I disagree on one point: "It drops power...on anything that uses it.."

An engine that is properly tuned to run on E85 will not see a drop in power. We all know that E85 has an octane rating slightly higher than a typical premium fuel and a properly tuned engine can take advantage of this.

Witness the E85 capable 2010 F-150 with the 5.4. There are two power ratings for that engine.
http://media.ford.com/press_kits_det...ection_id=2878

 

The sky is falling! Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. All of the above is contrary to all of the studies I read....which led me to try e85. Brilliant guys with PhD's have tested the use of e85 and noted that the benefits far outway and negatives. The only negative of using e85 is a reduction in MPG. The Ethonal used in e85 is nothing more than 100 proof denatured white lightning moonshine.

Well, my truck runs better. And that comes from a guy who has tried it....not from someone who sits on the "sidelines" and whines about it.

I bet not one of you guys who are scared of it have tried it.

 

Well the PCM can compensate to a certain extent using the O2 sensor as feedback but unless it is designed to be able to adjust the mixture enough to compensate for the less energy dense fuel I don't know how well it would work. Watch for pinging.

A better fuel would be natural gas because we have tons of that domestically and it does not cost more than it is worth to produce unlike Ethanol which is a lose lose senario as far as energy consumption. The EPA seems to be pushing it because it is a way to boost octane levels without using more toxic alternatives. I think this one benefit is not worth all the harm the Ethanol does to fuel systems and anything that sits for more than a couple of weeks. The stuff is ruining my motorcycles and lawn equipment.

Ethanol runs fine in vehicles that are run everyday but what about the stuff that sits over the winter or between uses. This is stuff like lawn mowers, weed eaters, chain saws, pressure washers not to mention things like motorcycles. My 2 stroke engines have sealer in the carbs that is desolved by Ethanol and it forms a gel that clogs the jets. Ethanol attracts water and it forms a corrosive sludge that will ruin steel gas tanks and aluminum parts. The stuff ate my aluminum petcock on my dirt bike and rusted the steel insert in my gas cap. It caused the fill tube on my Ranger to crack and rot. It is also gotton my big motorcycle to the point where it does not want to run because of corrosion crap in carbs. Any open fuel system is going to have problems. Modern cars have closed fuel systems that don't allow in much water vapor. So the cost is everything that runs on gas that is not a car is going to have problems. So should we throw away the $1000's of dollars we have invested in small engine powered stuff to make a few greenies happy without any benefit to the enviroment or most likely a negative benefit. The smart thing to do would be to have a few Ethanol Free pumps for motorcycles and lawn mowers etc. but this is not happening. I don't have problems with them putting ethanol in gas if I have the option not to use it in places where it does not belong.

Perry

 

100% correct here. Ethanol is fine for your truck/car but watch out using it in anything else. Where my cottage is in Northern MI they have what they call Recreations gas. It is 91 octane with NO Ethanol. I have a fuel container on my property (300 gal) that I full with the stuff and use it to run all my toy's (quads/sleds/lawnmower). Ethanol is NOT everything the government and media make it out to be.

 

E85 Conversion Kits Change2E85.com

Conversion kit for V10 is $600. Evidently it modifies the injector pulse width based on the % of ethanol & gasoline.

Their sales pitch seems mostly fact-based, but I don't know squat So use your own judgement.

Sorry my post does not meet the OP's guidelines, but you introduced an interesting topic to a talkative group

 

If you have an engine designed for E85 from the ground up you can take advantages of higher octane. On existing engines you can advance the timing some and on E85 only engines you can raise the compression to increase efficiency that will somewhat offset the loss of fuel density. You should be able to produce more HP from Ethanol but your MPG will be lower than gas for the most part.

Perry

 

Another issue with E85 is cold start. In Brazil where they use E100 (100% Ethanol) they actually have small reservoirs in the vehicles that you put regular gas into. On cold starts the gas is used to prime the engine to get it going.

 

What is going to happen to this guy??

 

Just watch for his next post. It will be something like "My X won't start and is running very rough"

E85 is junk, I hate the stuff, I even hate the 10% in normal fuels.

It takes 30% more fuel running E85 to keep piston and EGT temps down. So you pay 2.05 a gallon for E85 when regular is 2.75 but you lose in the long run because it take 30% more E85 to run your vehicle.

E85 plugs up injectors, ruins rubber lines and seals and make vehicles hard to start on cold mornings.





Many of my buddies have tried running E85 in their performance cars (for the octane benefit) only to give it up and go back to normal gas after having starting issues and ruining injectors and even some blowing up their motors. These cars were tuned to run on E85 and still had many problems.

Even the 10% regular gas is known to cause problems in high performance small motors like weed eaters, lawn mowers, snowmobiles, outboards, etc. At 10% E the engine will run 3.3% lean all the time on regular gas. So that one hot day when humidity is low you will be out mowing your lawn and poof there is a piston laying in your front yard.

It is horrid stuff and I avoid it as much as possible.

 

I am glad I found this thread I was thinking of converting my 02 v10 but after reading this I will put the money towards a lift

 

My grandfather just this last summer filled his tank in his 98 buick with E85. Check engine light, rough idle (barely idled), barely started and barely drove.

I still have about 10 gallons of E85 in my red containers after draining and refilling his tank. I have been using it to start fires in the wood burner and for cleaning parts.

 

i have read numerous links to the benifits, and down falls of E85, and even jus the 10% mix.........

for the new vehicles where the PCM perimeters can compensate, i'm sure there's no issues, probably won't even see a drop in mpg.. BUUUUUTTTTTT i can tell you this for a fact, it KILLS my mpg's on both my V10's even if it's only 10% mix......

i will drop 2-3mpg's on the same trip every day if i put "only 10%" from any of the stations that have ethanol. i even tried running that 44gal bohemeth bast**d down to 1-2 gal left in that tank, and filled with the lower cost ethanol mixed fuel...... yes cheaper in cost by about 8 cents (in this area), and net 2-3mpg's less than when i filled up with non-ethenol mixed fuel.....

maybe when i get around to giving mike at 5 star a call i'll run mixed, till then, i get less mpg's with mixed, even worse with E85...... i choose to gain the 3mpg's and use reg non mixed gas

 

I can confirm this to. Most all gas stations here in MI have E10 as their regular unleaded gas. Before the last trip home from my cottage I filled up with my rec gas which is 91 octane, no ethanol (I have a 300 gal tank for my toys and wanted to use some up so I can get a fresh fill soon). I saw a 2 mpg increase in my fuel economy. At first I didn't put two and two together and then I realized what I had done.

I said it once in an earlier post that ethanol mixed fuel is the biggest farce that the EPA and the Government is passing off on the American people. It does little to lower our dependence on foreign oil and only serves to boost up the corn growers. Meanwhile it is ruining our older vehicles and smaller engines.

 

I wrote to my two state senators and told them I did not want corn in my gasoline. I ended my letter with when spring comes and your weed eater and your Harley won't start you know why.

I had just seen an article where the EPA approved 15% ethanol in gas and also that in Alabama that all gas stations has to use 10% Ethanol now. I called a gas station that one of their selling points was no ethanol but they said the have to sell the E10 crap. So there is no way in Alabama now to get gas that is not harmful to small engines, boats, and motorcycles.

The filler tube on my Ranger is cracked and leaks and stinks and will probably be what ends the trucks life in a ball of fire and hopefully not me. Most likely it was cracked by Ethanol in the gasoline. The part costs $400 and I am not going to pay that.

Perry

 

+1 on the natural gas