E85????

If your vehicle was E85 compatable would you use it?

  • yes

  • no

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Infamous1

Infamous1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Location
Pittsboro
My new to me tow pig has flex fuel option. Anyone else use E85? I filled it up with the stuff on Saturday and my instant MPG readout dropped 3 mpg within the first 10 miles, at a dollar or more per gallon less that doesn't really concern me. I would just like some of you guys biased opinions and maybe even some actual facts to support these opinions why I should continue or not to use this stuff. Will the increased octane/alcohol help when towing, possibly keep it cooler due to the increased fuel volume?
 
My van is e85 capable, but in Lexington there is only one place in town to buy it, and it's only about 10-15 cents per gallon cheaper. According to my owner's manual, I can expect around 10% lower range when using e85. If regular gas is 2.45 per gallon, then the e85 needs to be more than 24.5 cents per gallon cheaper just to break even.

I've heard it's also bad to keep flipping back and forth between e85 and regular gas, but I have nothing concrete to show that.
 
That's great! Where did you get it?

It burns cleaner and has a higher octane rating creating more Powerrrr, but unfortunately you will get poorer fuel economy. You're doing a great job making your voice be heard in the fight against foreign oil.

Don't believe the hype of it taking more energy to produce e85 than it saves. Farmers produce ethanol when making feed cattle. Ethanol is the by-product that gets dumped down the drains if not used for cars. It's a win/win for farmers to sell ethanol.

The next forefront is Methanol and yes your truck will run off of it.


Any car after 1996 can run E85 with the right computer hack or the purchase of https://www.change2e85.com
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
That's great! Where did you get it?

It burns cleaner and has a higher octane rating creating more Powerrrr, but unfortunately you will get poorer fuel economy. You're doing a great job making your voice be heard in the fight against foreign oil.

Don't believe the hype of it taking more energy to produce e85 than it saves. Farmers produce ethanol when making feed cattle. Ethanol is the by-product that gets dumped down the drains if not used for cars. It's a win/win for farmers to sell ethanol.

The next forefront is Methanol and yes your truck will run off of it.


Any car after 1996 can run E85 with the right computer hack or the purchase of https://www.change2e85.com
Click to expand...
Someone recently watched "Pump"
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
Farmers produce ethanol when making feed cattle. Ethanol is the by-product that gets dumped down the drains if not used for cars.
Click to expand...

Hmm, all along I've been told that Ethenol was derived from either soybeans or corn??? The Devil-net is so full of lies these days. :flipoff2:
 
I havent seen $1 per gallon less.
Ive seen .20 or so at most.

The wife's Suburban gets 18-19 mpg hand calculated through a bunch of tanks.
With e85 through three tanks its never eclisped 9mpg.

As with anything ymmv
 
@stuntman_autoworks Not necessarily. Brazil is considered to be the worlds first sustainable biofuels economy and it imports very little oil from outside its walls. The did so because every light vehicle can run ethanol, not because of more drilling or Fracking.

Fracking has many downsides and isn't profitable in the U.S. until oil is about $65 a barrel (today it's at $58). America did become the largest oil producer in the world last year upsetting OPECs market share. OPEC in turn ramped up supply to bring the price per barrel down. I believe it will stay down for a while as many Fracking fields have come to a stop. (Only 84 of a possible 191 rigs in North Dakota are operating today). Iraq yesterday said it too was ramping up supply.


Keystone has major headwinds also. Although I do think it will be implemented. It's designed to ship oil out of North America not bring it in. Probably will end up going through Canada instead of straight down through Louisiana.
 
Two of the guys I work with have drag car set up for E85, only down fall is finding it local and with the same mix level. They drive to Lexington to get it.
 
Infamous1 said:
I filled it up with the stuff on Saturday and my instant MPG readout dropped 3 mpg within the first 10 miles, at a dollar or more per gallon less that doesn't really concern me.
Click to expand...
A dollar cheaper than what? Diesel?
I have NEVER seen E85 anything more than about 25 cents cheaper than regular 87.
I've also never seen a vehicle where the actual observed cost per mile balanced out w/ E85 compared to normal gas.

Whether it is worth this hit for the sake of decreasing foreign oil dependence is a separate question IMO.
 
I bought it at the Cruisers on 501 outside of Pittsboro $1.97pg, I was going to use 93 octane and it was $3.19 and regular was $2.59 so my dollar less figure was based off of octane rating instead of quantity.
 
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Infamous1 said:
My new to me tow pig has flex fuel option. Anyone else use E85? I filled it up with the stuff on Saturday and my instant MPG readout dropped 3 mpg within the first 10 miles, at a dollar or more per gallon less that doesn't really concern me. I would just like some of you guys biased opinions and maybe even some actual facts to support these opinions why I should continue or not to use this stuff. Will the increased octane/alcohol help when towing, possibly keep it cooler due to the increased fuel volume?
Click to expand...

before you get all excited try actually towing a real load with it on E85, you'll likely be very disappointed power wise and MPG wise.

Ethanol has less than 70% the BTU of gasoline, which requires increased volume to meet the power demand. ( 1.5gal of ethanol = 1 gallon of gasoline power wise )

to actually create any REAL power, the overall engine compression ratio would have to increase greatly over the average 9.5:1 of most of todays engines.

Oh, and wait til the winter when its nice and cold, see how it starts and runs with temps in the 30's. ethanol tends to NOT vaporize well under 50°f, and gets worse as temps drop. EFI may help, but your mileage will be worse as well.

oh, and when you're standing at the pump waiting forever for that slow ass fill up, that will be the water filter trying to strain the fuel of moisture before you put it in your tank, just make sure you keep your cap tight and don't let the vehicle sit for long periods with out refueling/driving, ethanol absorbs water, always
 
Thanks I was just curious, never ran it before. The googles has lots of info (both ways) but I value a known persons opinions. I would hate to be hauling a heavy load (it is a sil ver rado with real tornados in the intake) and start having issues. I also noted it says in big letters on the fuel cap "DO NOT USE ADDITIVES WITH E85" wonder why that would be problematic?
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
That's great! Where did you get it?

It burns cleaner and has a higher octane rating creating more Powerrrr, but unfortunately you will get poorer fuel economy. You're doing a great job making your voice be heard in the fight against foreign oil.

Don't believe the hype of it taking more energy to produce e85 than it saves. Farmers produce ethanol when making feed cattle. Ethanol is the by-product that gets dumped down the drains if not used for cars. It's a win/win for farmers to sell ethanol.

The next forefront is Methanol and yes your truck will run off of it.


Any car after 1996 can run E85 with the right computer hack or the purchase of https://www.change2e85.com
Click to expand...

higher octane is only beneficial if your engine has the compression to benefit from it, running 93 octane in an engine designed to run 87 is a waste of money and gas, the fuel hasn't finished burning by the time it exits the combustion chamber, so it gets burned in the cat(s) and pushed out the exhaust as wasted heat.

Octane is the ability to resist (auto) ignition by compression. which is why high performance engines require high octane fuel, they have higher compression, which is where the power is acquired, higher squeeze makes bigger boom ( diesel engine anyone ? ) but because diesels are compression ignition engines, diesel fuel is a low octane fuel.

Ethanol has the ability to be a contender, IF the processes and infrastructure is put in place to produce and treat it, it's not ready for prime time just yet. If .gov has anything to do with it, it won't ever really be a viable fuel, too much old money in the petroleum industry.
 
Infamous1 said:
Thanks I was just curious, never ran it before. The googles has lots of info (both ways) but I value a known persons opinions. I would hate to be hauling a heavy load (it is a sil ver rado with real tornados in the intake) and start having issues. I also noted it says in big letters on the fuel cap "DO NOT USE ADDITIVES WITH E85" wonder why that would be problematic?
Click to expand...

most additives contain ethanol/methanol/isopropyl alcohol to some degree ( take a good whiff of SeaFoam sometime, isopropyl is one of the ingredients,
 
Like others have stated, less mpg's but a little more power depending on how the motor is set up. Up to 30% higher consumption rate. It will also run cooler as well. No carbon build up.

Just got done have a 416ci stroked ls3 built out for e85. Should be around 630's at the crank with more to go when I do head work at 13.4 compression for my u4 build.
 
So what I'm gathering is that for my puttering-around-town-taking-kids-to-school-and-piano-lessons mini-van, E85 is pretty well useless.
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
The next forefront is Methanol and yes your truck will run off of it.
Click to expand...

Back when I was in middle school I had a go-cart that ran on 100% menthanol. The pump said it was 120 octane. It was a B&S 5 hp motor that was WAY modified. I bought it from a guy who raced. There was only one place in Greensboro I knew to get it from. I would have to get my mother to drive me up there and I would buy 5 gallons at a time. Every time I rode it I had to unhook the fuel line and run gasoline through it to prevent corrosion in the carburetor.
 
I have the better part of a 5 gallon jug of bad E15 at the house. Been diluting it with fresh gas to get rid of it. Takes a while, though.
 
Ya know, as long as the middle east keep selling us cheap oil, let's buy it, then, when they run out, we build the pipeline and we start fracking, and we start drilling in the anwar. When they have no oil to sell, we solve the well funded terrorist problem and we'll be the only ones with oil, us not buying it isn't helping because there are plenty of buyers outside the US anyway....
 
zuke said:
us not buying it isn't helping because there are plenty of buyers outside the US anyway....
Click to expand...

like China...
 
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