I learned on my first fill up that my new 2008 F150 5.4 is a flex fuel truck. The salesman never said anything about it, and I normally don't care. I didn't buy the truck for that, but since it is a flex fuel, I thought that I would take advantage of that.

At first I was really excited, because E85 is about .40 cheaper that regular unleaded. Then, I realized that the MPG actually drops. The first tank or two of regular unleaded I was getting the rated 14 MPG (city). But now with the E85 I'm getting more like 11 or 12 MPG. This is disappointing.

Would a tuner help with this? I've been searching the threads, but I haven't found anything that gives me good recommendations on what tuner to get, and where is the best place to get one?

I've been considering a tuner to begin with, because I bought the truck to pull my camper, and I would like to tweak the settings so I can get the best torque and engine performance when doing so. If there is something out there that will do that, and allow me to run the E85; I would appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks.

Daryl

 

Here the E85 is about a dollar a gallon cheaper than gas so it's worth running, but yes, the mileage drops to around 12mpg by the computer, and the power drop seems more noticeable per fillup. Reality is that I can go 2 weeks between fillups on Gas, and 1 week and maybe a day on E85, but save over $35.00 a tank on it. I haven't seen a tuner that will work on E85. I don't know if it would hurt the engine running E85 with a tuner either.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the reply.

I haven't decided yet if it'll be worth running on the E85 full time. If the price difference in my city gets as large as were you live, then it would be worth it. So, I guess I'll have to try it for a few months, and see if I can gain any benefit by it.

Thanks.

Daryl

 

Doing the math, (Which I'm kinda notorious for on here...) to break even for the price/mileage differential, (at least on mine which sounds similar on the mileage at 12mpg on E85) the price of the E85 needs to be around $.48 lower than gasoline to save ANY money. Something to consider, and hope it helps you make an informed decision...

 

I ran e85 for about 8000 miles before i switched back to gas.....

my pros and cons as i see them are as follows...

1. Cheaper here...about 80 cents a gallon at the right stations...
2. Worse mileage (so only a small amount cheaper per mile)
3. More power - I think the truck actually felt perkier on e85
4. The nastiest oil change i've ever smelled.....it smelled like rotting vegitation
5. Thus...more often oil changes (i'm only changing at 5000 on gas, 3000 on e85
6. The downsides of E85 in the market, while it reduces our dependence on oil (arguable due to the energy needed to produce it), the increase in prices of food due to an increased demand for corn has been quite noticable around here.


Therefore...i'm using gas.....

 

My trucks an 04 so i dont have the flex fuel option I know at one point there was a discussion about what would be invovled in changing it over does anyone out there know anything about this

 

alot....the fuel lines, computer, injectors and alot of misc gaskets that ethanol will eat....

 

If you haven't already, read your owners manual about using E85. There are increased oil change intervals and Ford recommends using a tank of gasoline every 5k milles. Not sure what the long term affects would be using E85 all of the time. I'll stick with gas, but its' nice knowing I can use E85 if I need arises.

 

An $.80 cost differential makes it worth it, but I'm running gas for the most part also. I haven't smelled my oil yet. I'm not up to 3000 miles, and there's not enough on the dipstick to let my old nose get the scent.

Didn't know about the increased oil change interval when running E85. (as stated below) I'll dig into my manual a little deeper this afternoon.

 

the 80 cent differential made it cheaper...until i factored in the oil changes and then its getting really quite close...

 

I didn't consider increasing the oil changes...Looks like I'll have to factor that in to my equation. I take that it's supposed to be changed at 3k? I know my manual says 7500 miles between oil changes, but I'm sure that's for gas. I'm not going 7500 miles between oil changes either. I'll stick with 5k.

 

your manual says 7500? mine says 5000.......humm.....

 

Yep, 7500 miles on the 5W20...Wife's 07 Edge says 5000 miles on the 5W20. Don't know what they did to lower the blow-by (which is why you have to change the oil anyhow) but I also have the redesigned heads and spark plugs.

 

most of the stuff is ok to use right now, the computer is the only thing that needs to be tuned. You're right, on older models the injectors have some rubber parts that would get eaten away with time and mileage (talking 100k+ miles of running straight e85) but if i'm not mistaking, ford's injectors past 1996 have been ok with this.

 

I don't know about that...the injectors are a different part number from my non flex fuel 05 to my flex fuel 07.....