Winter gas stinks - before and after datalogs adding 2 gal of Sheetz E85

[y_p_w]

I guess what I'm saying is that you'd think the 93 E10 alone would provide max power from your engine (No E85). E20 increases the octane for more power is what I'm collecting you're saying?

The XC90 recommends 91 octane for best performance. Get my whole whopping 235 HP...ha! I figure adding some more Ethanol (E85) to my 88 would get me the rated horsepower. Possibly not the rated fuel economy though since it's higher in ethanol than straight 91 E10.

My biggest curiosity is finding out if E85 is really 85% ethanol throughout the year or how it fluctuates. I need to go dig some more. I thought I'd read it may be a range like summer vs winter as well.

View attachment 305992

It's 51-83% fuel ethanol. The fuel ethanol itself contains up to 5% gasoline to prevent people from using it as a beverage.

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol-e85​

E85 (or flex fuel) is a term that refers to high-level ethanol-gasoline blends containing 51% to 83% ethanol, depending on geography and season (see Fuel Properties and E85 Flex Fuel Specification).​

 

[gamefoo21]

Same, I've run 88 e15 mainly but I've never tried 91 or higher.

Seems straight to the point...Ha! That is interesting about that Yamaha V8 engine.

One of the really interesting things about that Volaha V8 is that to make the thing fit it uses a 60 degree bank spacing but to get the smoothness it uses a funky crank with offset throws to get 90 degree firing.

Yeah, I was kinda surprised too, didn't think it was high compression in the non-supercar setup but I guess it was the fast engine. Replaced the twin turbo 3L i6 afterall.

It definitely feels like the engine is a better mate for the XC90 and it's bulk than the 3.2. We have both, or well had the 3.2, the wife was in an accident and rolled it three times, but she walked away with only bruises. So we got another, needs some work but for the price, I won't complain.

 

[fantastic]

It's 51-83% fuel ethanol. The fuel ethanol itself contains up to 5% gasoline to prevent people from using it as a beverage.

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol-e85​

E85 (or flex fuel) is a term that refers to high-level ethanol-gasoline blends containing 51% to 83% ethanol, depending on geography and season (see Fuel Properties and E85 Flex Fuel Specification).​

Closest for E85 fuel would be at Casey's & it's about 12 miles away. What I found very interesting was that B20 Biodiesel has basically the same amount of energy as Low Sulfur Diesel. That usually has at least 5% Biodiesel already. Thanks for the links!

One of the really interesting things about that Volaha V8 is that to make the thing fit it uses a 60 degree bank spacing but to get the smoothness it uses a funky crank with offset throws to get 90 degree firing.

Yeah, I was kinda surprised too, didn't think it was high compression in the non-supercar setup but I guess it was the fast engine. Replaced the twin turbo 3L i6 afterall.

It definitely feels like the engine is a better mate for the XC90 and it's bulk than the 3.2. We have both, or well had the 3.2, the wife was in an accident and rolled it three times, but she walked away with only bruises. So we got another, needs some work but for the price, I won't complain.

Happy to hear the Volvo earns its safety reputation.

 

[TiGeo]

I'm a bit confused with the numbers here. Comparing E85 with E10, given they're the same octane, can you advance your ignition more with E85?

I see the advance numbers posted here in a range of up to 10 degrees. Is that total (actual) degrees BTDC? That doesn't sound like much. I'd expect that number to be 30 - 40 degrees at highway cruise (say 2500 rpm for an old V8 with highway gears).

Are ignition advance timing numbers (degrees BTDC) comparable between a 4 cyl and 8 cyl if all else is equal (same comp ratio, same gasoline, same octane)? I'm talking max advance without detonation (pinging).

E85 is ~100 octane. So adding E85 to a 93 E10 fuel is increasing the overall effective octane rating above 93...that's why I do this. Cheap race gas basically. However the challenge is that you need more volume to maintain the same afr so that's why you get worse mpgs and can't just run as much as you want because your fuel system can't deliver the required volume. For me 2 gallons blending my tank to ~E20 for some knock prevention isn't an issue. W/R to timing advance I'm talking about at WOT redline in a tuned turbo car. You won't be seeing much above 10 deg unless you have a tune calibrated for ethanol...or are naturally aspirated. Everything here for me is about WOT on track...driving normally on winter fuel is not an issue with this tune.

 

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[oil_for_my_doo]

On my older flex-fuel vehicle, I noticed the mileage penalty for "spirited" driving vs. light load, conservative driving is considerably less when running ethanol. The efficiency under load is so good that the expected 20–30% mileage penalty is reduced to nearly zero.

It's crazy, I mean, I could just beat on this thing on ethanol and the mileage would still be very similar to driving normal to slow. On gasoline, however, the driving style makes a night and day difference for the mileage.

I guess that's because when running gasoline on this high compression (12:1+) low-tech engine, the ECU is just dumping fuel to keep the engine from knocking and burning up. Whereas with ethanol, which has such a dramatic cooling effect, it's barely on the richer side of things, even on WOT, 6000 RPM, 65+ MPH long hill climbs.