First Tank of E85

crashz · Jan 13, 2013

Well the price was $3.29/gallon for E85, $3.53 for regular and near my house I can get regular at $3.34, so if I see any drop in mileage, it won't be economical. With that said, I wouldn't be able to buy E85 on a regular basis since the nearest station with it is at least an hour away.

We don't have much for alternative files available in New England, so this really was a first time that I could try it.

crazyal · Jan 13, 2013

We use to have enough places around that sold non ethanol regular gas so I could swap back and forth between it and E10. I noticed the same thing, normal driving wasn't really effected but you just needed to give it a little more to do the same speeds. Starting off was where I really noticed it, it's also where you use the most gas. I really needed to use more throttle with e10 where the non ethanol just had more pep. Since there's no e85 pumps around I don't have the option but I kind of thought that it would be more of the same.

94BULLITT · Jan 14, 2013

crazyal said:
We use to have enough places around that sold non ethanol regular gas so I could swap back and forth between it and E10. I noticed the same thing, normal driving wasn't really effected but you just needed to give it a little more to do the same speeds. Starting off was where I really noticed it, it's also where you use the most gas. I really needed to use more throttle with e10 where the non ethanol just had more pep. Since there's no e85 pumps around I don't have the option but I kind of thought that it would be more of the same.

How much different was your fuel economy? I think to get the most performance a vehicle should have a special tune for e10 but the fuel economy will be worse than gas. I think a lot of e10 has more than 10% ethanol.

Monster5601 · Jan 14, 2013

E85 drop my average MPG by just over 5 MPG compared to E10 on my 2003 L59 (engine) Tahoe.

PhilY · Jan 14, 2013

I've heard running E10 as compared to standard gas will drop your mpg by about 5%. Has anyone determined what the actual difference is?

Diamondpilot · Jan 14, 2013

PhilY said:
I've heard running E10 as compared to standard gas will drop your mpg by about 5%. Has anyone determined what the actual difference is?

Thats about right.

Running E85 its roughly 35%. I have tested it in a Ford and Nissan and my co pilot tested it in his GM and all three had better than a 30% drop.

Chris

dodge man · Jan 14, 2013

Let me correct something someone else said. With E85, most vehicles will not make more power. You can build an engine to make more power with E85 since it has a high octane, but unless you have a high compression engine, most vehicles will not make more power.

94BULLITT · Jan 14, 2013

A naturally aspirated street engine will make more power with E85 but the power increase is very minimally in most cases less than 10hp with a proper tune.

SSdoxie · Jan 14, 2013

PhilY said:
I've heard running E10 as compared to standard gas will drop your mpg by about 5%. Has anyone determined what the actual difference is?

That 5% is very clsoe to what I have seen on my 2011 Silverado 5.3l. When I first got this truck, I checked actual fuel mileage myself to compare with the computer. Computer was dead-on. I tried 2 tanks of non-ethynol and first tank I purposely run tank down so fuel warning light had been on for awhile. With E10 it averages 17.6 mpg. Filled up with non-ethynol and made a run to Little Rock, AR averaged 19.1 (mostly highway @ 80mph). Had to use E10 to get back home. Second time was making trips to Knoxville & Chattanooga (lot of hills) and had similar results. This was runnig with empty truck so not anything saved $ wise with extra cost of non-ethynol, but if I had to make those runs loaded or pulling, I would pay the price for straight gas.