E85 fuel @ .85 cents a gallon?

[SergntMac]

http://www.e85fuel.com

What's up with this?

It's available from a Kean station a few blocks from my house, as well as other locations, which seem to be popping up overnight. I don't know anything about gasoline, can any of y'all help? This website says it's 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline.

I'm used to all gasoline being 10 percent ethanol around here, and 93 octane is the highest grade available. But, this website doesn't disclose the octane, if it matters. I did see a news clip this morning that showed the pump, and it's 100 octane label, but I can't find any 411 on this at the website.

Web site also says that certain Mercury products are "Flexible Fuel Vehicles" (FFV) such as the '03 Mountaineer, so, is it possible that our MMs could be "FFV" too?

I could handle a little retuning and loss of power for fuel at .85 per. Driving out OTR to meet up with my friends is a lot more important that breaking into the 11s on the track. Hell, the only reason I'm bringing slicks to Cleveland, is to test the tires as efficient or not.

If this is what's in our future, I'm ready to make any adjustments to my MM that may be necessary. I'd rather drive my MM in an altered state, than not drive it at all.

[prchrman]

Don't know Mac but keep us updated and maybe some of the big brain people on the sight will give us the low down...willie

[Ross]

Yeah, this is interesting news to me, too. I haven't seen any stations like that, but you can bet they will pop up all over if this stuff works.

[rookie1]

Don't know if a high compression motor can run on this stuff but maybe with some mods......

The really important fact to know about Ethanol agriculturally based fuels is that at present they are still more expensive to produce than gasoline. I sell to a couple ethanol plants here in Indiana and the skinny is that it's still too expensive. Supply and demand rule the marketplace and for ethanol based fuel to be cost effective the raw material(corn) has to be cheap. Of course, when the demand for Ethanol grows the price of corn goes up. The only reason the formula for gasoline in the midwest includes ethanol now is due to tax welfare for the farmers from congress.

With gasoline at an insanely(and artificially manipulated but that's another thread) high $2 + a gallon alternative fuel options do become increasingly more viable.

just my .02

[MAD-3R]

Our cars are NOT FFV's. .85 is great to see, and with 100 octain, would sound wonderful, but remember all the octain threads. The MPG suck compared to regular gas. Not as much power in each drop.

That maybe why I'm pinging on the gas from this area and not when I got it tuned in Chicago. Alchihol would alow for a more advanced timming, but not produce as much power... Hmmmm.

[jobrien8]

Ethanol fuel runs in an engine at a rate of about 8.5:1 air/fuel ratio. Gasoline runs at about 14.6:1 air/fuel ratio. They use ethanol mostly in europe. Needless to say, your engine would run badly. You need a completely different strategy. The engine that we test ethanol in is the 4.0 liter V-6. So don't run ethanol! :down:

[Fast4Door]

I wrote the durability calibrations for most of the E85 4.0L's that John is talking about. Most 3.0L Rangers and some Taurus' are also FFV. Although a lot has been mentioned, here is what I have learned running this stuff on dyno for the past 3 years or so.

-E85 is cheap, but fuel economy is about 60% of what you'd get on gas, so you buy almost twice as much.
-E85 REQUIRES a unique calibration (If your car is not FFV, don't ue it).
-E85 is corrosive to many metals, and may not be compatable with all fuel system components (requires special rubber for injector o-rings, for example). So FFV vehicles have special hardware, too.
-Engine wear will be worse with E85.
-Last I heard, E85 fuel relied on the 15% gas for all of it's detergents. I've seen some engines with nasty deposits on the back sides of the intake valves.

On the plus side, it is 100 octane, so if you chose to calibrate for it, you could make some good power. Some data I've seen shows about 6% improvement over gas when tuned for power.

[2003 MIB]

What a great thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of good info. :up:

[Dr Caleb]

I'm pretty sure the manual says 10% ethanol max!!! Be careful!

But what a fantastic price!

[SergntMac]

.85 cents a gallon...drive by the station twice a day...I knew it was too good to be true.

Thank for the professional advice!