Premium recommended?

[jmliptak]

Originally Posted by CamaroSpike23

throw a turbo on it and run 3 tanks of e85...lol



that will net you some hp... not sure on mpg tho.
the main thing to keep in mind with e85 vs gasoline, is that gasoline gives you more bang (not necessarily for the buck tho) what would be cool is if they made a dual tank flex fuel vehicle that on acceleration would go off gasoline, but when cruising, would switch to e85....

Most of the time I drive for mileage, I would love to have the option of using E85, I don't expect better FUEL mileage, but of you look at your 19 gallon take there is less than 3 gallons of GASOLINE in the tank, even if it costs more its would be nice to use a renewable fuel (yes, it would be better if it didn't come from corn). Imagine walking up to Ed Begley and telling him you use less GASOLINE per tankful than his Prius does....The fact that it has higher octane and has the potential to deliver higher performance doesn't hurt either...

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by jmliptak

Most of the time I drive for mileage, I would love to have the option of using E85, I don't expect better FUEL mileage, but of you look at your 19 gallon take there is less than 3 gallons of GASOLINE in the tank, even if it costs more its would be nice to use a renewable fuel (yes, it would be better if it didn't come from corn). Imagine walking up to Ed Begley and telling him you use less GASOLINE per tankful than his Prius does....The fact that it has higher octane and has the potential to deliver higher performance doesn't hurt either...

do a search for the sugarcane ethanol debate and read some of my posts about what needs to be done. e100 for instance

[Angrybird 12]

Do E-85 pumps have a larger nozzle than Gasoline pumps? Since E-85 will ruin an engine not designed for it, there needs to be some safeguard to keep people from putting it into their regular cars. I know if they don't there are going to be many people kill their car because they buy the cheaper E-85 not knowing you are not supposed to use it in a car not designed for it.
right now regular is running about $3.60 where E-85 is only about $3.10.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Someone would need to back me up on this, because I'm not sure...

but I do not believe that E85 will destroy your engine because of one or two tanks full. The biggest reason that E85 is limited to Flex-fuel vehicles is because E85 is corrosive to certain materials found in conventional vehicles. That's why Flex-fuel vehicles have different gas tanks, and different fuel lines, etc. But I believe than a 'normal' car will run on E85, maybe not well...but it won't destroy it right off the bat.


EDIT: Then there's also those big yellow fuel caps, and big yellow pump nozzles (that I've seen)...

[camaro1]

the e-85 nozzle at the gas station is the same size as regular fuel so you can put it in any vehicle by mistake

most vehicles made within the last 10 years will handle e-85 without any issues if they are tuned to run on it

there are several companies making an e-85 conversion which consists of a converter box that plugs in between the injectors and the harness that runs to them,, it then has a setting for e-85(basically it just increases your injector pulse width about 30% and has an adjustment so you can fine tune it for your vehicle)

as for being corrosive,, i ran it a whole summer in my s-10 when i first had a carbed 5.3 in it, all i had was steel lines and the factory plastic tank and pump and a holley carb and it ran fine and did not do any damage to the steel or rubber hoses

many people running boosted engines are going to e-85 for the octane/ less detonation properties and the fact that when you run e-85 at the proper air to fuel ratio it will produce more power than gasoline but you need to burn about 30% more to maintain the correct a/f ratio

i work at a chevy dealership and a few times now we have had vehicles come in where the owner decided to try e-85 in there non flex fuel vehicle, the engine will be running lean, buck and surge and the ses light will be on with a few lean codes in it, drain them and fill with regular gasoline and they are fine

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by camaro1

the e-85 nozzle at the gas station is the same size as regular fuel so you can put it in any vehicle by mistake

most vehicles made within the last 10 years will handle e-85 without any issues if they are tuned to run on it

there are several companies making an e-85 conversion which consists of a converter box that plugs in between the injectors and the harness that runs to them,, it then has a setting for e-85(basically it just increases your injector pulse width about 30% and has an adjustment so you can fine tune it for your vehicle)

as for being corrosive,, i ran it a whole summer in my s-10 when i first had a carbed 5.3 in it, all i had was steel lines and the factory plastic tank and pump and a holley carb and it ran fine and did not do any damage to the steel or rubber hoses

many people running boosted engines are going to e-85 for the octane/ less detonation properties and the fact that when you run e-85 at the proper air to fuel ratio it will produce more power than gasoline but you need to burn about 30% more to maintain the correct a/f ratio

i work at a chevy dealership and a few times now we have had vehicles come in where the owner decided to try e-85 in there non flex fuel vehicle, the engine will be running lean, buck and surge and the ses light will be on with a few lean codes in it, drain them and fill with regular gasoline and they are fine

I wasn't meaning one or two tanksfull, I was talking about someone using it over a period of time, from what I have read and heard from experts, one tank will not hurt, but several tanks could not only ruin the Catalytic convertor, but cause detonation and a leaning out of the engine causing a engine failure. A carburated engine would not be effected as much as a fuel injected one computer controlled one, you could change the Jets to make up for the difference.
My advice is if your care is not designed to use it , Stay away from it, Why take the chance to save a few bucks.

[camaro1]

if you run e-85 on a non flex fuel vehicle without tuning, it will run so bad i dont know why you would try to run more than a tank through the engine, some vehicles run so lean they will die out at stops and not start when cold

if you tune/program the ecm/pcm for the e-85 you will be fine

you can even get a handheld programmer that will tune your pcm to run on e-85 for most gm trucks that are not flex fuel from the factory

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by camaro1

if you run e-85 on a non flex fuel vehicle without tuning, it will run so bad i dont know why you would try to run more than a tank through the engine, some vehicles run so lean they will die out at stops and not start when cold

if you tune/program the ecm/pcm for the e-85 you will be fine

you can even get a handheld programmer that will tune your pcm to run on e-85 for most gm trucks that are not flex fuel from the factory

If all it is is a ECM reprogram then why do they have 2 different engine options, one with and one without and the E-85 cost more?
Seems to me if it was that simple then it would be standard on ALL engines.

[camaro1]

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

If all it is is a ECM reprogram then why do they have 2 different engine options, one with and one without and the E-85 cost more?
Seems to me if it was that simple then it would be standard on ALL engines.

factory flex fuel vehicles can run on straight e-85 or any mixture of gas and e-85,, if you program a standard vehicle to run on e-85 you must fill up with straight e-85 every time,, the factory flex fuel vehicles have a sensor to measure the alcohol content and can vary the timing and fuel to run on any % of gas/e-85

the aftermarket conversion boxes have a switch so you can go back to standard gasoline if you want to but you need to run out most all of the e-85 first, then fill up with gasoline and flip the switch back to stock

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by camaro1

factory flex fuel vehicles can run on straight e-85 or any mixture of gas and e-85,, if you program a standard vehicle to run on e-85 you must fill up with straight e-85 every time,, the factory flex fuel vehicles have a sensor to measure the alcohol content and can vary the timing and fuel to run on any % of gas/e-85

the aftermarket conversion boxes have a switch so you can go back to standard gasoline if you want to but you need to run out most all of the e-85 first, then fill up with gasoline and flip the switch back to stock

I was talking about factory engine options, so there is a difference... and as I have read that even if gasoline is rated as E-85, the actual content may be anywhere from E-80 to E-90... that means to run right a single program will not work effectively. It needs the sensor to measure the content of ethanol to program the engine for the best efficency.