differntiate between those nor it can alter fuelling acccordingly.

homie wrote:Don't know if this information has been maintained or updated but I would appreciate a pure gas alternative. Looks like I would have to ride all the way to Joliet Airport. You are lucky

https://www.pure-gas.org/

Up until WAWA gas stations came to our city there was nothing close to me that offered pure gas. When I discovered it was available close to me I started using it as luck would have it, I had just bought my new PCX so my first fill up and on has been ethanol free.

easyrider wrote:

gn2 wrote:

d1ckyh wrote:I want to use ethanol free gas because it can deteriorate fuel lines and other parts

All Honda PCX (and Forza) scooters are intended for use with up to 10% ethanol (E10).
Absolutely no damage whatsoever will come from using E10 fuel in a PCX.
There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever from using ethanol free fuel in a PCX.

x2

Ethanol is gasoline blended with alcohol and can absorb water yes. In years past gas tanks over the years acquired a significant amount of crud and the rubber of yesteryear chemistry was not very compatible with alcohols. The alcohol is very good cleaner and helps clean your engine as it also cleans gas tanks. The crud and dissolved rubber the alcohol lifted from the tank and hoses redeposited it in the jets of carbureters and injectors. This caused significant amount of problems . Manufacturers quickly redesigned hoses and components to deal with alcohol supplemented fuels. If you have anything relatively new your engine is quite happy with alcohol fuels. However since Alcohol absorbs H2o it is not advisable to lay up an engine in the outdoors where condensation can accumulate. Alcohol blended fuels have a slighly less BTU rating so non eth fuels will give you a slight margin in fuel efficiency, but the price offset will not be worth it.. Ethanol is fine for your engine.

Before my PCX, I had a Chinese knock off for 4 years and all of the fuel lines I had put on said they were rated for ethanol fuels, but I constantly had problems with fuel lines rupturing, so this was were my concerns came from. Maybe those fuel lines were not of good quality, I don't know, but what I had read left me to believe ethanol was the culprit, so when I found pure gas I jumped on the wagon.

... and you believed the Chinese? today's rubber especially used on HONDA products are very much compatible with Ethanol blends.No worries , save your money.

easyrider wrote:... and you believed the Chinese? today's rubber especially used on HONDA products are very much compatible with Ethanol blends.No worries , save your money.

no... LOL I was referring to the fuel lines I put on

Within the last couple of year the Quick Trip gas stations in our area have started offering non-Ethanol Regular gas along with the Ethanol blend. Both have the same rating, but the non-Ethanol Pump was priced almost as high as the Hi-test blend. If I worried about the Ethanol I would spend the extra money on it, or I could ride out into the country where some gas stations do not have Ethanol because of Farm equipment that can not run on Ethanol blended gas.

d1ckyh wrote:

easyrider wrote:... and you believed the Chinese? today's rubber especially used on HONDA products are very much compatible with Ethanol blends.No worries , save your money.

no... LOL I was referring to the fuel lines I put on

I bet those fuel lines were not USA made and maybe old stock probably not ethanol certified. ?????? Ethanol plays hell mostly in the marine industry and in long term storage situations especially around wet environments. If used regularly any modern engine will be fine. As a side note any fuel including non eth formulas included is only good for 90 days so says the oil companies although I have had gasoline for a year that worked.. ?? FYI

xixon wrote:Ethanol can absorb water, so it's good to use non-ethanol if not runing for several months

I use Chevron 94 octane, which is overkill but the only gas we have without ethanol

x3 !!!

I notice my pcx running a little rough after it's sat up for just a few days while it was raining. I always pay the extra $0.40 / gallon so that i know it's not getting any water in the engine.

The guys at the dealership think I'm crazy for putting the Honda branded synthetic oil in my bike, too, tho. I'm super cheap.... But i can come up with some couch change to pay for these "upgrades".

You'll get water in the tank no matter what fuel you use.
Water gets in because air contains water vapour.
The vapour condenses out on the inside of the tank and runs down into the fuel.
Its unavoidable and the absence or presence of ethanol makes no difference to a PCX.

Well, I use Esso 87 octane. She'll 87 makes my PCX ping. In the 7,500 km's I have had it I've averaged 2.3LHK or 103.5MPG US. I drive about 70%suburban and 30%rural HWY. I run it pretty hard up to speed and hold steady. Loving it!

I use Shell 87 Octane in my PCX and occasionally add Starbrite Star Tron fuel treatment. No problems but ethanol is a water sponge.

During the Summer I put Shell 89 Octane in my Suzuki Bandit 1200 because for some reason it seems to run a little smoother around town. . .not as edgy. That gets Star Tron as well. . ..

My Kymco specifically mentions that ethanol laced fuel must not be used in their scooters, EFI or otherwise.
Which, if followed, would mean that:
A) no Kymco scooters could be sold in 98% of the USA
2) or, a Kymco is grenading somewhere in America every 15 minutes.

to quote Nanny McPhee : "hmmph !"
Fish

gn2 wrote:You'll get water in the tank no matter what fuel you use.
Water gets in because air contains water vapour.
The vapour condenses out on the inside of the tank and runs down into the fuel.
Its unavoidable and the absence or presence of ethanol makes no difference to a PCX.

This statement is very true... there are some caviats that might help explain ethanol usage somewhat clearer. Ethanol does absorb water and is a sponge but helps burn moderate amounts of water off through the combustion process. The problem is once the alcohol gets saturated with too much water as in long storage the alcohol /water drops out and causes phase seperation . When this happens the fuel's octane drops and then causes timing issues pinging , detonation etc. This phase separation is especially problematic for marine engines especially outboards because they have aluminum fuel components mainly a vapor separator (VST). When phase sep ocurrs in these engines the water interacts with the aluminum oxides and creates corrosion which in turns flakes off and clogs fuel pumps , injector screens etc. The above statement is basically true , and the only difference is that you might get a bit better fuel economy with non eth fuel , but not enough to get excited about. Water in any type of gas is not good. Best is to keep it fresh and clean.