Is E85 the way to go? 105 Octane. Reduced oil consumption. 105 Octane

[TKisner]

I've been hearing alot about e85 lately.  Especially when I went to the NY Auto Show.  I like the idea of 105 octane and no longer having to subsidize farms so that farmers can survive, but I respect alot of you guys on here and would really like to know what you think.

[Zach Gomulka]

From my understanding its much cheaper then gas, but you use alot more of it. So the cost to operate a vehicle is nearly identicle. Is 105 octane E85 equal to 105 octane gas? If so, there could be some big power numbers in the future in new cars. Not having to rely on dead dinosoars is a big plus in my book! And cleaner burning is always good. But can I make my IDA's run on it??

[turbo_bob]

If you like the idea of buying a higher price fuel, buying more of it to go the same distance, well thats not for me, but they are going to shove it down our throats anyway

[one_owner]

I thought that the cost would go down once production goes up? could be wrong.

-Ray

[Bruce Tweddle]

I thought that the cost would go down once production goes up? could be wrong.

That could be, but they'll come up with some other reason to justify the high price.  Remember, income tax was only supposed to be a temporary measure for short term cash for the gov't.

[Jerry D]

The other benefit of E85 fuel is the fact that we are giving that much less money to the Middle East countries.
My fuel economy goes down approxamately 20% with E85 fuel. Stopping to fuel up a little more often doesn't bother me as long as I know I'm helping the American farmers and keeping more money in this country, not to mention, it burns cleaner which means less oil changes.
Jerry...

[martin]

Have you actually tried this gas? We've got Sunoco with alcohol (I think 10%) here in TO, and they advertise it as high performance and the highest octane available (94) but if you try it, you'll notice less power (i.e., it is not high performance). They are not currently advertising it as enivro, or anything like that.

[Shane Gregory]

The problem now is that they are replacing MTBE in gasoline with ethanol,current ethonal production is only 50% of what is needed to do this in a recent article I read.

 It also so stated the ethanol is roughly $2.75 a gallon right now.

[Roman]

Petter Carlberg at the #11 spot on the top20 runs E-85 and so will I on my new engine. E-85 cures all heat problems and you can easliy run well over 12 compression on the street.

[pfer10]

To use E85 properly you can't have a dual use fuel vehicle.  I guess it is clean but you won't get the mileage.  You can get the mileage out of it if you design the engine for E85 use only.  Right now E85 is not widespread so they have to make the vehicle still run on gas which kills efficiency because you can't run the compression where it should be.  Exact same thing happened with propane.  Remember those vehicles... they were dogs on propane because they had to be designed to run on gas also.  The compression was so low you couldn't get the power out of it on propane.  Good propane is 110 RON where E85 is 104 RON (summer blend).

Just as an example GM is getting 15% better mileage on their new turbo Saab at "high loaded"  driving because they don't have to use the extra fuel for cooling.  You also get 20 percent increase in max power because you can run the boost up.

[pfer10]

Have you actually tried this gas? We've got Sunoco with alcohol (I think 10%) here in TO, and they advertise it as high performance and the highest octane available (94) but if you try it, you'll notice less power (i.e., it is not high performance). They are not currently advertising it as enivro, or anything like that.

I just tried E10 87 octance and can't tell a difference in my mileage.  Same price as normal 87 also.  E85 is 2.50 a gallon where 87 gas is 2.77.  That was last Saturday.

[pfer10]

IMO the big 3 have their heads up their asses.  For the past year I have supported testing on GM's 2008 Tahoe 2 mode hybrid transmission (made by Allison).  They are doing all the hybrid / demand on displacement stuff on a big stinking V8.  Now Chrylser and BMW are following along because they are also so far behind Toyota they need help catching up.  GM has been doing this work for a while and a lot of their knowledge comes from the old GM EV1.  The tahoe design is a mini version of system they have been using in buses for the past 5 years (Seattle has a bunch of them).  What is funny is they miss the boat everytime.  Now they are on the E85 kick but they don't use that right just like the propane days because they still need to run on gas.

VW has said they aren't going the hybrid route and IMO I believe they are going in the right direction using some thinking outside the box. (at least right now)  They have been working on their diesel stuff and now they are using a supercharger/turbo combo to get the job done.  GM is still trying to get big honking V8s to get the mileage while VW is using 1.4L that perform like their 2.3L and get 20% fuel mileage.  Imagine that.  See this article:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/inside_vws_new_.html

[turbo_bob]

IMO the big 3 have their heads up their asses.

VW has said they aren't going the hybrid route and IMO I believe they are going in the right direction using some thinking outside the box. (at least right now) They have been working on their diesel stuff and now they are using a supercharger/turbo combo to get the job done. VW is using 1.4L that perform like their 2.3L and get 20% fuel mileage.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/inside_vws_new_.html

Heres the scoop, USA has a corn & soy fetish, (ethonal & biodiesel). USA wants zero NOx, thats hard to do using diesel.
European Union favors the 4 & 6 cylinder turbo diesel engines, low CO2, better engery efficiency, MPG, less fuel consumtion.
This is more a political mandate and the big three have to comply, which hurts the consumer, higher price cars, less MPG, less torque, less power. And I do think VW, BMW, Audi has it right, small to mid size turbo diesel engines for the autos.
Here is an example, a BMW 730d can go 650 miles on a single tank of fuel. 35 MPG at an average speed of 76.8 mph, 4,300 pounds, powered by a 3.0-liter straight six diesel. How about the Audi A8 4.0 TDI, twin turbo, V-8 diesel. 479 foot pounds of torque at 1800 RPM's, very fun to drive. Or the new beetle TDI, 49 MPG.

[madoski]

Have you actually tried this gas? We've got Sunoco with alcohol (I think 10%) here in TO, and they advertise it as high performance and the highest octane available (94) but if you try it, you'll notice less power (i.e., it is not high performance). They are not currently advertising it as enivro, or anything like that.

Did you richen up the mixture?  If not, it'll run lean with ethanol.  I think there's a lot of potential with ethanol...take your choice, increase compression, advance timing, maybe a little of each.  I'm almost ready to start mixing methanol into my fuel.  Just talked to the people at Cortec the other day and they're sending a free sample of anti corrosion additive my way.  The hypalon fuel lines are installed....pretty soon I'll see whether my calcs were right or not!  My engine needs all the extra oxygen it can get up here.  Alcohol can't be all bad...it's the quickest fuel next to nitromethane!