E85

[baddis]

ok I used the search and came up with nada. Is it true that by using E85 you loose about 15% of your fuel economy? I pick up a 2000 Ranger ex cab monday and it has the 3.0 flex fuel engine. I can get E85 about 5 miles from my house at a local FS. so I am looking at pros and cons

 

[adsm08]

Yes, you can lose between 15 and 25% (depends on load, temps, driving style, etc) by running E85 because ethanol has a lot less energy per gallon and requires much more fuel to maintain a proper ratio.

Gasoline has an optimum stoich ratio of 14.7:1 (14.7lbs of air to one pound of fuel). E85 has a stoich ratio of about 9.8:1. You are using a little less than twice the amount of fuel to keep the power and emissions in balance. And by emissions I mean not dumping a bunch of unburnt fuel out the tail pipe.

 

[96Indyram]

Yes E85 has less BTU (bang) compared to normal unleaded gas.
my 2011 ford f150 has the 5.0 flex. I get 18 average mpg with unleaded.
Filled up with e85...got 9.5 mpg...and was noticable on power.

If you figure up the math...it will cost a tad more than double a year in fuel cost using e85 compared to normal gas.

But you are saving the planet...paying out of pocket 2x as much to save it.

the only + I like is E85 ethanol has an octane rating of 100-105, versus 85-95 for gasoline. so It is great for high compression engines on a drag strip...but still the power loss.

I still have a serious issue with putting food in our gas tank when people are starving.

 

[wildbill23c]

Yes using ethanol garbage fuel drops your fuel economy quite a bit. It produces less power, plugs up fuel systems, gums up carburetors, and quickly evaporates. Don't waste your money on that junk. I spent last summer working on small engines that had ethanol fuel issues, all of which required either complete carburetor replacement or serious cleaning. Ethanol fuel is pure junk. Fuel economy in my truck went from a steady 22mpg highway to 17mpg highway. In town fuel economy well forget it you could just about watch the fuel gauge move. Its terrible stuff I avoid it. Luckily I have a couple gas stations here in town that have non-ethanol fuel and that's where I go.

 

[96Indyram]

Yes using ethanol garbage fuel drops your fuel economy quite a bit. It produces less power, plugs up fuel systems, gums up carburetors, and quickly evaporates. Don't waste your money on that junk. I spent last summer working on small engines that had ethanol fuel issues, all of which required either complete carburetor replacement or serious cleaning. Ethanol fuel is pure junk. Fuel economy in my truck went from a steady 22mpg highway to 17mpg highway. In town fuel economy well forget it you could just about watch the fuel gauge move. Its terrible stuff I avoid it. Luckily I have a couple gas stations here in town that have non-ethanol fuel and that's where I go.

Must be nice..every station in the state now has atleast 10% here.
and very true on the small engines.....ethanol destroys weed eaters, chainsaws,lawnmowers...etc.. fuel lines and carburators. and is Highly corrosive to older vehicles with metal gas tanks.

 

[baddis]

I was wondering as I drive 40 miles round trip 5 to 6 days a week for work. Is a truck necessary? not really a 4wd? in the winter yes. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile to use the e85 so I thought I would ask

 

[wildbill23c]

Must be nice..every station in the state now has atleast 10% here.
and very true on the small engines.....ethanol destroys weed eaters, chainsaws,lawnmowers...etc.. fuel lines and carburators. and is Highly corrosive to older vehicles with metal gas tanks.

Its very nice. Seems like more and more stations around here keep going back to the non-ethanol gas. Really wish more stations would, and I wish people would start complaining more about the garbage ethanol. Maybe if the oil companies had to pay for the cost of repairs from ethanol they would stop dumping it into the fuel. Course then they would try the well it will cost more money to remove the ethanol just like they pulled when they "removed the lead" from gas.

 

[wildbill23c]

I was wondering as I drive 40 miles round trip 5 to 6 days a week for work. Is a truck necessary? not really a 4wd? in the winter yes. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile to use the e85 so I thought I would ask

Well figure your fuel economy on regular fuel, then subtract about 25% in mileage. So no it would not be economical at all to use it. Your vehicle's engine will probably really hate you for using e85. Even the engines that are supposedly designed to run on it don't run very well on it, and they lose a lot of power and fuel economy too but of course the manufacturers won't tell you that. Even most of the testing done on vehicles is done with a good quality premium fuel that does not contain ethanol.

 

[ab_slack]

There are serious questions about Ethonal being environmentally friendly. By the time one factors in all the water and fuel used to grow the product used as the raw source to convert to ethanol and then the energy in the distillation process.

Ethenol has roughly half the energy content of gasoline and thus one ends up burning not just 15% to 25% more but significant'y more than that.

I recently dealt with problems with my snowblower caused by the 10% ethanol. Ran some of the non-ethanol fuel available as pre-mix thru the 2-cycle engine and it was sooo happy. I also found running premium fuel and not letting it sit long helps.

 

[baddis]

like I said I have only used the 10% blend. the most experience I have with bio fuel is with diesel in semis

 

[97RangerXLT]

Yep, pretty much what everyone has said here. Not worth the money.

And I agree wholeheartedly that we should not be using food as a fuel, plus the added useage of water in the process of making it.

AJ

 

[straycat]

There are serious questions about Ethonal being environmentally friendly. By the time one factors in all the water and fuel used to grow the product used as the raw source to convert to ethanol and then the energy in the distillation process.

Ethenol has roughly half the energy content of gasoline and thus one ends up burning not just 15% to 25% more but significant'y more than that.

I recently dealt with problems with my snowblower caused by the 10% ethanol. Ran some of the non-ethanol fuel available as pre-mix thru the 2-cycle engine and it was sooo happy. I also found running premium fuel and not letting it sit long helps.

Looks like we are stuck with this Ethonal until somebody makes changes. I can't use it in my small motors and my boat motors. I have to pay more for regular fuel with out the Ethonal to fill up the boat and fill up my yard equipment gas tanks. I run 87 in our cars and trucks and they run fine and we never had any issues.

 

[Slammin Sam]

Last fall I sold my 2000 Ranger to buy my 89 B2. The Ranger had the 3.0 flex fuel. When gas prices were nuts back in 2008? E85 was about a dollar cheaper than reg unleaded. The Ranger would get 22 to 24 mpg on nolead and about 17 on E85. As long as there was a dollar spread between the two, the cost per mile was the same. With just a few cents difference, anyone burning E85 is an idiot. When the E85 craze started, there was a lot of talk about using grasses and similar junk plants to make it. Unfortunately the corn lobby is very powerful in Washington, pushing to burn food in our vehicles.

 

[Andy D]

Looks like we are stuck with this Ethonal until somebody makes changes. I can't use it in my small motors and my boat motors. I have to pay more for regular fuel with out the Ethonal to fill up the boat and fill up my yard equipment gas tanks. I run 87 in our cars and trucks and they run fine and we never had any issues.

I use a capful of Marvel Mystery Oil every time I gas up my small engines. I also use the shutoff and run the carb dry after every use. Way less carbatator troubles. Two stroke oil is preferred by some guys for the same thing. It counters the bad things corn juice does to engines. Used as directed on the bottle and you never have any trouble. Oh and keep the gas cans out of the sun.