Thread: aspire on e85
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Old 01-06-2011, 05:54 PM   #13 (permalink)
rmay635703
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kamesama980 View Post
I have. Everyone I know that's done it has. By engine design and physics it should. Depends on how much ethanol there is/how many tanks and how the fuel management system works (like you mention). All FI cars should see a noticeable drop using full E85.
I never ran full e85, highest was E60 which resulted in a slow idle, normally mathematically I came out around E30-E40 and I usually ran it in the winter. Also each tank had a different percentage because of how I filled, I kept track so I knew approx how much of each fuel to add on the next fillup.

My winter FE on standard gas versus e40 was within the margin of error over several seasons.

I have a feeling that if you have an OBDII vehicle, use mystery oil (my car wouldn't idle properly without it then, nor did/does my fathers suburban now) and run e30-e40 you will find most late 90's cars don't get much different FE wise. (I would say under 3% which is hard to appreciate or see on varying driving conditions)
What this meant is that driving on the highway WITHOUT hypermiling in the winter My 98 lesabre still managed 27-30mpg on e40 (the mix varied from e20-e55 week to week), which was no different than e10 in the winter. My fathers 93 suburban typically ran the range from 16-19mpg in the winter and also did the same on e30 (usually e15-e35), when I ran the average over the winter seasons from that year it ended up around .3mpg on the lesabre off from previous years (winter) and about .5mpg on the suburban from previous years (winter).

As you know personal experience is meaningless but not all cars drop massive amounts running on some ethanol mix, my experience is there is a sweet spot right around 30-40% where your mileage really isn't noticably different, I think an ethanol mix, ESPECIALLY in the winter can pay for itself. I think the winter gas must suck bad enough that the FE from it and actual ethanol isn't much different.

I also know many who run big boy vehicles that are made for ethanol and only experience a 1mpg drop between it and e10 year round. The 6% drop still gets paid for by the price difference.

This does not mean all vehicle behave this way, my experience is OLD vehicles drop large amounts of FE but most semi-new vehicles DO NOT. Around here when gas is high; ethanol is usually a $1 per gallon less and DOES PAY FOR ITSELF and then some at least in my own pocketbook on the typical vehicles I run.

Would I run e85 in my old Subaru? No, would my father run it in the 79 ford? No Would I run it in a lawnmower or small motor? No but it does have its place and it is at least for now cheaper to me (not cheaper to society but to me)

Cheers
Ryan
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