e85 gas and regular gas, anyone else mix the two?

[DragRace]

Tonight while I was filling up for gas,I made the mistake and grabbed the wrong pump. I pumped in about 3$ worth of E85.So, I stopped,then proceeded to put the regular unleaded gas in.I'd say, I put in about 10$ of the regular gas.

Either way,The Explorer still runs good!

anyone else "accidentally" do this?

 

[mechtech2]

So, about 1 gallon or so of the foul fluid?
Since most gas is 10% alcohol, and your tank is about 22 gal., my math indicates that you are now running:

E13.

If you use straight gas, with no alcohol, you are now:

E4

 

[JustinH]

Its funny, all the Chevy dealers are spouting about their E85 cars, its on every commercial, even the cars have badges on them spouting that they run on E85.

There is not one E85 pump in western new york.

 

[blupupher]

Probably no harm. you might notice a slight drop in mileage, and if it were me, I would fill up again at 1/2 a tank to dilute it more.

So long as no Check engine light comes on (not very likely) you are good to go.

 

[JHZR2]

there may be some controls tuning that can adapt to E85, which your car may or may not inherently have, but so long as it runs good, I think all is well.

IIRC, ethanol fueled vehicles used to need to use a special oil, or a different oil change regimen. Not sure if that is still the case...

JMH

 

[blupupher]

Quote:

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there may be some controls tuning that can adapt to E85, which your car may or may not inherently have, but so long as it runs good, I think all is well.

IIRC, ethanol fueled vehicles used to need to use a special oil, or a different oil change regimen. Not sure if that is still the case...

JMH

---

The Dodge Caravan 3.3 FF used to require a specific oil and OCI, but not anymore.

 

[DragRace]

Update:

Nothing bad ever happened,was just another week

 

[GT Mike]

My '04 Explorer FFV's owner's manual states that if you use E85 regularly, you should stick to the "severe service" maintenance schedule which more or less changes the OCIs to 3000 miles, and the spark plug changes to 60,000 from 100,000.
I can believe the oil change recommendation to some extent, but I really don't know what kind of combustion byproducts E85 produces in the oil compared to gasoline. I just changed my oil tonight and noticed that it does have that funny ethanol smell to it. It's probably nothing bad...Just like a propane engine's oil smells reminiscent of propane. Just different and I'm not used to it.
Spark plugs shouldn't make any difference. If anything, I'd think the plugs would last longer since ethanol burns cooler and cleaner than gasoline. Not quite sure why the recommendation on that.

All in all, I'm happy running the corn juice in my Explorer. It's about a buck a gallon cheaper than regular gasoline here, and mileage hasn't been all that different. Maybe 3 MPG loss in the city and 2 MPG loss on the highway. I'm still saving money compared to running it on gasoline.

 

[mechtech2]

You should be at about 70% of the energy of pure gasoline per pound.
If you only lost 2-3 mpg, that is astounding!

 

[Master ACiD]

pretty much every vehicle made that can run on e85 drops between 8mpg and 5mpg when run on e85 compared to straight gas. the lowest i saw was a ffw dodge ram that only dropped 4mpg.

these are real epa numbers folks. not subjective made up numbers.

 

[CivicFan]

I wish I could have the taxpayers subsidize my fuel, too.

 

[GT Mike]

Quote:

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You should be at about 70% of the energy of pure gasoline per pound.
If you only lost 2-3 mpg, that is astounding!

---

Well, for some more real-world numbers, I took a 200 mile road trip today to a car show, and filled 'er up with E85 before leaving town, reset the mileage computer, and headed down the road. Mostly highway driving at 58-62 MPH yeilded me an average of 16.8 MPG. So yes, almost exactly 3 MPG less than the EPA rated this vehicle at burning gasoline. EPA is 15/20.
I too have known some FFVs that really take a nosedive in economy when burning E85. Case and point, my dad's Dodge Ram...He only gets about 12-13 MPG in mixed driving burning corn. But then again, I don't think it's that much more burning gas. Probably only about 15-16 on gas. I think EPA was 12/17 on his truck.
Ford claims they gain power on E85. They rate my 4.0 SOHC V6 at 210 HP/254 lbs. ft. on E85, and 205 HP/247 lbs. ft. on regular gasoline. So 5 HP and 7 lbs. ft. torque increase on E85. They claim it's because they can run a more agressive advance curve on E85 due to its much higher octane rating. Other Explorer owners over at www.explorerforum.com have also commented that their engines feel smoother and more powerful on E85 compared to gasoline.

Since it's drastically cheaper than gasoline here, I'll use it every chance I get. As much driving as I do, it's saving me roughly $100 a month in fuel costs! The gain in MPG on gasoline is factored in to my calculations too.

The naysayers can spout their rhetoric all they want...These are real world numbers which aren't nearly as poor as some would want to believe. Most the people that throw E85 under the bus have never owned a FFV and have absolutely zero experience with it.
BTW, gasoline just went up again here. $2.999/gallon for regular. E85 is $2.049 at the stations that the ethanol plant owns, otherwise Kwik Trip stores sell it too, but it's much more expensive. It's $2.639 there.

 

[mechtech2]

There are naysayers, and there is the actual physics and chemistry involved. I want magic ethanol, too.
I'm happy for you.

 

[JHZR2]

I believe that you can change the maps that the engine runs when E85 is in there, and up your power. That makes sense.

However, unless the new maps allow the engine to run at a significantly higher efficiency point, then one cannot get over the energy balance: LHV fuel in = power out + waste heat.

It is perfectly likely that the drop is not as severe as the difference in energy content of the fuels. But I doubt that it is possible to see a real boost either.

JMH

 

[MarkC]

How does ethanol affect engine wear, etc.?

 

[lars11]

You lose ca. 30% if running only E85 compared to gas. If you have a modern engine with turbo and advanced engine controls, you may also gain power. The power is due to the fact that ethanol carry more oxygen with it in the fuel, and it has a "octane" rating of more than 100. The oxygen load is also the reason for most of the mpg loss: some of the volume of fuel is oxygen which comes from the air when burning gasoline which is a more compact fuel.
Most electronically controlled engines will run well on up to 2/3 to 100% E85 without any changes. If you need to change, you would have to increase fuel pressure or orifice diameter in the carb.
Another problem area is fuel system materials. Ethanol is a bit more aggressive than gas. No problem if you are blending gas and e85 to some extent but may cause issues when getting close to only e85. Pipes and hoses may erode, old varnish in the system may loosen, that sort of thing.
Really, ethanol is an excellent fuel if there is infrastructure and vehicles for it. You gain power, it's homegrown, it will work like the gas engines we like so much.
Why do dragracers use Eth or Meth fuel? They like power and that's how to get it with an Otto Engine.