93 octane gas

[Grumpy Bear]

In my neck of the woods there has never been enough spread in price to make E-85 the lower cost per mile choice. 

 

[SierraHD17]

17 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

In my neck of the woods there has never been enough spread in price to make E-85 the lower cost per mile choice. 

 

Yup. The one station that sells the stuff here which is a 7 hour drive for me charges the same price for it as 87.  Then you deal with the fact the ethanol content is never consistent with it at the pump... pass.  

[Cowpie]

Yeah, it can be a regionally not viable.  But there are many who could get E85 at a very nice price spread and take advantage of it.  I have recently moved to using E30 in my vehicles.  I get darn close to the same mpg as when using regular E10 and I get a 93-94 octane fuel.  The wife's 2017 Equinox really does well on it, but then, it is a 11.2:1 compression ratio.  The sticker estimated mpg for that vehicle is 28 highway on regular, but it never has run well on regular and only does well on higher octane fuel. Just did a recent 1000 mile road trip using E30 the entire time and the mpg average was about 26.5.   Cost of fuel per gallon was about 30 cents a gallon lower than regular and about 80 cents lower than premium and while there was an approximate loss of about 1.5 mpg compared to the EPA estimated fuel economy, the cost per mile was lower than using regular and especially premium.  

 

It is one thing to see E85 at almost the same price as regular, it is not a comparison of similar fuels.  E85 is roughly 100 octane.  A fair comparison is the price between it and premium fuel.   And since that was the topic of this thread, how E85 compares to regular in  price is a red herring to distract the discussion.  It is disingenuous to compare dissimilar fuels.  Diesel fuel prices tend to hover around the same price as premium gas.  That doesn't make them similar either.  Thus comparing E85 to regular is the same thing.

 

And that was the point.  If one needs higher octane for whatever reason, a blend of 1 gallon E85 (which is usually E51 to E70 depending on season) with 3-4 gallons of E10 regular (roughly E30 total blend) will offer a approximate octane of around 93, same as premium, but the total cost would be equal to or even less than regular fuel.  And it has been shown in many situation in both cars and pickups with non flex fuel rated GM engines that they can run on  E30 and not have a CEL or other issues.  The fuel systems are already set up for ethanol blends higher than E10.

 

 

[Ray Pickle]

E85 is moot point since the new 6.6 is not designed to run with it. It is designed and tuned to run with 87 octane anything else is either damaging, "e85", or a waste of money for any octane above 87. ECM will not take advantage of higher octane fuels. Maybe some tuners will offer some help for those desiring more power in the near future.