# What is E15-E85, and why not to use if it costs less and get you from point A to point B.



## ntcindetroit (Mar 23, 2017)

Why not to use E15-E85 if it costs less than E10 and get you from point A to point B?


----------



## Frontier Guy (Dec 27, 2015)

Unless your vehicle is rated to use E85/E15, it’s a good way to screw up your engine, as well get worse fuel mileage


----------



## CarpeNoctem (Sep 12, 2018)

Found this thing called google.

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.


----------



## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Some cars can run E-85 right out of factory.
I own a couple of them.

Have never SEEN E-85 where I get fuel.


----------



## kingcorey321 (May 20, 2018)

Back in 2002 plus or minus . I had two chevy trucks that would use the e85. My results . Traveling at 77mph on the freeway the gas petal was half way to the floor compared to gasoline . The fuel mpg was about half as gasoline .
Horse power was about half ! . Price of e85 was about 25 % less . No after both trucks lost money per gallon i never used it again . I did test by mixing them 50 % 50 % results came up epa but it was still below gasoline .


----------



## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

Ethanol in gas is because of corn subsidies. But environmentalism is the excuse for it.

Ethanol reduces fuel efficiency. It only has about 2/3 the energy density as gasoline. It is great to use if you want to spend a lot more time at the pump.

Even E10 is bad for a lot of older cars. Ethanol fuel costs less but depending on your car you may gain enough efficiency boost from ethanol free (E0) to make up for the cost difference. The theoretical chemical energy difference between E10 and E0 may only be 3%, but on a lot of older cars designed around E0, the efficiency loss can be much worse. Newer cars designed for E10 but older than the advanced computers that can determine ethanol concentration on the fly may see little to no advantage with E0 because the system is optimized for E10. Modern cars with advanced sensors can optimize the burn for varying levels of ethanol. More ethanol will always be less mileage but sure, a modern car could probably save you money on E85 as long as it is more than 30% cheaper to buy. 

But if you are an Uber driver, how is having 72% of the range by using E85 going to affect your bottom line? Imagine running out of fuel when surge is high. Taking that time to refuel might cost you.

I was reading on a motorcycle forum that with E0 gas a guy was able to get a top speed of 85 mph on his older small displacement motorcycle, but only 70 mph on E10. 70 as a top speed isn't great for the highway. Topping out at 70 probably means cruising at 60-65 depending on winds. Could get you run over.


----------



## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

If your engine doesn’t take e15-e85 your putting the wrong fuel in it.

it’s like putting gasoline into a diesel truck.


it’s wrong… you don’t have to know why you just have to know it’s wrong.


----------



## KenLV (Jun 23, 2017)

Even if your car can use it, don't.

Sure, it's less expensive, but the decrease in mileage is greater than the decrease in cost.

It's a net LOSS for you.

The only people making out on E85 is the corn farmer (thanks entirely to subsidies).

Everyone else is efed - including the environment.

Only under the most optimal conditions and using the latest farming techniques and technology is there a net gain in ethanol production.

In practice, this rarely happens and it takes more than 1 gallon of fossil fuels to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. LOL






70 Percent More Energy Required to Make Ethanol than Actually is in Ethanol: Cornell


CU scientist terms corn-based ethanol 'subsidized food burning' Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what one Cornell agricultural scientist calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make...




www.organicconsumers.org


----------



## nutzareus (Oct 28, 2014)

I have a E85 flex fuel Dodge Grand Caravan. It’s not worth it when you lose 20% miles per gallon when the price of the E85 fuel doesn’t justify the purchase.


----------



## Atavar (Aug 11, 2018)

It is really not less expensive. If you take reduced gas mileage in to account you will likely get more miles/$ with regular gas, spend less time at the pump and not hurt your engine.


----------



## ntcindetroit (Mar 23, 2017)

I'm a little puzzled. Here in Detroit, I frequently observe that gas stations are out of E85, I've not experience of outage of E10 or regular yet since I started experiment using E85 on my gig vehicles. 

Is that demand of E85 is stronger, outstrips the supply?

ps, Only gas stations advertise E85 at $2.09 to $2.29 are out of stock occasionally, those advertise $2.39~$2.89 seem always have fuel at pump. Regular gas selling around $3~$3.29 here.


----------



## Frontier Guy (Dec 27, 2015)

Given how much cheaper it is, a lot of people will run it without realizing they are wasting their money


----------



## Frontier Guy (Dec 27, 2015)

Frontier Guy said:


> Given how much cheaper it is, a lot of people will run it without realizing they are wasting their money


The only upside to E85 is it's usually a higher octane, so in some vehicles you may notice a little better acceleration, but it doesn't offset the increased burn rate. My last pickup was not E85 tolerant, but I would run 5 to 8 gallons of it mixed with regular unleaded once a month to clean the fuel system out, anything more than 8 gal. per 24 gal tank would trip a CEL.


----------



## June132017 (Jun 13, 2017)

Remove slowly fuel spray may cause injury. I never in all my years seen anything close to that. I've filled my tank when it only needed a gallon too. Usually I was tracking my mileage and forgot to write down the mileage when that happened.


----------



## forqalso (Jun 1, 2015)

It’s good to use when you have to return a rental car refueled.


----------



## ntcindetroit (Mar 23, 2017)

forqalso said:


> It’s good to use when you have to return a rental car refueled.


Learn something new.


----------

