After reading this i think i am going to give it a shot. I mainly just wanna see what the fuel economy does with it.

 

Ive been getting around 15 mpg running E85. I drive mostly highway. I have noticed a little bit better performance.

 

For the 5.4 engine (4x2) the Ford brochure says:

unleaded: 14 city 20 hwy

e85 10 city 14 hwy


I will pass. MPG is bad enough as it is

 

Understandable. However, when you factor in the cost of E85 being 50+ cents lower, the cost per mile is unchanged. My gas tank is 36 gallons, so the reduced MPG does not result in stopping too often for gas.

My point was simply that the performance increase is "free" and therefore worthwhile.

Headers, a tune (chip), cold air intakes and so on won't improve performance more than E85 does. AND, they AIN'T free.

 

We only have E10 here (and I mean you don't have a choice as that's all they sell). It's not cheaper than unleaded and mileage goes down a little.

If the drop in mpg pencils out v.s. cost then I wouldn't have a problem buying it.

 

I'll have to try the E-85 next time I fill up and report back. My mileage sucks anyway, so that won't be an issue.

 

One advantage with e85 is you are supporting the American farmers vs the foreign oil countries. Also ethanol is supposed to pollute less.

 

x2. We had a BP station that sold E85 and the regular unleaded gasoline was straight gas, no E10. Before they switched over to E10, the straight 87-octane gas was cheaper than the gas station across the street selling E10 only by 3-4 cents a gallon. Plus you retain your factory MPGs. Sadly they just made the Florida-mandatory E10 switch so now I'm back down to single-digits

 

What do the farmers use to make/create the ethanol? (farm equipment) which uses what as an energy source? gas or disel, not changing polution just diverting it elsewhere!

 

Damn i must be back woods, never even seen a E85 pump

 

Uh, yeah, you are in San Angelo after all. I wouldn't say backwoods, maybe west Texas back desert? Just kidding

 

I believe that farmers farm roughly the same amount of land that they always have, therefore they use the same amount of fuel (gas or diesel), therefore they are polluting the same amount not more as you speculated to. There is many more vehicles on the roads than there is tractors in fields polluting.

I was simply trying to point out a positive on this topic.

 

Whether you grow corn for ethanol or for food, the farming costs and impacts are the same, right? I would think the corn farmers should be glad that they have the additional market.

 

LoL.. Do you live in Farm Country?? Yeah they (may) farm the same amount of land, but its (what) they are farming more of.. i.e Corn which is what is used for (E85) so therefore your pollutiong (towards the pupose of preventing the pollution) which is all the hype about E85.. Its all a bunch of political BS.. Putting money in someone else's wallet..

According to Cornell University professor of agriculture David Pimentel, producing ethanol actually creates a net energy loss. According to his calculations, producing corn and processing it into 1 gallon (3.7 liters) of ethanol requires 131,000 BTUs of energy; but 1 gallon of ethanol contains only 77,000 BTUs [source: Health and Energy]. And since farmers are using fossil-fuel-powered equipment to plant, maintain and harvest the corn and are using fossil-fuel-powered machinery to process that corn into ethanol and then, in almost all cases, to ship the product to collection points via fuel-powered transport, the ethanol industry is actually burning large amounts of gasoline to produce this alternative fuel. That ethanol could end up containing less energy than the gasoline consumed to produce it.


E85 produces 27 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so on average it ends up costing more.


Read more: http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story....#ixzz0xflAarIx

 

Farming impacts the same?? NO because Farmers are starting to grow MORE corn therefore driving up the cost of other crops (because less people are farming them) It is also making the cost of corn rise significantly! Thus increasing the prices of things that are corn based or that include corn.. yeah corn farmers are happy that there's more of a demand for their product! not gonna argue that..But all E85 is doing is putting a bandaid on our Petroleom fix.. and diverting costs elsewhere..

This thread started asking is it worth it? Does it do anything to your MPG.. The answer plain and simple is yes, its worse! While yes it (may) be cheaper the overall effeciency isnt worth it!

So if ya wanna go GREEN, then go for it. If ya wanna get more out of what ya pay for and save a lil money while your at it, then stick with gas! After all I didnt buy my F-150 Screw for its (green) qualities!