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Straight E85 in a non flex-fuel vehicle will possibly throw the check engine light. In warm weather when the engine is warmed up it will run fine even if the dang light is on, although it probably won't give you full power at wide open throttle. That doesn't stop me from doing straight E85 fills for three seasons, cuz I don't use WOT. The colder it gets, especially sub-freezing, the more it doesn't want to start right up. On straight E85 I notice a drop in fuel economy, but not as bad as many people claim.
I have found, on my stuff, that a 50/50 E85/regular (which is E10 here) mix avoids just about everything I mentioned above- no CEL, WOT power, and also no loss of fuel economy. Last winter I did get in trouble with E85 in below zero temps. I don't remember how strong my fuel mix was but in the future I am going to stay away from E85 when I think it'll get below zero.
I have had no problems running my 14 and 16 year old vehicles on E85 for the last 3 or 4 years. No bad injectors, no plugged filters, no disintegrating lines or pumps. Some people claim E85 causes all these problems. Well I know what kind of luck I usually have, so it's not that I'm lucky.
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