E-85 in my 2003 Town & Country

[bcossa2001]

Tried the E85 last week. It cut my mileage on the road from 25 to 19. At that rate it needs to be about .60 cheaper than gas (gas is $2.59, E85 was $2.19). Car started and ran like a rocket when accelerating from a dead stop. Other than that could not tell any difference.

I'm curious--since ethanol is so corrosive, wouldn't it clean the gunk off the fuel injectors, etc? Maybe no fuel system cleaner is required if you run E-85?

 

[MrMeeks]

The E85 will kill the injectors caused by poor or zero lubrication.

 

[chubbs1]

+1...And it rapidly raises the TAN in the engine oil so change at 3K intervals if you are using conventional oil. 6K if you have a good Synthetic. That's real!

 

[steveh]

I don't know what is up with the price of E-85. When they first started selling it in our town 2 years ago it was about $1.00 cheaper, now its about 30 cents cheaper then gas.

 

[beechcraftted]

My experience with E-85 has been nothing but positive. I have run over 1,700 gallons in both a non-flex 5.0 Silverado and my 5.3 flex Suburban.

1.)I can report that it does NOT destroy your injectors. Most vehicles built after 1997 (2000 for sure) have fuel systems that are ethanol tolerant. In typical automotive engineering practice, this includes components that are 100% ethanol tolerant.

2.) Ethanol by itself is NOT corrosive. Often confused with methanol, which is extremely corrosive. Ethnanol does have a strong affinity for water, which can make the mixture corrosive, but pure ethanol is not.

3.) Some say the TAN is raised by using E-85, but I have observed normal (6000-7000 miles) dino oil change intervals and can report no engine issues. I did a Blackstone over 1 year ago using Citgo dino 5-30 and both engines were normal.

4.) Yeah, the price is surely not as attractive as it once was. I am not a tree hugger nor a corn farmer, but I prefer to keep my petro dollars in the US as much as possible. There are many rumors and hatred of E-85 by many here, but my experience has been nothing but positive.

 

[Summerwind]

The price has gone up here as well...with the mileage drop my Merc takes when using it, to me it just isn't "worth" the usage. The car runs well on it though, although idle is not as ribbon smooth..

 

[rslifkin]

I've been thinking of giving it a try in the Jeep, but at only 30 cents cheaper per gallon, I'm not sure it's worth it. The extra octane would be my big motivating factor.