Speaking of ethonal.

Does anyone have proof or know what would happen to a truck run on e85, if it is a older truck which may not be made to run on e85, Example I have run e85 in my 1999 Dakota a few times and it hasent acted any different from e10. I dont do this at every fill up, but I have filled the truck with e85 2 or 3 times in the past. I met another guy at the e85 pump filling an older Ford ranger, I asked is that a flex fuel truck?? knowing it wasent, he said no, but I dont care, been running this stuff for a few months now. If I wasent concerned about keeping my truck going, I would run e85 in it all the time and see what happened to it,

my understanding there is a difference those can use e85. For example fuel lines are stainless. I have heard using the e85 in a non-flex fuel vehicle will cause problems. In MO they are increasing the amount of ethonal in our mix - state mandated. I belive right now it is 10% and going to 20%. I asked a mechanic about the increase and the effect it could have on my old vehicles - he said "we don't know for sure yet what % it will take before problems begin to show up." But he advised against e85.

The biggest deal that I am aware of is the electric in-tank fuelpump that runs with gasoline flowing right through the motor.

The story is that the alcohol fuel MAY, over time, degrade the copper commutator causing the fuelpump to stop.

GM, for example, calls the in-tank fuel units for flex-fuel vehicles "ROBUST" fuel units. I don't know WHAT has been done to those to make them last better with the alcohol fuel.

A few years back, my son ran quite a bit of E-85 through an old 1986 Firebird with no ill effects. The engine finally wore out (LOTS of miles) before there was ANY fuel-related problems.

I believe that the timing is advanced to compensate for the lower octane rating of the fuel with the additional ethanol.

With respect, Ethanol makes higher Rating not less, and advanced timing is needed to help produce power with more octane added compression is also good, but neither can be easily done without recurving the ignition system (or with a computerized ignition.)

A good friend of mine, worked for Airtex and tested all the blends of Alcohol, starting at 5% threw 100% They thought 10 to 15% affected lines, rubber etc. the worst. This was back in the 80's. He burns alcohol fuels in all his vehicles. Remember when they took Lead out of gasoline, everybody though it was the end of their old engines. Aren't you glad they did? Or did you like grinding valves and overhauling engines. Henry Ford wanted to run the model T on 100% Ethanol, thought it would be better for the country.

From April to Nov I put e85 in my 95 f150 about every other tankfull when it is down to 1/4, haven't noticed any problems except it doesn't want to start right away at 30F or colder

Interesting video about using E85 in a non flex fuel car.

We now have an E30 blender pump and I use that all the time, even in this winters cold temps, starts great.
Have run as strong as E70 in my dakota pickup in summer with no problem.
105,000 miles on E85

Everyone PLEASE CONTACT ME..NEVER USE E-85 IN2 CYCLE AND AIRCOOLED LAWN MOWER /TILLER ENGINES ./ rubber Fuel pump gaskets turn into mush and flood the crankcase with Gas AND MOISTURE! ,, FUEL PUMP GASKETS TURNED INTO MUSH AND Same rubber type carburator ACCELERATOR PUMP gaskets on my 1975 330 Ford Grain Truck ,. same occured on my 1986 /318 Dodge fuelLIFT pump.. And my 1987 350 Chevy in tank fuel pump,, and the electric fuel LIFT pump on my 300 Massey combine ... All of this happened to me in SUMMER OF 2010 ,(PERHAPS THE SUPPLEER OF E-85 ADDED A KILLER SOLVENT LAST SUMMER ??) iF i COULD GET A RELIABLE GASKET MAKER THAT CAN HANDLE E -85 I WOULD CONTINUE USING E-85 in above engines ,BECAUSE E-85 WILL RUN IN THOSE ENGINES JUST LISTED ... I started out some 5 yrs ago using e-85 blended with gas that acheived e-40 + ,, All RAN WELL WITH LITTLE ADJUSTMENTS NEEDED OTHER THAN COLD NATURED STARTS requiring choke .. I THINK THAT IF I WOULD HAD STAYED BELOW E-50 BLEND all would still be ok . but IN THE LAST 3 YRS i pushed up to e-85 on everything . and the gaskets failed causing a nitemare.. HOWEVER THERE IS SUCCESS... THIS WORX SINCE THERE ARE NO RUBBER PARTS TO DESTROY... currently i use e-65 +blend in my dailyrunner 730 case feeding tractor,,. i tarp the radiator to build heat quikly,, 730,dc ,sc AND vaC CASE Starts easily... in all below zero temps events this winter i have added regular gas to improve cold natured and easier starts .. ALL LAST SUMMER THESE TRACTORS BURNED E-85 JUST FINE .. SO FAR SO GOOD ,ya can learn from my failures .. ...email is open leave your ph# if you need to talk ...

There are two problems with running E85 in a non-Flex Fuel vehice: 1) the fuel system components were not designed for fuels with high ethanol content, and 2) the fuel mixture is not adjusted to handle E85. Do people do it? Yes. Do they hurt their vehicle? Maybe.

Once you allow for the reduced fuel mileage, it seldom makes sense to run E85 even in a Flex Fule vehicle. I don't see any reason at all to run it in a non-Flex Fuel vehicle.

Your truck, you do what you want. You know what the manufacturer recommends.

You may NEED SOMEONE TO talk TO.

If one were to try to interpret your post (with difficulty)

one might discern some psychosis involved

The reason I see for running E-85 would be it puts money into an American Farmers pocket rather than a foreigners pocket and it is a renewable resource.

I have a 2007 Flex fuel Tahoe. It gets 17 MPG with 10% ethanol gas. Gets almost 14 MPG with E85.

So if I can get E85 for 20% less than E10 it pays to use it.

Friday 10% was $3.50. E 85 was $2.65. E 85 was below by more than 20% so I filled with E85.

Most of the time E85 is 20% less or more.

I'll support the US rather then the foreign countries anytime with those prices.

Gary

I have heard that in northern climates that E85 is not nearly 85% in the winter as it would make for very hard starting, any comments on this? I have a friend that ran straight alcohol in a stock car and he had to start it on gasoline even in the summer!

E85 is about 70% ethanol. Since 1% water is accepatble in E85, the potential for fuel delivery systems problems is likely. However if you buy it from a good clean supply source, then you probably won"t have problems. I am runing it in a GMC 1500, a 95 Camaro and a 2006 Impala and I haven"t ahd any problems whatsoever.

www.fuelsandlubestechnologies.org

We have a 2003 Dodge van, flex fuel. Mileage drops 11 percent on E-85. When E85 is 40 cents under gasoline, we are money ahead to use it. Currently, E85 is about 65 cents under gasoline. How is that not profitable?

It's not state mandated it is EPA mandated. All 50 states must go to the 15% blend and there will no longer be premium available without ethanol in it. Once again, EPA mandated.

I just know that I've talked to a guy at the gas station who pulls up to the E85 pump with a late 80s or early 90 Chevy pickup and says that's all he runs in it. Can't say I blame him for trying. Saw E85 today for $2.89.

"Mileage drops 11 percent on E-85"

HOW do you convince yourself of that...

Official EPA figures show over a 30% decrease in mileage for a 2003 flex-fuel Dodge van running on E85 vs. unleaded gasoline.

As of yet I have not seen that, the ethanol providers would like to see 15% E allowed, but so far all that is allowed in some places and mandated in others is E10.

Not all areas have mandated Ethanol in gasoline.
There is a several state wide corridor from North Dakota to Texas where there is no ethanol mandate, we don't have the air problems, so regulations are a bit more lax.
Here in ND, it is very common to find Ethanol free 87 octane regular,E10, E30, E85 all sold from the same pump, one black hose and three yellow ones. My rigs seem to love the E30 blend in winter
For us as of last week,E free Regular and E10 have the same price, while E30 is 40 cents cheaper, E 85 is 80 cents cheaper.

Years of experience and keeping records.

It seems all engines are not equal in their ability to gain from the higher octane of the ethanol blends. It seems the higher compression ratio, the better efficiecy they get from high octane E blends. Odd thing is that a non flex fuel engine often makes better MPG on an E blend than a FFV engine with more conservative mixture and ignition settings.
I suspect a non FFV engine running on an E30 or stronger blend runs a bit on the lean side which helps it make better mpg.

An interesting thing is that my Hybrid car with a 13 / 1 compression ratio Atkinson cycle engine, actually makes better MPG on 89 or 90 octane E10 than it does on 87 octane pure gasoline.
By BTU count alone, E10 has 3% less btu than pure gasoline, but it aparently gains enough efficiency from the 3 points higher octane to offset the heat loss with higher conversion efficiency when making cylinder pressure from the avalible heat.

Bob, don't you know? Anecdotal evidence always out-trumps testing in a multi-million dollar dyno lab.

just stopped by ..saw your prognosis ,and i think it takes one to know one ...