e85 vs. Gas 87 octane
 

Hey guys/gals,

I've been wondering this for a while about the differences in actual cost per mile between E85 & Gasoline. Well I finally got around to doing a test and this is what I found for my 2007 F150 5.4 3v.

E85 - total miles to a tank 350 - used 27.5 gallons - 12.7mpg - e85 price $2.26 - tank cost $62.15 - cost per mile $.18

Gas 87 Octane - total miles to a tank 400 - used 27.5 gallons - 14.5mpg - 87 Gas price $2.86 - tank cost $78.65 - cost per mile $.20

So with my truck and my driving style/conditions e85 is about $.02 cheaper a mile to drive. Which over the course of 100,000 miles a person could save about $2,000 using e85.

Hope I'm not waisting anybodys time by having to read this. But i was starting to get sick and tired of people asking me why I use e85 and get 2-3 less mpg. My excuse was always I like keeping the money in our country and not giving it to the towel heads. Even if it's more to drive the truck.

Well I guess now I know it actually is true to say e85 will save you more money and were not buying a towel head another Rolls Royce/Bentley. But will be buying a farmer a new John Deere Combine.

thanks for the info. I run E-85 pretty often with my truck, but have never done the breakdown that you did.

Robbie

So there's really no "benefit". Nice breakdown though!

The benefit is using 85% less gasoline compared to regular unleaded. Over time that will lower the demand of gas and potentially lower the price. If you use E85 you are using 85% less gas, which over the course of a year is very substantial.

EX: 15,000 miles driven a year at 15mpg = 1,000 gal of gas used per year
15,000 miles driven a year at 13mpg on E85 = 173 gallons of gas used per year and 980 gallons of ethanol

Ok, just so I understand correctly, our vehicles can use E85 although they are not considered FlexFuel or anything? I drive a Screw with a 4.6. Will my engine be able to consume this type of fuel as well? If so, could somone provide me with a breakdown on how this alternative fuel works? Thanks

No, your truck MUST have the Flex Fuel engine in order to use E-85.

Repost :eek:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=288939

I always use the 10% blend. If we used more renewable fuel, we wouldn't have to import so much oil. I've heard of people trying E85 in vehicles not approved for it but I'm not ready to make that step. A lot of news reports/articles on ethanol are confusing because the reporter doesn't always clarify (or know) the difference between E85 and a 10% blend.

they need to realize ethanol is not the way to go.

To: JBMX928
So do you have a reason why ethonal is not the way to go?

a few.


1: a lot is proving it to get worse gas mileage.
2: it's having the same economic effect as gasoline where high demand makes its price almost the same, plus other crop fields are being converted to corn so corn price is going up
3: some tests are proving it to put off equally dangerous gases.


maybe ethanol is a little better if someone proves it to me, but IMO we need a LOT better, not just little.

so i say hydrogen.

one guy on here in cali said his area got a hydrogen bus that runs on water and emits oxygen. Can't get any better eh?

Using E85 drops my mileage from 13.5 to 11.2 for a 17% decrease in mileage, just city driving.

Regular unleaded is selling for $3/gal this week in Tucson with E85 at $2.65/gal, making E85 only 11.7% less expensive.

I need E85 to be about $2.47/gal to reach a break even point of the fuel cost being 17% less than unleaded to match the 17% mileage loss per gallon, assuming unleaded stayed at $3/gal.

I have one station a few miles down the street, and only four places in Tucson to purchase E85, plus the shorter driving miles per tank means more stops to refuel.

My window sticker states that my truck should get 14mpg city unleaded and 10mpg on E85 for city driving, so that is pretty accurate so far.

On E85 it seems to accelerate a little better from a stop, otherwise I can't tell a difference in day to day driving.

To me it is just an alternative fuel source, but the numbers need to be right before I use E85 exclusively. I'm glad to read that we are planting the most corn since the 40's. I would rather see more farms survive than have more planned communities with golf courses, no offense intended with regard to you golfers!

Steve

Doesn't ethanol take more energy to produce that what it yields?

In that sense, you are saving energy/oil at the consumer (in theory), but to manufacturer, it is using more energy to produce, offsetting its energy effectiveness.

I was in Aberdeen, SD last week and they had E85 at almost $1 less per gallon. If I lived there, I would be using it all the time. Unfortunately, we do not have E85 here where I live, so that is not even an option at this time.

I can hope it arrives soon.

Later.....

If this country had put as much effort into developing ethanol (which can come from more than one source) as it has into drilling and/or shipping oil we could be talking about how efficient ethanol had become and how great it is to not be dependent on foreign oil.

As for higher corn prices, those could just as easily collapse in a year or two. I'd much rather see a farmer in this country have the opportunity to make a decent living on a consistent basis than to continue supporting wealthy oil (companies & countries).

As for hydrogen, it may someday be viable but it just doesn't do much for those of us who drive vehicles that can't use it.

Ethanol is merely a stop-gap measure until large scale hydrogen production can be realized. Ethanol can reduce our dependence on oil for the short term, but it comes at a cost. Not only does it raise the cost of food stuffs, the extra crops required consume large quantities of fresh water and will result is depleted soil driven by high profit single crop farming. If crops fail, then you could see gigantic fuel price increases that make current oil prices seem cheap.

For some reason, I have always had the impression that E85 was suppose to give better fuel mileage.

It wwould be interesting to see what results you would get with half E85 and half regular fuel.

I have always heard that e85 will get less mileage that regular fuel, but the lower price will offset the decreased mileage. Does anyone know whether or not e85 actually produces more power than regular fuel. It has a higher octane level, which would make one believe it gives more power and possibly better economy.

I wish I could remeber the exact numbers, but there was a guy who ran his truck at the drag strip on gasoline a few times and then compared to E-85 fuel a few times. The E-85 1/4 mile times were slightly faster. He could be blowing smoke, but I tend to believe him.

E-85 does have higher octane, so it's not suprising.

Hydrogen may play a big part in our future vehicles, but like many other alternative fuel vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cells are very expensive to produce and require extremely high safety standards. Have you ever heard of a hydrogen bomb?

Not only are the hydrogen fuel cells expensive to produce, but a lot of R&E goes into the vehicles that carry them. Plus, the logistics of testing a vehicle w/ a hydrogen fuel cell get complicated too. Ford has performed internal crash tests with hydrogen fuel vehicles and when they do the building has to be evacuated except for required personnel and the fire department has to be present w/ hazmat.

man i wish i lived where you guys did.. $3.59 out here for E85..
with a stock 01 f-150 XLT offroad edition i'd say im getting about 14-15 mpg with about a stop sign on every corner..0-30 not very fuel efficient:coffee: