Help me understand E85

[Kennysum1]

The added complexity and extra hassle outweigh the benefit in my opinion.

I cannot believe there is a guy here that test his fuel on every fill up. That is absurd for a street driven non professional racing person to do.

That is way over kill. I run a 1000+ hp TT 2018 on pump E85. I test it every now and then to make sure the blend is still roughly the same. I'm talking once a month max and it takes 5 mins with a bottle of water and test tube.

He is just being overly cautious or has a bad gas station.

The only reason I even test at all is it is a dedicated E85 tune. I could swap to a flex tune and never worry about it. No added hassle.

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[NGOT8R]

The added complexity and extra hassle outweigh the benefit in my opinion.

I cannot believe there is a guy here that test his fuel on every fill up. That is absurd for a street driven non professional racing person to do.

Testing fuel isn’t really a big deal if you keep your kit with you at all times. I have an nGauge, which reads/displays my ethanol content, but whenever I feel the need to switch over to the E85R tune, I definitely test it because the nGauge doesn’t read/display on the race tunes since timing is locked In by the tuner (at least that’s the way Lund does it). The Flex tune is the best tune to run unless you’re looking for max power. I posted this test a while back in another thread which shows how dirty regular pump gas burns vs how clean E85 burns.

 

[LOL WUT]

The added complexity and extra hassle outweigh the benefit in my opinion.

I cannot believe there is a guy here that test his fuel on every fill up. That is absurd for a street driven non professional racing person to do.

Believe it or not I test every fill. It takes literally one minute. Even with my stations being consistently good it’s really easy piece of mind. It does help that my car is not a DD so I do not fill up all that often.

 

[sk47]

Hello; I guess if there was not a working alternative then burning up food as a vehicle fuel would make sense. Even the 10% used in most gasoline uses a food grain, corn, to make the alcohol. I do get the potential performance boost.
At the very least removing a portion of a food grain from being used as food over to being used as a fuel supplement raises the cost of the remaining supply of food grains.

Hear ya, but we are burning subsidized corn crops...

Hello; The point about the corn crops being subsidized is one not often pointed out.

 

[Mspider]

Believe it or not I test every fill. It takes literally one minute. Even with my stations being consistently good it’s really easy piece of mind. It does help that my car is not a DD so I do not fill up all that often.

I guess we all just have different levels of stress and hassle we are willing to deal with. For me I would be plenty happy with a pump gas tune and never testing or losing access to all gas pumps. cons out weight the pros for me. But this thread has been interesting to learn about other views points.

 

[kz]

So how does a flex fuel tune work with gas mileage, run e85 and you lose 33% or run 93 and I’m back to normal all of a sudden ?

Air fuel ratio gets adjusted - so yes

I guess we all just have different levels of stress and hassle we are willing to deal with. For me I would be plenty happy with a pump gas tune and never testing or losing access to all gas pumps. cons out weight the pros for me. But this thread has been interesting to learn about other views points.

I test every once in a while, station I get as from has been consistently at 87-89% ethanol so I am not too worried about it - but testing is really not that much work.

 

[junits15]

The added complexity and extra hassle outweigh the benefit in my opinion.

I cannot believe there is a guy here that test his fuel on every fill up. That is absurd for a street driven non professional racing person to do.

oh you have no idea, it gets even worse. With my old car it was not uncommon to find people mixing e30 fuel at the pump at every fill.

That meant keeping track of your current e percentage, measuring the e percentage of the e85 at the pump, then dispensing in the correct amount to keep the full tank concentration at e30. Then verifying with an ethanol gauge because ST's are not flex compatible and can only really handle a few percentage points of error.

This is cake in comparison.

 

[Cory S]

oh you have no idea, it gets even worse. With my old car it was not uncommon to find people mixing e30 fuel at the pump at every fill.

That meant keeping track of your current e percentage, measuring the e percentage of the e85 at the pump, then dispensing in the correct amount to keep the full tank concentration at e30. Then verifying with an ethanol gauge because ST's are not flex compatible and can only really handle a few percentage points of error.

This is cake in comparison.

I drive to Boston 3 times per season and buy 100 gallons at a time. 212 mile round trip.

 

[junits15]

I drive to Boston 3 times per season and buy 100 gallons at a time. 212 mile round trip.

I used to get my ethanol at the Logan airport shell too lol. The one in Cambridge closes too early.

it was pretty fun to head out there at like 11PM load up on e and then rip through the tunnels on the way back lol

 

[Cory S]

I used to get my ethanol at the Logan airport shell too lol. The one in Cambridge closes too early.

it was pretty fun to head out there at like 11PM load up on e and then rip through the tunnels on the way back lol

Westboro and Charlton Gulf on the Pike are the best. $3.99/gal, and always test 79-82%.

 

[junits15]

Westboro and Charlton Gulf on the Pike are the best. $3.99/gal, and always test 79-82%.

Before I moved to the greater Boston area, I lived in Westborough. I used to drive up the service road to the employee parking area, walk a 5 gallon can over to the pump and fill up without paying the toll.

Not really feasible anymore since I still have to pay the toll to get out there, but it was fun while it lasted lol

 

[Cordero1]

Hello; I guess if there was not a working alternative then burning up food as a vehicle fuel would make sense. Even the 10% used in most gasoline uses a food grain, corn, to make the alcohol. I do get the potential performance boost.
At the very least removing a portion of a food grain from being used as food over to being used as a fuel supplement raises the cost of the remaining supply of food grains.



Hello; The point about the corn crops being subsidized is one not often pointed out.

Might be misunderstanding your post. What do you mean burning up food? I didn't know Enogen corn or Milo were edible.

 

[K4fxd]

Might be misunderstanding your post. What do you mean burning up food? I didn't know Enogen corn or Milo were edible.

Instead of growing food crops farmers are growing fuel crops. The fuel crops pay more. Sweet corn makes more alcohol than field corn unless you add sugar to the mash.

 

[Cordero1]

Instead of growing food crops farmers are growing fuel crops. The fuel crops pay more. Sweet corn makes more alcohol than field corn unless you add sugar to the mash.

Oh OK. For a second there I thought maybe you believed they were using people food corn for Ethanol. Understood!

 

[MOLL420]

Is that on the Bullitt?? I have a 20 Bullitt and for whatever reason was ignorant of the hp gain. Like 10% power bump with a tune and e85? Which is right at GT350 numbers... Might be why Ford didn't have the system turned on from the factory (my understanding is all the equipment is there but the fuel table or whatever is missing).

What's your Bullitt sound like on e85 tune? Any different?

I have an H pipe from steeda sounds incredible just like stock but louder.

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