What are the downsides of E85?
The main disadvantage to using E85 is the fact that it's less dense than traditional gasoline. This means that your car will need to burn more fuel to get the same amount of distance compared to petrol, this works out to be about a 30% increase in fuel consumption.
E85 can damage your car's engine: Ethanol is a corrosive substance that can wear down your engine's components over time. Ethanol can also cause problems with your car's fuel system and ignition system.
E85 has higher octane than regular gasoline. This means that E85 is a lot better for your car's engine than regular gasoline. It is also a cleaner fuel with lesser harmful emissions. On the downside, E85 burns faster and produces lesser energy than gasoline.
E85 Cools Your Engine Better Than Regular Gasoline
It requires lower combustion temperatures. Also, it creates a thermodynamic cooling effect that regular gasoline doesn't offer. This is quite beneficial because E85 helps keep the engine cool. This helps keep the engine healthy.
E85 can lower your vehicle's MPG by up to 25%, but many vehicles only lose 15% to 20% in fuel mileage. Even if you see a 25% drop in your vehicle's mileage, you'll still save money anyway.
Since ethanol contains less energy per volume than gasoline, FFVs will generally get 15%-27% fewer miles per gallon when fueled with E85, depending on the car and the driver's driving habits.
“So, every gallon of ethanol that gets blended comes with an RFS credit that is today worth about $1.50 a gallon," he says. "Some marketers and blenders are passing along some or much of the value of those RIN credits to consumers in the form of these lower prices.
What happens if you use the wrong fuel? In some cases, using the wrong fuel is harmless. Other times, like if you accidentally put E85 fuel in a car that's not designed for it, you can void your engine warranty or cause costly damage to fuel lines.
Putting E85 in a Gas Car
The check engine light will most likely illuminate, but you can top off the rest of your tank with regular gasoline and ride it out. A one-time mix-up with E85 gas shouldn't cause any long-term damage.
Faster Burning
E85 fuel has a faster ignition time and flame propagation when compared to gasoline. This leads to higher cylinder pressure, as well as increased engine torque and power, gaining up to 20%.
How much horsepower does E85 add?
On a stock turbocharger, it is not uncommon to achieve 40 to 50 more peak horsepower over gasoline. On larger turbo setups, it is possible to gain 100 or more horsepower by using E85. With flex fuel options that are available or right around the corner, using E85 is going to become even better than ever.
Using any octane level of gasoline in a flex-fuel vehicle is acceptable. The sensors in an FFV detect whether the fuel is pure gasoline or 85% ethanol and make necessary changes for optimal fuel injection and timing of combustion. Putting E85 in a car not designed for flexible fuel can be harmful.
Right off the bat, any contest between 112-octane E85 and premium unleaded pump gas (91- or 93-octane) would be no comparison. The E85 offers more power, even before we get into the added ability to run more timing and/or boost from the lack of octane on the pump gas.
Yet, it's hard to ignite it in freezing temperatures. With the presence of ethanol, the volatility (vapor pressure) of gasoline increases. For ethanol to warm up, it needs to vaporize. The increased volatility means it takes more energy for ethanol to vaporize.
E85 contains less energy than 100% gasoline. Based on its energy content and cost per unit volume, it is actually less efficient as a motor fuel, with fewer miles per gallon. In addition, the big lie about ethanol involves ignoring the huge amounts of CO2 created to produce fertilizer for the grain (usually corn).
The ethanol sucks up water the longer it sits, so it has to be sealed very very very well if you're storing it for several weeks. If you're going to longterm storage (>6 weeks) you'll need a metal container. E85 will eat away at the plastic over long periods of time.
Ethanol has a corrosive action on fuel-system components, magnesium, aluminium and rubber. Running E85 on older model engines without tuning and replacing some components will ruin the engine in short time. Replacing fuel hoses, fuel pumps, gaskets, seals, fuel filters, fuel injectors, throttle bodies, etc.
| E85 | GASOLINE* | |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel economy, mpg | ||
| City | 7 | 9 |
| Highway | 15 | 21 |
| 150-mile trip | 13 | 18 |
Cost of corn, ethanol's main ingredient, has trended higher, with refineries scrambling to supply gasoline additive. Demand for fuel as drivers return to the road is pushing ethanol prices close to an all-time high.
In other words, you'll be filling the tank more often when using E85. Do the math and you'll discover that E85 must be priced roughly 28 percent less than gas just to break even. For example, if gasoline is $3 per gallon, E85 would have to be priced below $2.16 per gallon.
Why do people want E85?
Cooling Effect – E85 also provides a significant cooling effect that is not found in gasoline. This cooling effect will provide lower temperatures in the combustion chamber during the ignition process which allows for a safer environment in high-performance engines that run high boost pressures or ignition timing.
While ethanol is less efficient (about 30% less) than gasoline due to the lower burn rate, E85 tends to be cheaper at the pump and has less of a negative impact on the environment than gasoline.
One other thing that you want to keep in mind is if your car has a yellow gas cap, that typically means that your car is E85 compatible - 85 percent ethanol - and you want to replace it with the same type.
The benefit of a modern flex-fuel vehicle, though, is that you can use any combination of gasoline and ethanol, whether it's 100 percent unleaded gas or 85 percent ethanol. Your vehicle's sensors will detect the blend and make the necessary changes.
- E85 Convertible | Audi A5 Cabriolet – 16 MPG Combined.
- E85 Coupe | Audi A5 Coupe – 16 MPG Combined.
- E85 Crossover | Chevrolet Equinox – 18 MPG Combined.
- E85 Hatchback | Ford Focus FFV – 23 MPG Combined.
- E85 Minivan | Chrysler Town and Country / Dodge Grand Caravan – 14 MPG Combined.
Ethanol doesn't damage catalytic converters. If anything, ethanol will help keep your catalytic converters clean.
Using E85 in your vehicle without an E85-specific engine tune can quickly ruin your engine. That's because more fuel is needed when E85 is used. If you were to try to run E85 in an engine that was tuned for gasoline, it would run lean. Running lean can lead to serious engine damage.
E85 alone (even with a tuned engine) won't make your car louder. It may change the way your exhaust sounds, but most of the time there isn't a noticeable change in volume. Some car owners have reported a growlier sound with E85 and smoother running engine, but the sound isn't louder.
Unleaded 87, 89 and 91 are up to 10% ethanol. Unleaded 88 is 15% ethanol, which is why it's cheaper. Flex fuel has anywhere from 51% to 83% ethanol depending on the region and time of year.
E85 actually burns a little bit quicker so again just if you keep your mind back to our demonstration where we were talking about what we're trying to do with our ignition timing, we're trying to set the ignition timing so that peak cylinder pressure occurs at that optimal point, 16-18° after TDC.
Can you mix e85 and premium gas?
By blending pump premium (or 91 if you like) with E85, you can create a custom blend of high-octane fuel.
The most common cause of slow flow is clogged filters. Filters can clog due to the age of the filter. Although filters do not have a shelf life, as a general rule they should be changed once per calendar year. If you dispense over 100,000 gallons per month, we recommend changing filters every 6 months.
E85 has a typical octane rating of around 100-110. That's 7-17 more octane points than 93, 9-19 more points than 91. This is one of the big reasons you can make more power with E85. Turbocharged Subaru engines, as well as other brands, are knock limited from the factory on 91/93 octane.
E85 also burns faster than regular gasoline because it vaporizes faster.
Simply the best non-oxygenated unleaded racing gasoline on the market, C10 does not contain any metal compounds and will not harm catalytic converters or oxygen sensors. Its performance record includes many past SCCA and Ferrari World Challenge championships.
For example, E85 sold during colder months often contains lower levels of ethanol to produce the vapor pressure necessary for starting in cold temperatures. For this reason, fueling site operators offering ethanol blends typically cannot carry over summer-blend E85 into the winter months.
It takes the o2 sensors longer to heat up, in turn the car doesn't run or idle the best in cold weather until warmed up, it will crank quite a bit then finally start. The problem with ethanol (e85) is it's "Reid Vapor pressure" (RVP), it simply does not want to vaporize below 50 degrees.
Generally speaking, 40 degrees is about the limit. A lot of people don't keep E85 in their car year round if it gets below 40 degrees. At freezing, you'd likely have even more issues and it might not start.
Why are so few cars using ethanol? Not enough gas stations carry ethanol. Most stations that do are located in big corn-producing states, which cuts down on shipping costs. Out of the 556 stations nationwide that carry E85, only 118 are located along the East and West coasts.
Please be certain to run your tank as empty as you can before switching to your new fuel an mapping. I recommend that with your first two tank of E85 fuel, drive gently until your tank is nearly empty again, fill up with fresh E85 --again: do this twice before feeling confident to drive aggressively.
How long does it take for E85 to mix with gas?
Not as important if you're previous fill-up was with the same ethanol ratio, but if you're changing ratios, or going from straight pump to an E85/93 blend, just stating that it takes around 2 minutes or so for that to make its way to the sensor.
If you put lower-octane fuel into your high-octane vehicle, whether by mistake or to save money on gas, you'll probably notice the effects right away: things like poor fuel economy, reduced acceleration, and spark knock, which sounds like a high-pitched pinging or rattling noise.
If your car isn't a flex-fuel vehicle and you mistakenly add E85 to your tank, you may notice reduced performance and gas mileage. Your check engine light may also appear, but the mishap likely won't damage the engine. They recommend topping the tank off with regular gasoline several times.
Using any octane level of gasoline in a flex-fuel vehicle is acceptable. The sensors in an FFV detect whether the fuel is pure gasoline or 85% ethanol and make necessary changes for optimal fuel injection and timing of combustion. Putting E85 in a car not designed for flexible fuel can be harmful.
E85 also burns faster than regular gasoline because it vaporizes faster. So your engine may eat through E85 faster than regular gasoline.
Yes, you can. Provided your engine is designed to run on E85, you can feed it any ratio of E85/gasoline. You should not attempt this in an engine not designed to run on E85.
The lower rated fuel could be tolerated by engines that use carburetors. However, modern engines cannot tolerate the lower octane-rated products as easily as older cars. It is not recommended that you use 85-rated fuel if you drive a modern car.
So if you have E85 sitting in your fuel system, chances are it's still good. If you're storing E85 outside of the vehicle for more than 6 weeks, be sure to use a metal container. E85, like gasoline, eats away at plastic over time.
E85 flex fuel not only powers your engine but also cleans your engine, fuel lines, and fuel injectors. That's because E85 contains a high amount of ethanol, up to 83%. Ethanol is an excellent cleaner. It clears the engine, fuel lines, and fuel injectors of deposits.
Flammability At low temperature (32°), E85 vapor is more flammable than gasoline vapor.
Can you just switch to E85?
You've seen cars making huge power on E85. However, you can't just switch fuel. That would make your car run worse. It could also cause damage.
E85 fuel has a faster ignition time and flame propagation when compared to gasoline. This leads to higher cylinder pressure, as well as increased engine torque and power, gaining up to 20%.
