Ethonal on MPG

[4.0B2]

that's why i like Ecru.. their gas has ethanol but they have off road diesel and off road gas. the off road gas is pure gas.. supposedly

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

In Oklahoma even the 91 octane can have ethanol in it.

Thank god so far only 89 is labeled to have it in this area. I don't have a lot of faith there isn't filler fluid in there at least 87. I don't have any 2 strokes or anything else worthy of premium, trucks don't seem to care.

One thing about ethanol laced gas is that it attracts water and will absorb it into the gas readily. That and ethanol separates from gas as well if it sits for an extended period of time.

Oh, yea, ethanol laced gas also does bad things to carb'd motors, especially things like older lawn mowers and tractors. It'll gum up carbs, mess with the A/F ratio, and burn hot enough to burn some motors out prematurely - since most of those motors are air-cooled and moving at a hot 2 mph doesn't do much to cool them.

My old 2 banger John Deere won't even run on the crap after it seperates out. Something about pure achohol and/or water and 4.71:1 compression (if it had a new engine, it does not) doesn't mix. I keep an old wrench in the toolbox, if it won't start I drain the carb bowl until the "fuel" climbs the strap and then I know I have something the ol' girl will burn. And that is with "straight" 87 octane fuel too.

If you want off road diesel you have to have it delivered to your tank, offroad gas doesn't exist around here. And to get offroad diesel (which is tax free) you have to have the appropriate paper work.

 

[RustedRanger]

Why use the additive?....I explained it in my post...it clearly increases the mpg's...at least in my truck. When money gets down to having $10 or 15 bucks in your pocket you tend to notice more where the money goes.

 

[rusty70f100]

Here's my experience with ethanol:

1. I have 2 old 2-stroke lawn-boy mowers and a weed wacker converted to E85. Regular 2-stroke oil separates out and leaves a tar-like residue in the bottom of the tank (and float bowl) in about a day. Castor based 2-stroke oil works fine. You need to increase fueling with the ethanol though. 2-strokes running E85 with castor oil run very happy, as the ethanol has a wider range of combustibility. This means the motor will keep running at much leaner or richer fuel to air ratios than it will in relation to gas. This makes it easier to tune. Mine have been running well for 2 years. I've found the E85 / castor mix will not go bad in the tank, and is OK after sitting outside all winter.

2. Converted an LX178 John Deere riding mower to E85. I drilled the fuel inlet, and main jet larger, and adjusted the idle on the carburetor. Works great, and has now for 2 years. I ran it all last year on the same oil, and the oil was the same color coming out as it was going in a year ago.

3. I've built a high compression 4.0L V6 for my Explorer, and ran E85 in it. It had problems due to a water leak (junkyard motor, long story) but it had significantly more power than stock, and there was no pinging at all at 11:1 compression. Additionally, the mileage was roughly the same as it was on gasoline.

I suppose I'm a big fan of the fuel. However, like most things, you have to know how to use it. You can't just go putting E85 in something that wasn't meant for it. Either it'll run like crap, you'll get bad mileage, or both. In the worst case scenario, you'll blow it up, such as an unmodified 2-stroke. If you know what you're doing, and are willing to do the things necessary to make it work, it can be a wonderful fuel for most gasoline powered engines.

Have a nice day.

 

[LearjetMinako]

I've thought about putting E85 in the Ranger, just to see how the fuel trim would react to it. If I did, it would be in small amount of 5 gallons or less to an already almost full tank.

So if my math is correct or close. If I add 5gal of E85 to 15gal of E10 tank full, it should be around 28.75% total ethonal for the tank. Don't want to take it that high just yet. I may want to try going to E20 mixture for future sake. Since the government is thinking about increasing the E10 fuel to E15 or E20.

 

[Froggmann]

Here's my experience with ethanol:

1. I have 2 old 2-stroke lawn-boy mowers and a weed wacker converted to E85. Regular 2-stroke oil separates out and leaves a tar-like residue in the bottom of the tank (and float bowl) in about a day. Castor based 2-stroke oil works fine. You need to increase fueling with the ethanol though. 2-strokes running E85 with castor oil run very happy, as the ethanol has a wider range of combustibility. This means the motor will keep running at much leaner or richer fuel to air ratios than it will in relation to gas. This makes it easier to tune. Mine have been running well for 2 years. I've found the E85 / castor mix will not go bad in the tank, and is OK after sitting outside all winter.

2. Converted an LX178 John Deere riding mower to E85. I drilled the fuel inlet, and main jet larger, and adjusted the idle on the carburetor. Works great, and has now for 2 years. I ran it all last year on the same oil, and the oil was the same color coming out as it was going in a year ago.

3. I've built a high compression 4.0L V6 for my Explorer, and ran E85 in it. It had problems due to a water leak (junkyard motor, long story) but it had significantly more power than stock, and there was no pinging at all at 11:1 compression. Additionally, the mileage was roughly the same as it was on gasoline.

I suppose I'm a big fan of the fuel. However, like most things, you have to know how to use it. You can't just go putting E85 in something that wasn't meant for it. Either it'll run like crap, you'll get bad mileage, or both. In the worst case scenario, you'll blow it up, such as an unmodified 2-stroke. If you know what you're doing, and are willing to do the things necessary to make it work, it can be a wonderful fuel for most gasoline powered engines.

Have a nice day.

I'm a big fan of the fuel as well, it's a great cleaner, I add a couple gallons of E-85 to my 86 Mustang GT for a couple fill ups every spring. Does wonders for how smoothly the car runs, and brings fuel economy back up as well.

I converted my highly modified 400ex to run on E-85 a couple years ago, all I did was re-jet--still running the stock needle valve and fuel system components. Over 2 years and zero issues, I can let the machine sit for 6 months and it fires right up every spring. No fuel treatment used and I leave about 1/2 tank in the machine intentionally to see if it will draw any water---never does. Picked up a noticeable amount of power from the swap and the engine runs much cooler.

Ethanol is a great fuel that gets a bad rap. It's amusing that everyone blames less than 10% of the fuel blend on all the all the issues, yet people such as myself can run over 80% of the same fuel and not have a lick of trouble, even storing equipment improperly with fuel in it.

 

[rusty70f100]

I've thought about putting E85 in the Ranger, just to see how the fuel trim would react to it. If I did, it would be in small amount of 5 gallons or less to an already almost full tank.

So if my math is correct or close. If I add 5gal of E85 to 15gal of E10 tank full, it should be around 28.75% total ethonal for the tank. Don't want to take it that high just yet. I may want to try going to E20 mixture for future sake. Since the government is thinking about increasing the E10 fuel to E15 or E20.

In my Bronco, I can run E30 with no problem at all. At E50, it will start up and run fine, but when the computer is in open loop, power output is down, which means it's running lean. At full strength E85, it becomes hard to start cold, and open loop power output is down, as is mileage.

Mine is older than yours however, so yours might react differently. In most cases, it's possible to change fuel injectors to make it run well on E85, simply by scaling up the injector flow rate. The drawback there is that you can only run E85 then, as it would run excessively rich on gasoline.

There are places that sell converter boxes, that plug in between your injectors and the wiring harness. I haven't tried them myself, but most people I've talked to that have tried them, have had good results.

You might ask over here about it:

http://e85vehicles.com/e85/

 

[country0001]

I've thought about putting E85 in the Ranger, just to see how the fuel trim would react to it. If I did, it would be in small amount of 5 gallons or less to an already almost full tank.

So if my math is correct or close. If I add 5gal of E85 to 15gal of E10 tank full, it should be around 28.75% total ethonal for the tank. Don't want to take it that high just yet. I may want to try going to E20 mixture for future sake. Since the government is thinking about increasing the E10 fuel to E15 or E20.

There is E20 at 29th and Douglas at the Oncue.

 

[LearjetMinako]

There is E20 at 29th and Douglas at the Oncue.

Haven't checked out there, but yes, I found that "On Cue" on the corner of Sooner & SE 29th has the E20. Go figure. They also have Reg. Gasoline and Prem Gasoline on their own line and then they have E10, E20, & E85 on the yellow pump line. The price from Reg. Gas to E10 is only 20 cents difference, E20 is another 10 cent less. Since I just filled up today with E10, I will wait till I'm to 3/4 a tank before I fill up with E20.

 

[LearjetMinako]

So I have been driving around town using E15 fuel. So far, no problems with the old 2.3L running. The fuel trim has added a few more points, its now with the range of 3%~6%. Gas mileage hasn't really gone down, but I have been driving more on the interstates.

Fuel Trims
Reg 87: -4%~0%
E10: 0%~4%
E15: 3%~6%

 

[country0001]

Haven't checked out there, but yes, I found that "On Cue" on the corner of Sooner & SE 29th has the E20. Go figure. They also have Reg. Gasoline and Prem Gasoline on their own line and then they have E10, E20, & E85 on the yellow pump line. The price from Reg. Gas to E10 is only 20 cents difference, E20 is another 10 cent less. Since I just filled up today with E10, I will wait till I'm to 3/4 a tank before I fill up with E20.

They have a pure ethanol tank on site there and blend at the dispenser.


Btw,we're having an Okie meet on the 9th at Pop's.

 

[heptofite]

Up your compression, adjust the timing and run E85. You'll gain a bit of mileage, some power and have that warm fuzzy feeling from helping the environment and breathing martinis Only downside is you'll spend more converting it than you will save in fuel.

corn ethanol is horrible for the environment and it wastes more energy to produce than you get from burning it, using it is worse than using straight gas.

 

[doorgunner]

Here's another one for the books......


Normally I get 19-20 mpg on the highway using unleaded E10.....


Last week--same highways--same 100*F...My truck got 25 mpg !!!!



Like I said before....somebody at the plant didn't cut the gasoline enuff !!!!!

 

[LearjetMinako]

They have a pure ethanol tank on site there and blend at the dispenser.


Btw,we're having an Okie meet on the 9th at Pop's.

That interesting to know. When I filled up last time, I added 1.38 gallons of E85 fuel to the tank to get the E15 mixture. I think next time, I will run the fuel tank down and use the pumps E20 to do the mixing. Once I hit the e20 mixture, it will be my final result. Then I'm going back to good old regular unleaded gas.

 

[LearjetMinako]

So I have been driving around now on the E20 fuel mixture. So far, no problems with it. Thou the PCM was a little flipie on the fuel trim at first, but it soon stablilized. This was probably do to the O2 sensor reading and the PCM trying to keep the 14.7 fuel mixture ratio. So I don't recommend anything past E20 mixture.

Fuel Trims:
Reg 87: -4~0 %
E10: 0~4 %
E15: 3~6 %
E20: 3~8 % (Some trips yielded -4% to 10%, So I suspect the PCM was getting confused at this point)