Doe anyone run E-85 on a Regular basis?

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Tc-w3 is ashless 2 stroke oil. I use it as an upper cylinder lube.
Xylene works good too and is cheaper than acetone and toluene. Adding that stuff made my nitrous hits harder with the same jetting.
I use my home brew in every tank of fuel I burn. I've found that the cost is minimal compared to how much better my engines run.
I really notice it in my mower, generators and air compressors. There's no lag when draw is applied.
I've found that any more than 100-1 ratio is a waste since that seems to be the tipping point.
Nice to read about someone else using it and seeing positive results.


Should be ez to make that mix as I have a 25 gallon fuel tank in my truck. I've always been a back yard hot rodder looking for an edge.
 
Originally Posted By: kaboom10


I'm not far from you and I have no problem with cold starts. I also have my cold start values richer than stock.


On newer vehicles, they've probably figured out how to get around cold start issues. This was common on older FFVs though. My truck takes much longer to crank up when running E85 in very cold weather. On straight gas it will crank right up no matter the temperature.

As far as running E85 on a regular basis, my truck has been run on plain gas (mostly 87 octane) and E85 throughout its life. Usually it has only seen E85 during warmer months due to the slow cold starting on E85, but over the last decade it has seen many tankfuls. Performance is noticeably better with E85 and the engine runs absolutely silky smooth on it. Fuel economy is horrible though. It's about a 4 MPG hit on average, bringing fuel economy down to the low teens.

With my truck, E85 did seem to cause slightly accelerated spark plug wear. The OEM "100K mile" plugs looked pretty worn at 80K, but not enough to cause the truck to run poorly. Otherwise, no issues due to E85.
 
I run E85 all the time. With my Holiday discount card I got when I purchased my vehicle, I can usually purchase E85 for $1.05 less per gallon than the price of 87 octane.

I've been running it for about 20K miles now in my Impala and have not noticed any differences compared to regular gas, besides the fact it has more POW-A!
smile.gif


One thing I can note is the OLM degrades the oil at a much faster rate than on gas.
 
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My 2013 Silverado is a Flex-Fuel vehicle.

E-10 87 octane gasoline here in St. Louis is $3.09 a gallon at this exact point in time.

It is well known that E-85 yields ~30% MPG loss.

So if your vehicle get 20MPG on E-10@$3.09 a gallon then using E-85 will result in an average MPG of ~14MPG. With these numbers, E-85 would have to be less than $2.17 a gallon for it to save money.

E-85 around my parts is the same or $0.10 a gallon higher, so I would be losing money running E-85.

If I could get E-85 for say $1.85 a gallon, I would run it.
 
E85 hasn't changed, but gas has come down to where the spread is not cost effective anymore for using E85. So, will run E10. It goes that way around here. Gas and E10 go up over the summer months, and E85 hits rock bottom. Gas and E10 drop enough in the fall that it makes sense to go back to them. I am not a purest to any particular fuel. I go for what offers the lowest cost per mile.
 
Just went back to E-10 after running E-85 for about 15K miles over the summer. Gas prices have come down enough up here the spread is not big enough.

Motor is deff not as peppy but it doesn't burn thru E-10 it nearly as fast which is nice.
 
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And that is the key. Just switch back and forth as the prices fluctuate. A lot of folks have been so conditioned to only look at mpg numbers. The real thing is to look at cost per mile numbers. I might only get 14 mpg on E85 but it may be cheaper per mile to use compared to regular at 17 mpg. Everyone has a calculator on their phone nowadays. Just open it up and do a little quick figuring before sticking the nozzle in the tank and see which fuel will be the lowest cost per mile to run based on that day's price at the pump.
 
I went back to running 87 octane from a year of running E85. The price of gas is dropping fast here in MI. I also sent in a sample of my 0W-20 full syn oil to see it's condition. The oil doesn't look that bad for a yr in the engine.
 
Something I found in another forum.
Even those of you running standard pump gasoline are probably getting a mild alcohol blend. By law, most gas stations today are now allowed to sell blends of as much as 10% ethanol as "gasoline". The ethanol is being used to displace the MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether), which has its own environmental and health concerns. It used to be that stations were required to post a sticker on the pump declaring the alcohol content, but that's no longer happening. Some regions were quicker to adopt the maximum allowable ethanol content in the pump gasoline. In my travels and discussions with shop owners and calibrators across the country, I've found that almost every station can be assumed to be selling some alcohol blend unless stated otherwise. In most cases, this means assuming a blend of 10% ethanol. Any addition of alcohol blends to the gasoline will shift the stoichiometric balance point. The more oxygen carried by the fuel, the richer the stoichiometric point will be. Where E85 has a stoichiometric ratio of 9.85:1, E10 (most pump gas blends) will balance at about 14.2:1. This means that tuning to an assumed pure gasoline composition with a stoichiometric point of 14.64:1 may include a 3% error before the engine is ever started. The wideband oxygen sensor will still typically display "14.64:1" at lambda=1.00, even though this is really an actual ratio of 14.2:1 with a 10% ethanol blend. Three percent may not sound lick much, and it really isn't, but the idea behind engine calibration is to get all variables as close to optimal as possible. Leaving a 3% error in the fuel's stoichiometric point just makes tuning the volumetric efficiency table, startup fuel, and transient fueling that much less accurate. It's a good idea to just adjust at the beginning before baking that error into every other calculation later on.
Well I'm finally getting a chance to drop back in here and I had a request to chime in on this thread a while ago. It seems that in the mean time, you guys have more or less cleared it up, but let me restate a little differently for those who may still have some confusion.

The Stoich point is primarily there for OPEN LOOP operation in order to define the balance that is lambda=1.000 for a given fuel. Changing the stoich point will skew the desired fuel mass prior to the EEC calculating the pulse width necessary to deliver this target fuel mass. If you have a known air mass (MAF reading), then the stoich balance determines the desired fuel mass that will go with it. Obviously, the chemistry of the fuel drives the balance point.

In closed loop, the EEC just looks to the narrowband HEGO to see which side of the balance it's on. It will push the fueling one direction or the other until it sees a switch in voltage that indicates crossing the real stoich point. Changes in fuel blends will just require more or less adjustment from the reference point (stoich point in the Open Loop cal) to toggle around the real chemical balance. If you define the calibration's stoich point equal to the real chemistry of the fuel, there's not much learning needed as long as your MAF and injector cals are good.
 
Originally Posted By: kaboom10
It's 85% ethanol with a minimum of 70% added probably during the winter months. I haven't tested a winter sample as of yet.


Thank you sir, I appreciate the answer. I hope you and your family have a very nice Christmas.
 
Bought a qt. of Acetone the other day since I had just filled up with 87 octane gasoline. Still making a new tune to try with that mixture. With the just above zero temps it will be awhile before I go out in the snow since we are using the wife's SUV to get around in now. I'm lucky I can avoid the salted roads as this is the last vehicle I'm buying. 12 yr old truck with 60,000 miles on it. Got my used oil analysis back but haven't posted it yet.
 
Originally Posted By: kaboom10
Bought a qt. of Acetone the other day since I had just filled up with 87 octane gasoline. Still making a new tune to try with that mixture. With the just above zero temps it will be awhile before I go out in the snow since we are using the wife's SUV to get around in now. I'm lucky I can avoid the salted roads as this is the last vehicle I'm buying. 12 yr old truck with 60,000 miles on it. Got my used oil analysis back but haven't posted it yet.



I don't know how much octane that treat rate will end up with.
At the track I poured a gallon of acetone into half a tank of premium, then I data logged with my tuner and added timing until I saw the knock sensor was pulling timing out.
When I sprayed I went from the value established and removed 2 points for every 50hp.
I sprayed a 175 wet shot with acetone enriched fuel. It was awesome.
I've read a lot about acetone/toluene/xylene and it's effect on gasoline. Apparently it lowers the surface tension of fuel so it atomizes faster and more completely which then contributes to a more complete burning of the fuel which can help fuel economy.
I've read that treat rates as low as 1 ounce per 5 gallons can lower surface tension however at that rate of dilution octane is unaffected.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: kaboom10
Bought a qt. of Acetone the other day since I had just filled up with 87 octane gasoline. Still making a new tune to try with that mixture. With the just above zero temps it will be awhile before I go out in the snow since we are using the wife's SUV to get around in now. I'm lucky I can avoid the salted roads as this is the last vehicle I'm buying. 12 yr old truck with 60,000 miles on it. Got my used oil analysis back but haven't posted it yet.



I don't know how much octane that treat rate will end up with.
At the track I poured a gallon of acetone into half a tank of premium, then I data logged with my tuner and added timing until I saw the knock sensor was pulling timing out.
When I sprayed I went from the value established and removed 2 points for every 50hp.
I sprayed a 175 wet shot with acetone enriched fuel. It was awesome.
I've read a lot about acetone/toluene/xylene and it's effect on gasoline. Apparently it lowers the surface tension of fuel so it atomizes faster and more completely which then contributes to a more complete burning of the fuel which can help fuel economy.
I've read that treat rates as low as 1 ounce per 5 gallons can lower surface tension however at that rate of dilution octane is unaffected.

Someone said a 100:1 ratio is sufficient. If this tank runs like E85 and yields the same or better gas mileage I'll stick with the blend. Having a 25 gallon tank makes it perfect to throw a full quart in.
 
If it is the best cost benefit to use, then go for it! I am about to pull the trigger on a Diablo Intune programmer and use the 93 octane performance tune along with E85 in my 2013 Siverado with 5.3L flex fuel and see how it plays out for me. I have read of others doing it that way, and Diablo emphasizes that using that 93 octane tune with E85 is a win-win. And with the Intune, I can tweak the settings considerably. I run E85 almost exclusively, os it is the best situation to test this out.
 
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