Don't know why your truck ran worse on E-10, unless it was just a bad tank of gas, or maybe it was cleaning some condensation or deposits up, ect, or maybe it just doesn't like 89 octane, seeing as how it's set up for 87.

I've used E-10 as far back as the late 70's in my 78 Merc Zyphers 3.3L without problems.
In fact the single barrel carb float bowl was much cleaner & the carbs innards had WAY less varnish deposits on things.

Anyway Chevron & Texaco are "Top Tier" fuels & as such must have not less than 8%, nor more than 10% Ethanol in them, in order to be classified as "Top Tier" fuels!!!!

So if you're using Chevron right now, your running between 8 & 10% Ethanol!!!!!!
toptierfuels.com

 

Don't kid yourself, Chevron uses just as much ethanol as everyone else. If your truck ran like crap, its not because of the ethanol, though a loss of economy is normal.

 

Ethanol. saves oil. Hmm what about all the farm trackers running on diesel to harvest those crops. For a flex fuel vehicle, I wouldn't hesistate to run it, neither for a vehicle that can be correctly modified for it. However if you think you're going to get ahead running it in a regular gas vehicle, keep dreaming.

and Paw Paw you're wrong about Top Tier gas ethanol content. That is for the base fuel that is used to test the additive package. Not the actual fuel that you buy at the pump. read it carefully

 

Dang, this site keeps corrupting my top tier link, for some reason.
Top Tier Gasoline then click on "deposit control", scroll down to 1.3.1.2 & it lists the Ethanol content range.

 

I have a Ranger that's FFV. 1999 Ford Ranger Ranger Super Cab 2D
Transmission: Automatic, Engine: V6 3.0L Flex Fuel,
Drivetrain: 2WD, I've never tried E85 in it. I don't think that the decrease in mpg is worth the savings, if any.
Besides, I think that the internal combustion engine is over 100 years old technology, and not very efficient anyway. I think that 90% of the energy used results only in heat being produced. Let's move to public transit and really stick it to the speculators.

 

Well, E8 or E10, don't really matter. All I know is my truck runs best on Chevron 87, and runs the worst on Husky or Mohawk 89 with E10 in it.

Better mileage, more power out of the 87. Same thing happens to my wife's car too.

I might look into that link a bit later though.

 

paw paw as I stated, that content range requirement is for the BASE fuel they test. IT is not a requirement in the final add pack + fuel you buy at the station.

 

In my humble oppinion, OPEC owns us. If our government was serious about ending this gas madness, why not mandate separation of food waste from our trash, as well as lawn waste (grass clippings), and refine THAT into fuel! Save our landfills AND lower our fuel cost without raising our food prices. DUH! When they use corn to make fuel, not only is corn cost affected. Chickens eat corn, so expect your next trip to KFC to cost extra. Also, your Coke, and anything with high frucose corn syrup will be affected. Aside from this, there have been many excellent designs and prototypes of hydrogen vehicles (vehicles that run completely on water, not assisted by water) and those plans were destroyed. Do a google search for more info about this. Why use E85 for meager saveings if you even have to debate on weather or not the acid deposits will affect your oil and internals? Why chance it? Here's my bottom line: If all americans would pull their money OUT of oil stocks and commodities in rebellion to the price at the pump, prices would drop. As long as people will invest for personal gain, the cost at the pump will continue to rise to pay interest and dividends to its investors. We may not be able to drop our dependance on oil, but we could stop investing in it. Here again the rich grow richer and the poor get ..... I agree with the earlier post about bumping up the cost of grain to $136.00 bushel! Let's go with that! I favor the republican party, but even I agree that its no coincidence oil is $$$ and the Bush family is into what? oh ya, OIL! gee....? I've tried E85, didn't like it a bit. Took 3 tanks of premium BP gas to wash it out of my trucks fuel system.

 

I'm not sure our conservation efforts will actually bring the price of a barrel of oil down like a lot of people think it will. Our problem (actually, the whole worlds problem) and the speculators joy is China. They will buy every drop they can get their hands on at any price offered. What a boon for the speculators, they can run the price out the roof and they know it will be purchased by someone, especially the chinese.
I was reading that ethanol produces roughly 75,000 btu's/gal compared to gasoline that produces roughly 115,000 btu's/gal. Heat = work. You can understand the difference between these two fuels by looking at what they can produce.
I agree with the poster that said the ethanol should be made with something other than corn. We are already seeing the problems in food prices due to more expensive corn so that's not a really good plan imo. With the heavy flooding this year ruining a predicted 20% of the crop, corn prices will get worse. Corn is used for many other products as well as conversion into food such as plastics, lubes, etc. so the price increases will be felt in other products as well.
I like the idea of a renewable resource that ethanol can provide but to think or hope that it will replace gasoline on it's own is probably unrealistic thinking. At best, I believe we can use it to curb the the increases of oil usage, more of a short term solution than a long term solution. Hydrogen looks like a possible long term solution plus just plain cutting back on the wasting of fuel will help.

 

Well it would seem that the drift of this thread indicates most folks with flex fuel vehicles aren't using E-85, for one reason or another!!!!

Would be nice to hear how the long term affects, good or bad, turn out.

We had a fuel Ethanol distillery about 20 miles away, some 15-20 years ago, when E-10 was all the rage, but dropping gas prices soon drove it out of business.

Now all this hasn't hurt the "Thunder Road" folks business any!!!!!

Some of those folks in this area think that burning perfectly good 180 proof "corn liquor" in a vehicle is blasphemy anyway!!!! lol

 

"My SUV doesn't run on corn. Ethanol is a dream people."
-Daniel Tosh

 

I like the way you think

 

Just bought my '00 Ranger a couple months ago. 2.5 cyl, regular cab short bed with 5 speed. Ran the first tank through it using Walmart's 87 octane 10% blended and got 21.5mpg's with it. Next tank I used Sinclair's unblended 87 octane through it. Got 25.5mpg's with it. After talking with my nephew about it, he told me I'd save 2 1/2 cents every mile using the unblended gas, even though it's 10 cents higher in price.

 

It wouldn't be as bad if the tree-huggers and the Dems would stand out of the way and let us drill our own wells in ANWR and off the coast. Instead they bar us from it and let CHINA drill off our shores. And I don't want to hear that it wouldn't bring the price down for 10 years - if slick Willie had made the push for it, we'd be there by now.

So? So are a lot of others. The war wasn't for oil (at even $3/gal it was a ludicrous argument), the Bush family isn't manipulating oil, neither is the 'evil' Haliburton. The price you and I are paying at the pump now is almost DOUBLE what it was before the Dems took over in Congress. Nancy Pelosi's 'commonsense' plan to lower gas prices never appeared, just like all Dem promises, and true to history, when Dems are in control, things get bad economically. Coincidence that only 9% of Americans give them a positive rating? I think not.

Speculators are driving the prices, not supply and demand as 'experts' would have you believe. There's a glut of oil in the marketplace, hell - last week or two the stockpiles of gasoline refined and available in the US went UP - and so did oil prices. That's not a supply/demand issue, friends.

FWIW, we could be OPEC-free too, if the government (small g) would drop tarriffs on ethanol from Brasil - made from sugar cane. They run almost all their vehicles on it. Barring that, we could grow our own, and use it. But we don't.

Henry Ford originally designed his cars to run on ethanol. No reason why we can't go back.

 

The war wasn't over oil, if that was the case, we should have picked a fight with sudia Arabia. Iraq was concieved as a threat and after 9/11, we could take any chances knowing the kinds of weapons and wmd's that they had been known to have. We were not afraid of Iraq attacking us, but them giving wmd's to terrorist to do the dirty work for them. The dem's would have us believe these weapons don't exsist or never did, when we know they did exsist and were used on the kurds and the Iranians and there still out there somewhere. When a wmd is used, don't be surprised if the empty canister doesn't say, "made is Iraq". Isreal says the wmd's were shipped to Lebenon before the war. Anyhow, E-85 is a good way for us to make our own fuel for the combustion engine, just that corn is a poor source to use. You take E-85, biodiesel and our own oil is a good start to energy independence. Anyway you look at it, we need to drill for our own oil, we have it, lets use it. At least the GOP has a plan, drill or own oil, the dems believe if we shut our eye's, the problem will disapear. This tree hugging stuff isn't as important when folks are paying 4.00$ a gallon for gas. We need oil, electric, solar, wind, nuclear, E-85, biodiesel and hydrogen to name a few as part of a real energy plan to get us out of this mess.