First Tank Of E85 On My 09 Sd

[red00lght]

Well, I finally did a search for E85 stations, and it turned out there was one 2 miles from my house. It is 2.49 a gallon and their premium is 3.15/gallon down here in South Florida.

 

So, I filled the truck up and have been running down the tank. Seems like the mileage is down about 2mpg which is what past threads mentioned. But, the truck seems to run with a little less of the hesitation issue that it had. It certainly didn't seem to lose power, which is what I was fearing would happen.

 

All in all, pretty cool technology! Too bad it costs mpgs...but no such thing as a free lunch I guess!

 

How does E85 work in relation to tunes (like Blackbear for example...)?

[medic9126]

Less mpg, and it takes more energy to make it than it provides when you burn it. No wonder our efficient-as-ever Government is pushing its use.

[Jubei69]

Well, I finally did a search for E85 stations, and it turned out there was one 2 miles from my house. It is 2.49 a gallon and their premium is 3.15/gallon down here in South Florida.

 

So, I filled the truck up and have been running down the tank. Seems like the mileage is down about 2mpg which is what past threads mentioned. But, the truck seems to run with a little less of the hesitation issue that it had. It certainly didn't seem to lose power, which is what I was fearing would happen.

 

All in all, pretty cool technology! Too bad it costs mpgs...but no such thing as a free lunch I guess!

 

How does E85 work in relation to tunes (like Blackbear for example...)?

 

 

E85 doesn't work for custom tunes or handheld tuners, that I know of; only good old octane gas and diesel gas will work... My Superchips Flashpaq tuner even says that don't do any of the tunes if you are using E85...

[jblakeney]

Off topic but, if it ain't broke do not fix it..... Gasoline has worked for years and is way more efficient. Plus we the tax payers are not subsidizing gas... We are the Ethanol. Just 10% ethanol in my truck I have noticed mileage dropping 2 to 3 mpgs.... E85 should dropppper on down further providing my truck was flex fuel.

 

However, I am thinking about putting a LS1/4l60e in a 1988 Cutlass (Gbody platform) I bought a couple years ago (it was just a rolling chassis), and putting her on the bottle.... The propane bottle that is... Some of the cleanest engines internally I have ever seen ran on propane. Kinda sortta a everyday ride to work. It'd give my 99 GMC a break from day to day driving.

 

Jbo

[C. Charles Hahn]

Supposedly, E85 is supposed to actually boost performance, not hurt it. The mileage drop though makes it just about even out with normal petrol in terms of the cost.

[Jubei69]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

[Bish]

Everything I've heard is you lose power on E85 because there is less energy in it compared to a gallon of gas. I have never run it nor will I because I believe it is an unsustainable form of fuel that competes DIRECTLY with our food supply. Now if they could make it with waste like switchgrass and stalks then it makes more sense but definitely not when using corn.

 

I do believe you can make up the energy loss by designing a motor to run on ONLY E85 ()high compression) but AFAIK, a gallon of E85 in the same engine produces less power compared to gasoline.

[RyanbabZ71]

E85 doesn't work for custom tunes or

 

FALSE

 

I posed this question on the blackbear thread and it is fine to run with a tune.

 

E85 is like 107 octane?

 

Just filled up today with E85 and got 12.72 mpg. My last 2 tanks on Premium were 12.7 and 14.2, only about a 10.5% difference in milage between the two.

 

Not bad in my book. I see a much higher decrease in milage in my 5.3 Tahoe (16-17%). I think the 6.2 likes the corn fuel much more than the 5.3

[Nick The Great]

I agree with Ryan. Though I will admit that Justin @ Blackbear didn't really know a whole lot about E85. I believe I was his first customer who used E85

 

By my spreadsheet, I've run almost 1200 gallons of E85 through my truck with an average right at 11 mpg. I have a 8 mile commute, that takes about 20 minutes (stops and go, stops and go). My regular gas average is 12.7 mpg.

 

I'm a BIG E85 proponent. E85 does have less BTU/gal of energy (HHV). This is why you get an mpg drop. I will (and have) argue until I'm blue in the face about ethanol depleting our food supply. That is complete horseshit. The reason food prices went up so hard was largely due to petroleum increasing by 500% or so.

 

Sorry. /rant. I told myself I wouldn't discuss Ethanol anymore.

 

Tax structures aside, my rule of thumb in my truck is 40 cent cost differential. Her Impala is probably more like 50. And that's about where the price diff is here in Des Moines today.

[red00lght]

Didn't know this thread would create so many different opinions on E85!

The truck does seem to run better, and I sure do like the $49 fillups!

[Jubei69]

E85 doesn't work for custom tunes or

 

FALSE

 

I posed this question on the blackbear thread and it is fine to run with a tune.

 

E85 is like 107 octane?

 

Just filled up today with E85 and got 12.72 mpg. My last 2 tanks on Premium were 12.7 and 14.2, only about a 10.5% difference in milage between the two.

 

Not bad in my book. I see a much higher decrease in milage in my 5.3 Tahoe (16-17%). I think the 6.2 likes the corn fuel much more than the 5.3

 

 

I didn't mean that you couldn't run it, what I was trying to convey; is that I believe you would lose some performance gains running E85 if you have either a Custom tune or are handheld tuned... So yes you could run E85, if you got a custom tune or used a handheld tuner; but I would assume you would lose some of the performance gains, since you arent' tuned for it?

Put a Custom tuned truck or handheld tuned truck tuned that is tuned for 91 octane on a dyno and then run it with 89 octane or E85 on the dyno, and I'm sure you'll see a HP drop; just like a truck tuned for 87 octane running E85, I would presume you should would see a HP drop. Now does the drop in HP, have any real world implications, probably not.

[sc4808]

I have ran a lot of E85 and have never noticed a performance difference, only a slight mileage decrease.

 

Not to stir the pot but.......what about the argument of putting the money (fuel money) in american companys (E85) vs foreign oil companys (Gasoline).

[GPSilverado]

E85 doesn't work for custom tunes or

 

FALSE

 

I posed this question on the blackbear thread and it is fine to run with a tune.

 

E85 is like 107 octane?

 

Just filled up today with E85 and got 12.72 mpg. My last 2 tanks on Premium were 12.7 and 14.2, only about a 10.5% difference in milage between the two.

 

Not bad in my book. I see a much higher decrease in milage in my 5.3 Tahoe (16-17%). I think the 6.2 likes the corn fuel much more than the 5.3

 

 

I didn't mean that you couldn't run it, what I was trying to convey; is that I believe you would lose some performance gains running E85 if you have either a Custom tune or are handheld tuned... So yes you could run E85, if you got a custom tune or used a handheld tuner; but I would assume you would lose some of the performance gains, since you arent' tuned for it?

Put a Custom tuned truck or handheld tuned truck tuned that is tuned for 91 octane on a dyno and then run it with 89 octane or E85 on the dyno, and I'm sure you'll see a HP drop; just like a truck tuned for 87 octane running E85, I would presume you should would see a HP drop. Now does the drop in HP, have any real world implications, probably not.

 

 

 

I'm not sure how the tuned trucks respond to E85 (I can test it in the near future) but a stock truck with a 5.3 rated at 315hp on gasoline, and rated at 325 on E85. I would think the tuned truck would be similar in response to the different fuel.

 

 

On a different note, I have ran e85 in the past, but quit due to the requirements of fueling with E85. You must pump at least 3 gallons (not a problem usually) and then you must drive for at least 7 miles before shutting the engine off again. I found myself driving around for an extra 5 or 6 miles before my next stop after fueling to make sure the ECM had time to calculate the percentage of ethanol in the tank.

[Nick The Great]

Well technically, that refuel procedure should be done after every fill up, E85 or not. It is only really important if you are switching Ethanol concentrations, such as going from E10 (or E0) to E85 and vice versa.

[Bish]

I'm a BIG E85 proponent. E85 does have less BTU/gal of energy (HHV). This is why you get an mpg drop. I will (and have) argue until I'm blue in the face about ethanol depleting our food supply. That is complete horseshit. The reason food prices went up so hard was largely due to petroleum increasing by 500% or so.

 

Guess I'll just have to respectfully disagree. E85 is not economically sustainable in it's current from without government subsidies and if produced from corn it ABSOLUTELY competes with other uses of corn. There is just no getting around it. If a farmer has a choice to ship his corn to market for feed or food versus sending it to an E85 plant it HAS to compete against the food supply unless there is an unlimited supply of crops which there isn't. Not saying it is the only reason prices went up, just saying there is no way it doesn't compete with other uses of corn.