I'm buying a 2012 f250 with the 6.2l gasser and its the flex fuel, even though it can run on ethanol with no problems would it run better on 100% gas like my 01 f150?

 

E85 is cheaper, but gas mileage is worse from what I hear. I've personally never owned a flex fuel vehicle but this is just what I heard

 

A little less mpg & power it seems running higher ethanol fuels such as E85

 

The only way to get non ethanol fuel in my area is what the gas stations are marketing as "Marine Gas". It it very hard to find, only comes in 89 octane and is very expensive ( about $.50 to $.70 more that 87 octane with 10% ethanol).

So IMHO it is a waste of money in my area.

 

The truck will probably run better on straight gasoline but it costs more. Every gas engine I have runs better and is less trouble over the long term with pure gas. I mostly run E10 in my truck that gets driven daily though because its cheaper and is available at a station that is less than 1/2 mile from my house. I have to drive over 5 miles to the station that has pure gas. Any other equipment and my other truck gets straight gas 87 octane. I would just stay away from E85.

 

I wanted to bring this up again. I run real gas in everything I own that burns gas. However, I've just run my first tank of E85 in our 2012 Expy. The E85 is rare to find and its rated at 105 octane at the station closet to me. While regular 100% real gas is all over the place where I live. E85 is the same price as 100% gas where I live as well. I only tried it because it said 105 octane...I thought what the heck?
Then I read the owners manual and its saying to run a tank of regulr gas through it at every oil change if you use E85 feul.
What the???
No thanks.
I have not noticed any performance enhancements but I am noticing a little less MGP on the computer.

I'm thinking I'll stay with 100% real gas and stay away rom Ethanol blends.
What do you guys think?

 

from all the problems it gives you, degraded fuel lines, growth,etc id stay away from it. Im in the home heating business and ive worked on corn oil homes and the growth in the storage tanks,lines,filtersand pumps is CRAZY! We basically dump this five gallon "cleaner in thetank" and hope it works. if not your being charged for new fuel lines,filter assembly and new 150 dollar burner pumps!

 

The reason for the lower milage is the fact that ethanol has a
lower per unit BTU rating.
Gasoline Gallon Equivalents - GGE - What is a Gallon Equivalent



Gasoline Gallon Equivalents

• Fuel Type Unit of Measure BTUs/Unit Gallon Equivalent
• Gasoline (regular) gallon 114,100 1.00 gallon
• Diesel #2 gallon 129,500 0.88 gallons
• Biodiesel (B100) gallon 118,300 0.96 gallons
• Biodiesel (B20) gallon 127,250 0.90 gallons
• Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cubic foot 900 126.67 cu. ft.
• Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) gallon 75,000 1.52 gallons
• Propane (LPG) gallon 84,300 1.35 gallons
• Ethanol (E100) gallon 76,100 1.50 gallons
• Ethanol (E85) gallon 81,800 1.39 gallons
• Methanol (M100) gallon 56,800 2.01 gallons
• Methanol (M85) gallon 65,400 1.74 gallons
• Electricity kilowatt hour (Kwh) 3,400 33.56 Kwhs

Sean

 

E85 does not cause problems, if your vehicle was designed to run it. Remember, you're probably running 10% ethanol anyway. E10 will also cause issues in older vehicles.

Figure your mileage and cost per mile burning E85 and 87 octane gasoline, then decide for yourself which is cheaper to run.

Here is how you figure that out. These numbers are made up.Your mileage may vary. If you get 15 MPG and you're paying $3.50 a gallon, 3.50/15 = 23.34 cents per mile. You'll get about 10.5 or so with E85, but it is cheaper, say for this example it is $2.80. 2.80/10.5=26.67 cents per mile. In this example case, it is cheaper to run 87 octane.

 

it will run fine on anything between 0% ethanol and 85% ethanol.

your fuel system is designed for the higher alcohol content, so there will be no harm in running.

I would only caution you about running on regular gas (including e10) for 100,000 miles and then putting in a tank of e85. i've known people who did and had to replace their entire fuel system. e85 is a very good solvent and will clean out all the crud left by the regular fuel and plug everything up.

regular gas gets better mileage, e85 makes a tad more power because the computer will advance the ignition timing.

you may notice some odd behaviour for the first few minutes of operation with a switch, but the computer learns pretty quickly.

use it or don't, up to you.

my work truck (2010 f150) gets e30 most of the time and e85 at the pumps when available. i've only put 3 tanks of e10 through it in 20,000 miles.

 

my issue with that conversion chart is the CNG line...

CNG at what pressure? Pressure will determine volume. If there was no compression limit, you could have 1 cu. ft. = 1 gal. of octane.

 

Only a guess because I did not compile the list.
But I think usable automotive pressure would be
the right guess. But you never know. Like with a poll
you can make data do almost anything you want.

Sean

 

I usually run e85. I like the exhaust smell . Smells like everclear and butter.

I also get about 10-11 mpg with e85. It's pretty cheap around here. I'm also burning less foreign oil (sometimes that makes me feel better).

I did get a tax credit for driving an "alternative fuel" vehicle.

The only issue I found is, under pretty cold temperatures (minus 5 and lower). It's grumpy on initial start after sitting outside overnight.

The engine really seems to like e85. It feels like it makes it up the steeper hills with more confidence. Remember that pure ethanol is 108.6 octane. With 15% gas you are still about 98 octane. Which is better than the 86 people use around here.

 

if you don't mind me asking, where do you live and what is the price spread between e85 and regular?

not sure what the deal here is, but even in the northern corn belt the price spread is usually only 10 or 20 cents/gal, which is rarely enough to make it a wash.

interesting you mention the smell of the exhaust, even at e30, the smell is quite sweet compared to straight gasoline. I'd like to see a comparison of exhaust emissions between regular, e10, e30, and e85, but i haven't found one as of yet.

 

Hi there. I am in Ohio (Powell/Delaware line).

At the local speedway as of 4/8 e85 is $2.73 gas is $3.53. Like most places, it will jump around quite a bit depending where you are in the city/state.