E85 - Anyone else getting great results?

[Rower4VT]

In my case I'm beating the EPA E85 mileage estimate by 31.5% and the EPA gasoline mileage estimate by 5% (when burning E85). The cost of E85 is ~20% less than gasoline, so I'm really getting 26mpg cost-wise, which beats the EPA gasoline estimate by 30%.

I would think E85 use and this forum would go together well, since not only is E85 cheaper, but all the techniques of warm intake air, advanced timing, and lean mixures would work well with E85 since it's 105 octane and detonation is much less of an issue at lean mixures/advanced timing. All I've done is installed larger injectors and changed my driving habits. With some engine/intake/ignition mods, I would think my mileage would go up even more.

Anyone else using E85? Any key mods for E85 fuel efficiency?

[krousdb]

What was your mileage using E0?

[Frank Lee]

I use it frequently, and in different strengths while mixed with regular.

Weaker than 50/50 E85/Regular leads to no driveability issues and basically unchanged FE.

Stronger mixtures can lead to harder starting and stumbling under certain conditions, mainly having to do with cold temps. In my experience, nothing too serious happens until about 10 deg F or less.

[Rower4VT]

Using E0 (100% gas) I got 25 at the best when driving real carefully. That's 25% better than the EPA "combined" estimate, and 1mpg better than the highway rating. My driving is generally 50/50 city/hwy. So essentially I'm barely breaking even using E85 compared to using 100% gas. I'm just wondering if there's more potential in fuel economy mods using E85 versus gas. I know that if you significantly increase the compression ratio you can get just as good mileage as you can with gas, the problem being that you'd never be able to use gas in the car again. But I figure E85 will like cam and ignition advance more than gas, just gotta find the time to try it out.

[Allch Chcar]

Good to hear about your results. E85 usage is still pretty rare. There's still too much resistance to it!

I'd use the comparison of 65.5% in energy content compared to Gasoline. 70% is a good baseline for telling if you're getting good performance.

Please keep us updated.

[snowfish]

Frank, curious about how you do the E85 thing. Say when you're at a half tank, you fill with E85? Then the next half tank do regular? And so on? I drive a 96 Grand Cherokee 4.0 that loves drinking lots of fuel. 17mpg on a good day. I'd like to see how it swallows the E85/Regular blend. What's your thoughts?

[Frank Lee]

It depends on when I go fill up. I usually try to run it down pretty close to E before stopping at a gas station, but sometimes if price and opportunity are there, I'll top off sooner. So... usually I am filling a nearly empty tank. If it's above 10F or so and the forecast is for that or warmer, I'll either top it off with E85 or go 50/50. The warmer it is out, the more I tend to go with straight E85.

My town now has new "blended pumps" which allow you to select 4 different blends of E85 and regular. I haven't used it yet, and I want to go get prices from it and figure out if I'm paying a premium for that convenience or not, before I tank up.

Well you are still getting some below freezing weather and you haven't played with it at all yet, right? So if you are at 1/2 tank go ahead and top it off with E85. Or if you are near empty, blend them right there at the pumps. Just go 50/50 for a while and see how your rig likes it. If all is well, then over time I'd say you could go 75/25, see how it goes, maybe sometime this spring try a full tank if you are up to it and your vehicle has been agreeable to it so far.

I've done it with 4 vehicles, all Fords, and they all responded well. I don't have experience with other makes of cars. I tried pure E85 in my motorcycle once (carbureted) and it did NOT like it one bit. Of course the carb is not set up to compensate for lean mixtures like EFI can do. I did make it home on the bike, however, by pulling the choke a lil bit.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I've done it with 4 vehicles, all Fords, and they all responded well.

Would you please give more details, Frank - models, years & engines.
Thanks.

[Frank Lee]

'94 F150 5.0
'93 Tempo 2.3
'92 Tempo 2.3
'92 Topaz 2.3

I've also put a blend in an '84 Tempo carbureted, but have not worked up to strong blend/straight E85 in that one. Besides, that one is old enough to where the rubber parts might have E85 incompatability and I don't feel like replacing parts on it.

[Allch Chcar]

Originally Posted by TestDrive

Would you please give more details, Frank - models, years & engines.
Thanks.

EFI is your friend.