THansenite

I thought I remember seeing a post on this a while back but when I tried searching, I came up dry.

I am curious if anyone runs E85 in their tC. E85 pumps have been popping up around here and I want to make sure it is ok to use before I fill my beloved tC with it. Thanks

TheQuietThings

E85 , as in... 85 octane?

that ish wouldnt ever come close to my gas tank.

PrivateTucker

Ethanol gas, don't know if it can be used. There's a site out there that you can go to and find out the E85 stations and they have a list of cars that use it as well.

Spanbauer

Last time I checked that site, it listed nothing but American cars, dominantly Chrysler, I believe.

PrivateTucker

yeah, usually a car is marketed as FFV, or a Flex-Fuel Vehicle. Those are the ones that usually run the E85.

nodsetse

IIRC, it implies 85% Ethanol, and this does not reflect the octane rating.

THansenite

I was hoping I could use it in my car. My dad is a farmer so I like to try to use as many products affiliated with corn and soy beans as I can.

io333

E85 is, I believe, somewhere in the neighborhood of 110 ocatane rating. However, it has far less energy per squirt than regular gasoline. With Forced Induction though, all that octane means you can turn boost WAY up. As far as I can tell, the only barrier to running E85 in a car is whether or not there is aluminum in the fuel system somewhere. If not, the can can run it with only an ECU flash.

rjj130

I just read this morning that a lot of people are reluctant to try E85 because it's about $.10 more a gallon and has a high fuel consumption rate, which equals less MPG.

Until they can perfect it, or if you somehow buy a car specifically made for E85 use, you would probably be throwing your money down the drain...but it is helping the environment...I guess?

iowagary

To follow up, i just read yesterday that standard gas has 1.4x more energy per gallon than E85, so even if they were priced the same, you'd need 14 gallons of E85 to go as far as 10 gallons of gas. It is a renewable fuel though, so there are upsides. If I lived somewhere you could get it, I'd consider it at least sometimes if the car could drive with it. It doesn't say it can anywhere in the manual though - it might make it a little bit but I think you'd be doing real damage somewhere. Even if it should be capable of running it, if the ECU doesn't know what to do, it's going to end up damaging something.

THansenite

Wow, here in Iowa, E85 is around 40 to 60 cents cheaper than regular gas. I guess living here, we don't have to worry about shipping the gas very far seeing Ethanol plants are popping up all over the place.

The Des Moines bus system just switched to E85 in the past month or so. I am glad to see it is gaining popularity so we can reduce our having to rely on oil from overseas.

rjj130

Yeah, it's probably a lot cheaper closer to the plants. Corn based ethanol evaporates extremely quick during transport so they actually lose some of it during the whole process....plus just like NJ usually has cheaper gas then the rest of the Northeast, you're bound to see some discounts close to the manufacture point.

dgHotLava

as this could be informative to all cars (not just tC's)

moving to MCC.

Da_Mac

This is very interesting.. I am going to watch for future inquiries.....

io333

It looks like Toyota doesn't make any E85 vehicles:

http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php


However, I did find a really neat thing on the web that lets you find the cheapest gas in your area:

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gassta...?zip=&src=Netx

nodsetse

Opting out on notification for thread updates.

tobu

I for one would like to see E85 die out (and bio diesel too). It reduces certain types of emissions, but it also increases other types which are considered carcinogenic. In addition, the production of E85 and biodiesel consume more petroleum fuels than the ones they are intended to replace. The whole world needs to reduce the dependency on oil, but it has to be well though out. It makes me disgusted to see Car manufacturers trumpeting their E85 flex fuel vehicles as if it were environmentally responsible.

io333

Oh I agree completely. I was more or less just wondering if I could put it in the tank in a pinch. Apparently not.

stillmotion

I dont see why you couldnt... I just may try a few gallons

Underhill

Last I knew ethonal took as much, or near as much, energy to produce as you get out of it. So the gains are minimal even discounting any supposed emissions benefits.