Originally Posted by superrangerman2002
You must have misunderstood my comment, I never said you couldnt use 10% ethanol.
The above is not true, as any and every FFV has a manifold heater and other special componets, especially seals, even fuel injected models.
FFV vehicles have sensors that adjust the timing according to how much e85 is in the tank in comparison to regular gas.
Simply reprograming the ecu on a non-FFV could allow you to run e85, but you couldn't run regular gas as the timing would be way out of wack, unless you re-programed the Ecu back.
I know that my '00 Taurus FFV gets 3-5 mpg less on E-85 than regular gas. (<--example of a vehicle to run E-85 safely in)
If this is true, then why is it I have run numerous vehicles and have known others to do the same, on E85, with NO modifications? I even did it at 10 below one South Dakota morning in the aforementioned Trans Am with electronic carb!! True, if you get down to the nitty gritty, it wasn't absolutely 85% because of the leftover fuel from the prior fill, but I usually would wait until it was at least down to 1/4 tank before putting it in, but it was still a strong enough mix to cause trouble if it was going to. The computer can adjust the timing as far as it needs and can also adjust the fuel supply according to what it reads on the O2 signal. If the vehicle can handle 10%, then they can handle higher levels. The primary concern is the natural rubber parts that were used in the older carbs. If you run even 10% across a natural rubber seal, it will dry up and not work effectively, causing overfuel and accelerator pump problems. The engines that benefit the most are the higher performance higher compression motors. Lower compression will notice some troubles, but most engines had brought the compresion up to 9:1 on the later model engines, which are common after the late 80's. Some throttle body systems may run into vapor lock problems, due to the lower fuel pressures, but can be solved with a little insulation.