Premuim? or Regular?
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Joined: Jan 2006
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From: The dark carnival
Originally Posted by EPNCSU2006
There is a lot of misinformation floating about in this thread! Simply running E85 or even E100 in place of gasoline will not net any additional horsepower, and will probably actually cause power to go down if all that is done is fill the tank with the different fuel.
"E85 has been repeatedly shown to produce more power than a comparable gasoline fuel, especially in engines that need high octane fuels to avoid early detonation.[3] Ford Motor Company found that power typically increased approximately 5% with the switch to E85 [4]. Researchers working on the equivalent of E85 fuel for general aviation aircraft AGE-85 have seen the same results with an aircraft engine jumping from 600 hp on conventional 100LL AV gas to 650 hp on the AGE-85. Recorded power increases range from 5% to 9% depending on the engine. [5][6]"
Look at the power output and racing section. I suppose it could be wrong. Wikepedia isn't flawless in it's info, but that is where I looked and I based what I said on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85
Post Fiend
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,473
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From: Lafayette, IN
Sure, through tuning you can get more power, but that doesn't change that the mileage will go down--there's plenty of pages on the web about FFVs that show what they get mileage-wise on E85 vs. gasoline. Add to that the heavy subsidies that ethanol producers are currently getting, and E85 just plain works out to be a bad deal in this country right now. That may change if gasoline gets expensive enough, but the bottom line is that we would starve if we tried to run any significant number of our vehicles (in the U.S.) on ethanol. Right now, corn is the primary resource used to produce ethanol in the U.S., but there are better plants for that particular distillation--switchgrass and sugarcane to name a couple.
Ethanol does, however, add to the diversity of fuel sources, and that, in my book is a good thing. We just need to get past this "all our eggs in one basket" mentality when it comes to vehicle power sources.
Jason
P.S. When I said you can get more power by stuffing more fuel in an engine, I did mean fuel/air mixture--as in, going from a 2-barrel to a 4-barrel carb, turbo, supercharger, direct injection, whatever. Ethanol is not the be-all, end-all in fuels. Weren't we supposed to be driving solar-powered cars by now?
Ethanol does, however, add to the diversity of fuel sources, and that, in my book is a good thing. We just need to get past this "all our eggs in one basket" mentality when it comes to vehicle power sources.
Jason
P.S. When I said you can get more power by stuffing more fuel in an engine, I did mean fuel/air mixture--as in, going from a 2-barrel to a 4-barrel carb, turbo, supercharger, direct injection, whatever. Ethanol is not the be-all, end-all in fuels. Weren't we supposed to be driving solar-powered cars by now?
Posting Guru
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From: The dark carnival
Originally Posted by jroehl
Sure, through tuning you can get more power, but that doesn't change that the mileage will go down--there's plenty of pages on the web about FFVs that show what they get mileage-wise on E85 vs. gasoline.
"Ford Motor Company found that power typically increased approximately 5% with the switch to E85"
Lead Driver
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9,557
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From: Concord, NC
no tuning was done to obtain the power increase.
If everyone tried to run ethanol, the price of ethanol would shoot to the moon, but we wouldn't starve...I see your point, though. And I agree with you that ethanol is not some magic fix-all-our-problems solution to the oil dependency thing.
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From: Ottawa, Ontario
Originally Posted by EPNCSU2006
Yes ethanol can make more power, no question, but not without tuning for it.
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 446
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From: Germany
Now you folks have me thinking. I have the choice of Regular unleaded, Super unleaded, and Super Plus unleaded. I've been running Super in everything just because we drive a lot faster (except in the truck) here.
I'm going to run everything empty and fill up with regular unleaded for a try. Does it make a difference as far as octane requirements if the truck is US or Canadian (I'm thinking mine is Canadian because my speedo is KM and a couple of stickers. I can't find the octane stickers. Any idea what I should be running? Truck is a 90 F250 4x4 , 5.8 5sp.
Thanks, Dave
I'm going to run everything empty and fill up with regular unleaded for a try. Does it make a difference as far as octane requirements if the truck is US or Canadian (I'm thinking mine is Canadian because my speedo is KM and a couple of stickers. I can't find the octane stickers. Any idea what I should be running? Truck is a 90 F250 4x4 , 5.8 5sp.
Thanks, Dave
FTE Legend
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: Ottawa, Ontario
Originally Posted by dave2
Any idea what I should be running? Truck is a 90 F250 4x4 , 5.8 5sp. Thanks, Dave
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