Most fuel lines after ~2005 should handle E85.
Harder on fuel pumps if they aren't compatible same with valve-seats and valves, increased wear.
Have not heard/read anything about IVD. Hard to believe.
Why is e85 still for sale everywhere?
- Thread starter Klutch9
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Most fuel lines after ~2005 should handle E85.
Harder on fuel pumps if they aren't compatible same with valve-seats and valves, increased wear.
Have not heard/read anything about IVD. Hard to believe.
Nobody knows about IVD but people have been correlating why people in US have way more IVD than say Japan for the same car. It could be due to running richer to make it meet the nox as well but people complain about the ethanol instead, I don't know.
I only trust what the factory trust, instead of having to fight a warranty claim because they found E85 in the tank.
We only have two, maybe three stations in my city that sell E85. I fill my truck a few times per year. I try to have at least a 50/50 mix of E85/regular when I tow my boat to the cottage in the spring, runs and tows really nicely. Too bad I can't find E85 near the cottage for towing home in the fall.
In all the cars I've seen that ran e85, their engines came out a lot cleaner than non-e85 cars. They have to change their oil much more often though and cold cranking is harder.
I run it in my truck as a 50/50 mix with regular 87 octane, saves money over using premium. Only time I generally fill up with premium anymore is if I am taking a long trip as you do see a 20-30% decrease in mileage, especially on the highway at high speeds. City driving has less of a mileage loss, usually around 10-15%. But I'm usually paying about 40% less for my E85/regular mix than premium so cost wise it saves money. Also makes more power too when you run higher ethanol content.
And no, my truck did not come from the factory as a flex fuel vehicle. No 6.2L LTx engine did for whatever reason. The only things that are missing are the ethanol sensor on the fuel line and the programming in the PCM is turned off. I added the sensor for around $60, which is fairly easy with a couple of adapters, and then plugged it into the harness that is sitting on the frame in a dummy connector. Uploaded my new tune to the PCM with the E85 options turned on and ready to go. You would think GM would have done this already on these engines as the 4.3L and 5.3L are flex fuel but for some reason they did not.
And no, my truck did not come from the factory as a flex fuel vehicle. No 6.2L LTx engine did for whatever reason. The only things that are missing are the ethanol sensor on the fuel line and the programming in the PCM is turned off. I added the sensor for around $60, which is fairly easy with a couple of adapters, and then plugged it into the harness that is sitting on the frame in a dummy connector. Uploaded my new tune to the PCM with the E85 options turned on and ready to go. You would think GM would have done this already on these engines as the 4.3L and 5.3L are flex fuel but for some reason they did not.
I use it regularly.
Chrysler Town and Country- I just did about 1000 miles mostly on E85 and got 22mpg. E10 gets 24 usually on the same trip.
Ford F150 NA3.5. Gets 18-19 mpg on E85 and 19-20 on E10, same drive.
I’ll do a 50/50 run occasionally in my non Fkex Fuel for some cleaning activity.
Fuel price does affect my decision.
It’s $2.59/ gallon here. E10 is $3.29
Chrysler Town and Country- I just did about 1000 miles mostly on E85 and got 22mpg. E10 gets 24 usually on the same trip.
Ford F150 NA3.5. Gets 18-19 mpg on E85 and 19-20 on E10, same drive.
I’ll do a 50/50 run occasionally in my non Fkex Fuel for some cleaning activity.
Fuel price does affect my decision.
It’s $2.59/ gallon here. E10 is $3.29
Lines haven't been in an issue in decades. Just about anything that was designed to run on E10 has ethanol compatible lines.
I had some issues with direct injection seals but after diving deep into the issue and talking with engineers who develop direct injectors, the issue was more likely that cylinder pressures were just too high for the seals on those particular injectors, rather than a material compatibility issue.
GM published whitepapers on the e85 deposits issue in the late 00's, their recommendation for cleaning injectors was just to regularly run full gasoline with higher-speed driving. It's tough to get PEA onto the intake valves, but this is an issue for DI in general, not e85.
IMO the largest problem is increased fuel dilution. Plenty of papers show increased wear, accelerated TAN and sludge development with higher concentrations of ethanol. This is and the deposits on injectors are commonly misunderstood as "dissolved lines" which leads to the misconception about compatibility.
It's fantastic having so much access to it here, but I've learned to be careful about having adequate filtration and being way more strict about avoiding short drives and changing the oil much more frequently when there's E85 in the tank.
Exacerbated by API low HTHS oil and DI, I would assume.
And lower TBN, low tension piston rings, short trips, auto stop-start, etc.
Would you consider 9miles a short trip?
Probably not, though it depends on a lot of factors. I'm sure there's some calculation based on time, heat, and oil capacity that dictates what's "short." 9 miles in the city during the summer with a 5qt sump is a lot more than 9 miles on the highway in the winter with a 10qt sump.
And even then, what determines how many short trips to be too much? A few per week probably doesn't matter if it does 30 minutes on the freeway in between.
Now a better question is why did Wisconsin fuel prices jump 20-30 cents/gal in a couple days?
Standard regular unleaded gas is E27 in Brazil.
E100, ethanol neat, is sold at pumps, it is about 2/3rds of the cost of "regular unleaded". It can be hard to start in cold weather, which isn't too common in Brazil, but if you go up to the highest city in Brazil, Campos do Jordao at 5300 feet, in the wintertime it can get in the 30s and the car won't want to start. One of the in-laws had that problem when we were there in June of 2022. Thankfully the in-laws we were riding in only use the 95 octane stuff in their BMWs and we didn't have any issues starting our car.
As for my US based cars, ran e85 occasionally in my Navigator, the 5.4 3V had flex fuel compatibility in many later applications. Vehicle ran good with it, but got somewhat worse mileage. It wasn't cost effective enough to make up for the worse mileage.
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Due to the above $2.95->$3.30 gallon increase in the last week (following 2 months of 5 cent a week increases)
I decided to run 3.5gallons of $2.20 e85 in the beater insight
Unbelievably driving in worse conditions at higher speeds my fuel economy is actually better (3mpg) than normal and it feels like I have more power which is notable when running 65hp
I plan on running an alternating fill of e10 then e85 to keep a mix with less than 50% ethanol until prices normalize. (Feels like I’m back in the horror days 2006-2009 when fuel was getting more ungodly expensive everyday). I prefer to avoid a cell but considering the car has a wideband it’s extremely unlikely to run lean even with real e85. (Except when the car does it on purpose since it is a lean burn engine)
Diesel oddly is cheaper than gas which hasn’t happened in years and 88e15 is now only a 3 cent spread which is a waste of money when fuel is around $3/gal. Up until about a month ago the spread was a massive 15-30 cent a gallon)
No longer available around here.Who's buying it? Many stations around here (metro Detroit) still sell e85. But why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't even think many cars are compatible with it. Seems there was a push in the mid/late 2000's for e85 compliant vehicles, mostly by the American brands, but that has fallen away. It's not even cheaper to run, given how closely it's priced to 87. Are there that many guys with e85 tunes buying this stuff up?
The NEX at Oceana used to sell it, but the pump is old, decrepit, and no longer has power. Not buying it there!
I would gladly run it. The MPG hit was 15-30%. Typical around town for the Tundra is 14MPG. E85 MPG was 10-12.
The E85 was about 60% the price of unleaded when it was for sale, so, significantly cheaper per mile for me.
The truck felt a bit more responsive on E85, but that may be placebo.
I have to worry about cold starts when up North, but not down here.
Everything about E85 was, for me, positive.
Even if no e85 were sold ethanol plants are now embedded in the chemical cofactors and animal supplement industries.
AKA hundreds of industrial processes use cobyproducts Of ethanol production with many indications the ethanol industry makes more money on the byproducts than the ethanol. Dry ice and liquified co2 along with animal nutritional supplements being the big ones, with many ethanol plants being located near inter-related industries to use their affluent and byproducts.
There is evidence plants that used to make dry ice are mostly gone being replaced by ethanol plants, meaning we can’t reverse easily without expenses.
Anhydrous ethanol is used outside motor fuels as well and of coarse e96 (denatured ethanol) is the blending agent sent to make normal RUG across the nation.
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That is illegal.
I'm buying it. Bought 100 gallons last week and stored it in 2 metal drums for me to use during race season this year. I buy it, bring it home and test it, if it tests below E80 it goes in the Wife's flex fuel Armada, above E80 goes in the drums. It'll keep at least a year in sealed metal drum but I've never tried to keep it longer.Who's buying it? Many stations around here (metro Detroit) still sell e85. But why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't even think many cars are compatible with it. Seems there was a push in the mid/late 2000's for e85 compliant vehicles, mostly by the American brands, but that has fallen away. It's not even cheaper to run, given how closely it's priced to 87. Are there that many guys with e85 tunes buying this stuff up?
