so ive heard people talking about e85 gas for awhile now and i really have no clue waht the benefits are for running it. would it be better then running ethanol free gas.

 

A little research anywhere online could give you all this info but basically. Ethanol helps with engine "knocking". You can tune a bit more aggressive with ethanol. E85 is even better at this. Gas mileage does go down using ethanol. You have to have certain things done to your car to run E85. Like a fuel pump that will pump it.

 

e85 is basically 110 octane. which helps with being able to make more power with it. downside is u have to run 30% more volume to run in normal ranges. but burns better and makes more power(when tuned for it)

its the cheapest alternative to race gas (q16 is 15$ a gallon.. just sayin)

my 'race car' uses nothing but e85.. id get e98 if it wasnt a hassle.


plenty of downsides to e85 also.. breakdowns fast and gobbs up stufff are the two simpliest things to note about it. and crappy gas milage since u have to run 30% more.. 30mppg car will go down to about 20mpg. (mine averages about 8mpg highway.. luckly a 1/4 mile is only about 1/2 gallon of gas and i trailer my car)

 

ok but does anyone know benefits vs going with ethanol free gas. i only ask cause theres a station down the road from my work that sales ethanol free gas and i have friends that sure it and they have more power and better mph. any thought?

 

Face palm...

 

Not sure if you know but E-85 is 85% ethanol. You can not run it in your car unless you have the proper fuel set up and tune for it! Ethanol free gas is on the complete other side of the spectrum from it. It's just regular pump gas without the 10ish % blend.

 

haha ya i know its 85% ive got that and ive seen people talking about all the stuff you have to do to go e85. i didnt know that ethanol free was about a 10% blend. i was just wondering if there was a plus for going ehtanol free thats all. but from what im reading im guessing there really isnt a plus side

 

personally kris don't bother yet. I converted but only since my job gives me access to JBLM and there is a station there. I stocked up with about 40 gallons before heading to ER since I'm not on base every week. Really is a hassle. ER got 16lbs on pump with higher compression with my old motor which was around 240whp more then enough to have fun with. I am curious to see what i can do when I rebuild the motor and have it not slapping pistons around again on e85 . E85 isn't 110 octane. I believe 105 but even sites like wikipedia say its not even that. Since your in kent the nearest station is snoqualmie.

E85 has an octane rating higher than that of regular gasoline's typical rating of 87, or premium gasoline's 91-93. This allows it to be used in higher-compression engines, which tend to produce more power per unit of displacement than their gasoline counterparts. The Renewable Fuels Foundation states in its Changes in Gasoline IV manual, "There is no requirement to post octane on an E85 dispenser. If a retailer chooses to post octane, they should be aware that the often cited 105 octane is incorrect. This number was derived by using ethanol’s blending octane value in gasoline. This is not the proper way to calculate the octane of E85. Ethanol’s true octane value should be used to calculate E85’s octane value. This results in an octane range of 94-96 (R+M)/2. These calculations have been confirmed by actual-octane engine tests." [7]

 

thanks ryan it sucks what happend to your motor. im not close to getting ready to use e85 but hopefully i will have my 4g64 with in the next 2 months im just trying to do my home work for when i rebuild it.

 

To be short e85 may not be 110 octane however it acts better than q16 which is 116 octane! Because of ethanol massive cooling properties you can really ring out the boost and timing creating better power than normally possible via octane alone.

To make power with e85 it likes really rich tunes like 11-11.5 AFR contrary to the 13 AFR q16 tunes. I think this is because the richer tune takes advantage of the cooling effect e85 brings making a denser charge and more power.

 

really i didnt know that e85 would run a little cooler. thats really good to know

 

When i say cooler i'm talking about EGT not coolant temp.

 

also, you have to make sure you completely drain the tank b4 switching to e85 or from e85 to pump gas. GM does make a flex fuel sensor with a stand-alone ecu that can support the flex fuel sensor. but safest way is to drain the tank. Also, you have to worry about fuel consistency since e85 contains between 70-85% ethanol, and according to federal regulations, they don't have to inform the buyer of actual ethanol content since it is really intended for flex fuel vehicles. but unless you build your motor and you're planning on a high boost application, i don't really see the need for e85.

 

ok Haha that makes a lot more sense
This is why i asked the question cause I didn't know any of this stuff. Thanks for thr info

 

Even at the same boost level, e85 will make more power. This is due to the increased knock resistance. As a result, you can run more timing, and everyone knows more timing=more power.