I was just currious, has anyone done an E85 fuel conversion. It seems to have some good advantages to doing it, burns cleaner, runs cooler, burns faster, and gets a more effective higher octane, they say 104/108, in turn you can really raise your compression and build alot more power. You only need to use 10% more fuel consumption and its alot more cost effective than regular gas. I just wanted to know if anyone has looked into this as this may be the wave of the future for fuel products. I really dont see a downside to doing this, except the availability for now. If anyone has feedback, or experiance with this fuel please let me know. THANKS.

 

how is it more cost effective then gas, you burn 10% more of it then gas when its only 10- 30 cents cheaper then gas, if you want to up your comp go alky, that is if you dont want to run race gas. and i bet soon as E85 really gets pop the price will go way up.

 

there have been a few threads about it. Do a search, I thought one was a sticky...

 

Try more like 20-30 % loss of mileage. Around Missouri it started out about 50 cents a gallon cheaper than gas was.

However it ALWAYS went up the same amount as gas did.
Curious when it has only 15% regular gasoline in it how can it coincidentally go up the same amount as gas did every time ? Now here it is only 6 cents a gallon cheaper and with the mileage loss I will pass. I have repeatedly told the fuel station I hope that chit rotts in their tanks,
in this case I have an option and that is regular gas. In this case it is more cost effective because of the loss of mileage as verified on my wife's Caravan. Use the 10% alcohol stuff, it works very well, keeps your fuel system clean and has a 89 octane rating and is normally 5 cents cheaper and at least the same price as the regular unleaded. Some stations around here are trying to market it as a mid grade and charge accordingly which is another rip off like E-85 price gouging and regular gas.

10 % alcohol will not harm your seals, I have used it for 15years. E-85 will over the course of a year or two eat up your seals and your fuel pump seals per E-85 REP at the Missouri Department of Transportation, yes they actually
have people assigned to this product....tax dollars at work or waste ?

Fuel pump in my wife's FLEX fuel vehicle (E-85 capable)
was only available from dealer at 400.00 while the regular fuel pump was 159.00. Dealer would not tell me if it was the same except for the special seals for E-85, it was. 20-30% less mileage for only 6 cents less a gallon, I don't think so.

Oil companies are buying up the plants that make E-85 so hold on the price will go up more.

 

Thanks a bunch guys, I was surely misinformed in the Hot Rod mag, they did an article on it and was discussing it. Im from Georgia and we dont have it yet, and from the article it looked like a great deal. I was more currious about the performance aspect of it. They said that it had and effective octane of like 104/108 so wooohoo guess what more compression more power, and they also said that it was just a 10% more requirement......Man I was all set on doing it......lol. Thats why I thought it would be a great idea to check with you guys, someone that had actually had an chance to use it. I just figured that I could even take care of some cooling problems at the same time as alky makes one run cooler, I knew I would have to change pumps and seals but now that I know what the real deal is I will just stick with good old 93OCT. Sounded good on paper.....LOL. That is very currious that it being so much alky content and just a little gas that there is such a increase in the price with the gas. I have also seen a scam going around here also with the 87 to 89 up 10 cents, then the 93 up 16 cents from that, used to be equal steps up 10 cents from each level. The biggest thing that stinks is I know a chemical engineer that used to work for a large petro company in Texas and he told me that it does not cost them one cent more to make the 93 as it does to make the 87 now tell me that dosent suck. The have gotten us used to paying that much now so no one makes a stink about it now and we just keep bending over and taking it, heck its almost as cheap for me to buy and run race gas now......lol. THANKS

 

There was a sticky on it, but it was unstuck after interest waned.

I've been running the 396 on it this season. Biggest advantage is it likes a hot engine, and in the past I've had trouble keeping all that BBC iron cool between rounds. Now I have to make sure the engine is warm enough before a run.

There are two stations that carry it in the Denver area. The closest to me (and the track) was selling it for the same price as regular unleaded, have now dropped it to 10 cents below the cost of regular. The other station has it for $1.999/gal - I picked up two 5-gal cans-worth Thursday, the downtown traffic about drove me nuts - but I saved $6.

For more info, search on this and the Carburetor forums.