E85 Anyone?

[SteveHatz]

interesting....more power from e85 if tuned accordingly....but is e85 worse for the engine in any way? Some say that 98 keeps the engine internals clean and in good condition etc...how does e85 fair in this department?

 

[Munz]

I know this isn't helpful, and it's not like my engine can even run on E85, but I'd still rather eat shards of glass than put even more ethanol in my fuel.
My old car got shocking performance on regular unleaded with ethanol, I'll stick to real fuel in my new ride!

The problem is the fuel distributers make an 87 octane platform fuel and add 10% ethanol which makes a 91 octane (this is why cars run like **** and get poor mileage)
A few different distributors here in brisbane are running 91 octane fuel with 10% ethanol added increasing octane to 95, and 95 octane + 10% to make 98 this is what it should be as there is more km's to be had when its made this way

 

[padrickz88]

Dead easy to do... just need big ass injectors/Carby/fuel pumps/fuel system and very deep pockets as you will use up to 25% more fuel than normal 98octane, depending on the old right foot... the cost variance is big.

Until E85 comes down to the price of 98, I don't see the benifit, however some must be the first and it has to start somewhere as this is a renewable resource not like fossil fuels.

e85 is cheaper from servo's...... about $1-1.25 apparently... Will be pretty good when its widely available

 

[Jarp]

If I was going to tune my car to an alternative fuel, I'm thinking I'd probably go for a liquid injection gas system over bio-ethanol.

Yeah reckon I'd go the gas liquid injection too.

 

[Johnsy]

lol, "real fuel" alcohol is the way of the future. once it becomes more available i am going to set up my carby to run on it.

Lol you mention the way of the future then mention your carby in the same sentence... you better inform some of the younger gen y's what one of those are

I did get 560k with a nice long run all highway.

That's not much on the highway dude... My car has shown 750 k's till empty after a freeway run.

 

[IceyAUS]

That's not much on the highway dude... My car has shown 750 k's till empty after a freeway run.

"shown" and what you get are two diffrent things i have found...

And for e85 it aint too bad for 560k

 

[pjdm1980]

If I was going to tune my car to an alternative fuel, I'm thinking I'd probably go for a liquid injection gas system over bio-ethanol.

Done it and love it!
Get about same economy as petrol but 80 cent a litre cheaper and a extra 10Rwk's!!!!

 

[NickVR]

It's not a cost effective way of running as yet. I did my own test with a VE Series 2 which is designed to run it from factory. There is a massive difference and for it to be cost effective it would need to be priced around the same as gas. There is only a $0.20 between E85 and Normal Unleaded. Results are below.

E85

91 Unleaded


As for the running of the car, there was not much of a difference in the way it performed. The only thing I did notice is that on colder mornings it took a little longer to start.
This was a 15-20min drive to and from work and a bit of suburban driving. The drive to work has 60,70 and 80kph zones with about 45% of 60 and 80kph and 10% 70 kph.

 

[jneil]

Done it and love it!
Get about same economy as petrol but 80 cent a litre cheaper and a extra 10Rwk's!!!!

80c a litre cheaper...what drugs are you on? I've seen it no more than 38c cheaper and this is my 19th tank of the stuff!

I get on average about 330km out of a tank of about 54L at an average speed of 47km/h. I find it uses about 3L more than on 98. On 98 I get 271rwkw on e85 its 277rwkw with a complete KPM 3", VCM OTR & custom KPM tuning in an SCT Flash unit. I can certainly notice it has more poke!

At crap average speeds just sitting in traffic idling for most of the time and seeing 18L/100km (ish) on the trip computer isn't so much fun though but at $20 a tank less per week, I think it's worth it!

 

[pjdm1980]

80c a litre cheaper...what drugs are you on? I've seen it no more than 38c cheaper and this is my 19th tank of the stuff!

NONE! 60 cents max for gas (usually about 56 cents) and $1.40 for bp ultimate (which my car has to run).
I usually get a average of high 11's or low 12's with a mix of highway driving and city work (give or take a bit with gas usage).