HaHaHa...You kids......Ethanol only came to be about 10 years or so again as a way to bring down our dependence on foreign oil. And it was also heavily subsided by the government. If we pull the plug on it now, the corn market would crash. I can't see it ever going away now. But look at it this way. Take 1.00/Gal gas. Add 10% of a flammable safe for car additive that cost .03/Gal and you can bring your price for gas down to .94Gal Probably bad math but you get the idea. If the base price for fuel rose, your Ethanol was still cheap and Oh by the way 10% has become closer to 18% now. They just slip that in without asking. So this helped keep the cost of fuel from going out of control stupid.
In the good old days, there was no such things as Ethanol in our gas and some engines, mostly high performance ones can't use it. Back then I could get 104 Octane Sunoco just like any other gas at the station. And when you are pre ECU days and running a 454 Big Block with high compression that was pretty much your only choice for gas and they sold it everywhere. So E Free has been sort of relegated to a specialty high performance market. Read that as STUPIDLY expensive pay to play proposition.
Nowadays, a vehicle will burn 87 E mixed gas gas pretty much as the norm. But early 2000ish and before, often have issues with gaskets that fail, corrosion that builds up in the fuel system etc. They'd burn it alright you just got less performance. My old 2003 carbed Magna ate its fuel gaskets after Ethanol was forced down its throat. When you rebuild, you just get better gaskets that stand up to it better. But I had to rebuild anything that fuel touched that had a gasket.
E Free gas has more energy per volume than an E mixed fuel. So the more modern ECUs can now see better gas, and make better power for the same amount of fuel used. Correlates to better MPG and more yielded power out. But worth the price? That's your call. It won't make a huge huge difference without a tune.
Don't confuse E mixed fuel with the term E85. E mixed fuels is about a 10% mix. E85 ethanol fuel blend is 85% denatured ethanol fuel and 15% gasoline. In other words this is racing fuel.
Here ya go E Free gas stations no matter where you live.
Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada
You're welcome! :-)