ISELLFORD

Had a nice segment on our local Fox news station last night. The story was about gas prices and the impact of E-85 [ethanol]. There is going to be an open house at the Farm Service gas station tomorrow with a live radio remote, lunch, etc and seferal government agencies. It is based on the use of Ethanol which right now is 60 cents a gallon less than regular unleaded. Tomorrow they will be selling it for $1.84 a gallon so I expect a LOT of people who can use it will be there. Many TMS members may have an E85 vehicle and not know it as a lot of them were manufactured without much fanfare from 1999-2004.

Go to www.E85fuel.com and you can find if your vehicle is there. MAKE SURE you check the VIN letter or number that corresponds to the engine to make sure it is E85 compatable.

This has been brought to you as a public service announcement!

Knight

what octane rating is E85 equivilent too?

i don't know much about this fuel stuff...can you put E85 into cars that take regular gasoline? will the car run without modifications?

Paris MkVI

I understand E85 Octane is quite high, like 115 (correction: 105). The alcohol resists ignition to a much greater degree than gasoline.

Mileage, however, will be poorer. So there's still some tradeoff. No free lunch. The main advantages are somewhat cleaner burning, and supposedly reducing the influence of the Oil spot market on our economy.

But Presidents since Nixon have talked about being independent of foreign oil, and barring a huge strike on U.S. owned soil, that is not going to happen.

Galaxie

If a car was built exclusively for E85, I'm sure they could crank up the compression ratio to extract more power. With that, they could make a smaller equivalent motor that would get better mileage on E85 than a flex fuel vehicle.

Hopefully this technology will catch on, Brazil is almost energy independant.

ISELLFORD

Octane is usually between 105-110. There is a trad-off in mileage [our neighboring cith uses E-85 Taurus's and gets an average 18% less mileage but the cost right now is around 60 cents less.

The way I look at it, for every callon of E-85 burned, that saves 85% of a gallon of foreign oil that is refined into gas. Plus it is good for my areas economy anyway because of the high volume of corn growers.

Knight

so if its like 105 oct...does that mean you can turn up the boost really high on SC and TC cars?

scottie1113

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Galaxie @ April 28, 2006, 1:36 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
If a car was built exclusively for E85, I'm sure they could crank up the compression ratio to extract more power. With that, they could make a smaller equivalent motor that would get better mileage on E85 than a flex fuel vehicle.

Hopefully this technology will catch on, Brazil is almost energy independant.
[/b][/quote]

And we could be too if we got serious about it. I'd love to see the US completely independent of imported oil. Then OPEC could pour the stuff on their corn flakes in the morning.

I'm doing my part. By choice I live 1.4 miles from work and often walk. I have reduced my gas bill to $15 a month and when I move to Europe in 3 months I won't even have a car. Never thought I'd say that but it's true.

Greywolf

you can if your car is designed for E85 DO NOT USE IN NON E85 CARS the alchol in E85 will tear up parts not designed for it.

GottaHaveIt

kinda way off but some just take thier car and say make it work for propane [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/eek.gif[/img] and if that engine was not set up right first , ie hardened valve guide etc it will just Fry it cause it burns hotter & dryer. sounds neat but don't put it in your tank if its not set up or You'll be Sorry !