I have a 95 F150 with the 300 six cylinder, I found in some reading that the 94 4.9 can run ethanol and gas. Is this possible in my engine as it is or does it need to be converted to run both and if so what all is involved?

As far as I know it is set up for just gas, but around here the E-85 gas that is an ethanol blend is about 70 cents cheaper per gallon so it would be good if I could switch.

 

There are a few "flexifuel" vehicles running around out there. It should be possible to get this info from your VIN, via a decoder. I would expect that there would be some "flexifuel" or "E85" stickers on a vehicle as well.

Given that you don' t see those, I think your chances are slimmer. The flexifuel vehicles were produced to comply with some arcane goverment initiate to make the corn growers happy and foster etoh as fuel. Too bad we didn't do some things different 10 years ago, before our addiction to poor mileage and large vehicles got us into this much trouble.

 

My dad just got a 2005 Cheby truck. In it's owner's manual, if you look up "Fuel", it tells you that the 8th digit in the VIN indicates whether or not it it E85 compliant. I would assume that newer Fords would have something similar.

 

I wouln't try it. Although I did read an article in a local newspaper where the writer said it wouln't hurt your engine it would just eat through your fuel lines. he said he ran a tank of 2/3 E-85 1/3 regular gasoline though his '94 ford tempo on a trip to wisconsin and he said it ran fine. but my '85 300 dosen't like the gas that's 15% ethanol, but since hurricane katrina, gas here is $3.00/gal.+ so I run it 15% ethanol anyway. Like I said I wouln't try the E-85 in your inline six.

 

What is different between my engine and an E85 compatible one?

 

rubber parts

I suspect that the only differences are:

Carbed:
1) fuel line (which may be alcohol compatible already if you have replaced em recently)
2) Diaphragm in the Fuel pump
3) Float valve in carb, as well as accellerator pump

For a fuelie (86-96) there are probably lots more parts and I would never try it.

Worst thing that could happen in a carbed engine would be about $45 worth of damage the hassle of rebuilding the carb and replacing the fuel pump. Part of me suspects that new fuel pumps already have etoh compatible parts, and maybe carb rebuild kits are as well.

Gee -- I might have almost talked myself into trying it in my 65! I think that the E85 vehicles were largely fuel injected. An EFI system will self correct for the different burn characteristics of etoh, if I am not mistaken. A carb will require some tinkering -- advance the timing, ought to have higher compression as well to optimize. On second thought, maybe I won't try it after all!!!

 

i run the ethanol premium in my 81 300 six and it runs great. better fuel economy to