I'm not going to keep arguing with someone who is biased against the use of ethanol as motor fuel - you are entitled to your opinion, and I don't particularly care for the use of ethanol either - but each person with a FFV has to do his/her OWN math to see whether it's cost-effective for them or not. For some people, it *IS*. I believe I did make a disclaimer about other costs that are not borne directly by the individual consumer.

 

actually in some parts of Iowa E85 can get as low as $1.35 per gallon vs.$2.75 per gallon that's a 50% price difference and if your only using 30% more fuel than you are saving 20% on fuel costs.

how to go along with what glc was saying here in the suburbs of Chicago E85 is only $0.35-$0.45 cheaper then pump gas. but if you go further south the price drops drastically.

now since i started this thread quite some time ago and certain posters don't like to read the first post (as you always should before you post). I'll tell you what i wanted to know. i was going to use E85 as an alternative to race gas (since E85 is drastically cheaper the race gas), and wondered if my 03 f150 would take the alcohol content of E85.

i tried searching for it but all i found was worthless crap. so i posted i want the facts. and what i have found is that yes you can (on an 03) with a tune and possible a high volume fuel pump. how ever things in the fuel system maybe more prone to premature failure if used frequently. since then i bought a mustang and have abandoned the idea.

 

Jimmy,

In address to your response, you did not state in the original post this was to use instead of race fuel at the track so apologies for participating in the diversion of the thread. Had you stated it was for track use only there's a good chance it would have stayed in that direction. Currently, the lowest E85 price reported at 143 stations which have it in Iowa is $1.83/gallon. The next lowest is $1.89. It quickly goes up from there. Hope the Mustang is working out well for you... supercharged or NA?

 

Jimmy I have a friend with a 2005 Subaru WRX STi and he uses E85 as his race fuel and DD fuel. IIRC with his E85 tune, hes pushing 350 awhp but hes also got an aftermarket fuel system and stainless downpipe and exhaust system. Theoretically it is possible, but you need to change a few things. But it is fun driving behind him and smelling corn

 

corn sti's always smell like burning rice

 

For what it's worth here is my experience with e85. I used it in my turbocharged Honda ricer and made 330whp/280ft.lbs torque in a 1.6L turbo charged engine. It was a 1996 Civic, you don't have to change fuel lines or anything (although my fuel system was pretty modified). As someone said, most cars in the last couple decades have fuel equipment to resist any ethanol corrosion. The high octane is nice for performance cars, especially turbo charged ones, to prevent detonation and increase the torque and power curve. You do lose a lot of gas mileage though as it takes more ethanol to provide the same combustion you would get from gasoline. My car went from ~33mpg on gas to ~20mpg on e85. Plus, some places don't have many e85 stations yet, Denver has quite a few so it wasn't a big deal for me.

I've been debating running my truck on e85 since the engine supports it, but I really haven't put any thought to it beyond that. I'm not sure if I would need an ECM flash or what, I imagine something.

 

Justin, if it's a FFV, no flash needed, just put it in. If it's not a FFV, I wouldn't bother.

 

Really? Ever looked into proper tuning, or is that based on the way factory flex fuel vehicles run? Once optimized for E85 use, it can be run for less $$/mile.

Is anyone here actually running the stuff, or is this 3 pages of regurgitated internet hearsay???

I know SO MANY people down here running E85 in their DDs, taking advantage of its increased octane and resistance to detonation, and for some reason, there are no random fuel leaks anywhere, no pumps failing, no o-rings going bad...seems odd that so much bad stuff can happen on the interweb, but does not seem to pan out in the real world....

 

Well said. Thank you Mike.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...514_058678.htm

Scroll down the 2nd from last paragraph and start reading there about the damage it is causing.

 

So, by your theory, the OEMs must be part of the conspiracy too, since they are likely going to get caught up replacing parts due to Ethanol related failures? But, they're not going to bitch to the Government about it? Really?

Whats up with that $900 fuel pump too, was it a Ferrari? That lends little to no credibility to that article...

 

I made no theory and I did not say there was conspiracy. The off-handed regurgitating and conspiracy comments about people who don't agree with you on this issue really aren't warranted. Why not present some data instead?

They already have, they are fighting the ethanol lobby's effort to increase E10 to E15 due to warranty concerns.

Towing, diagnostics, possible rental car, etc., I could see it getting that expensive. Years ago I had a PCM swap for a customer with a failed Diablo switch chip run close to $800 by the time it was all said and done.

 

My data is via FIRST HANDS EXPERIENCE. Something that seems to be severely lacking from this thread.

"You can't post a link to experience."

You have to understand that it comes off as 'conspiracy theory' type stuff when you make it out to sound like everyone that is running E10 is being screwed by the Government, no? Why does my 11 year old Z28 seem to run PERFECTLY fine with the stuff? Wheres my mileage loss? Where are my corroded parts? Failed injectors? Dead fuel pump?
FWIW, I have over 170K miles on said Z28, still on the stock fuel pump (even after 1000s of gallons of E10 and 100s of bottles of N20 use), guess I am the lucky one?

I think most people realize this, but it bears repeating, you only hear about problems on the internet, nobody comes to the internet to say, 'hey, my car has been running fine for years on E85, even though it was never meant to be used in it', the only people you hear from are the guys who's neighbors, sisters, cousin ran E85 in his work truck and it took a crap after a week....lol.

Whens the last time you saw a post from someone here saying, 'hi, I have no problems, just wanted to let you all know my truck was running fine'.....?

 

Most people running e10 do not even know it. E85 is the topic and a completely different issue.

 

Im all for E10, i run it in every one of my vehicles. 210k on my 99 F-150 running E10 most of the time. Unless i want to go to a premium tune on my tuner.

E10 doesnt have enough ethanol in it to bother anything. Heck my 82 F-150 ran the stuff without issue.

I have yet to see a MPG change running e10 on any vehicle.