Using e85, worth it?

Chevron down the street just started offering e85 at $2.60. 87 is $4.50. I'm in CA.

Worth it to run e85 in my flexfuel 2015? I've never run it myself, but I got it used at 120k miles, so I have no idea if the previous owners ever did. I always hear of fuel pump issues with the FF trucks, so I don't know if it's worth it. I won't be able to use e85 exclusively since I'll have to take long trips with it.

 

Mine's not flex so I have no personal experience, but I can't recall ever hearing anything good about it, only remember reading of problems.

I'm also in So. CA so I can see where that $2.60 would seem pretty tempting, but at what potential cost?

 

Well it will get a lot less MPGs yet I too have not heard much if anything Good about e85 - perhaps lower soot and carbon.

Despite the 4.60 price I think I would stick with gasoline - so the engine gets some Respect.

 

Carbon buildup is just a good excuse to let the big dog eat now and then.

"Speeding? Noooo... Just doing some periodic engine maintenance Officer."

 

You gain power with E85.

 

I read that it has less BTU's which is why you lose MPG. But you gain power??

 

Yep I used to be a Chevy guy. Some cars can gain 15 to 30% more power when buying E85. But im saying Toyota is not the best at handling E85, but Ford and Gm had it down.

 

No, you do not. You gain octane, which resists predetonation and allows you to tune more aggressively. You DO NOT get more power just by putting corn in the tank.

 

Right but almost all cars have a sensor that changes the ignition timing to get more power. Its called a computer works really well with car with turbos. Sometimes
Ford and GM even put a note or atrisk saying peak HP numbers are with E85 on their consumer information.

 

Specific energy of ethanol is about 62.8% of pure non-ethanol gasoline. This is amount of energy per unit of mass (aka grams/kilograms), which is how your engine calculates air:fuel mixture.

E10 has about 96.3% the specific energy of pure gasoline
E85 has about 68.4% the specific energy density of a gallon of pure gas; or about 71% the specific energy of E10

Energy density is the amount of energy per unit of volume (aka gallons) which may be more relevant to determine cost effectiveness since that is how gasoline is sold. Ethanol energy density is about 68.7% that of pure gasoline.

E10 is 96.9% the energy density of pure gasoline
E85 is 73.4% the energy density of pure gasoline, or about 75.7% the energy density of E10

If E10 is ($4.50/gal) * (.757 energy density of E10) =$3.406/gal would be the par value of energy density for E85. $2.60 is less than the par value, so a good buy.

Check my math, I could be 100% FoS

Ref: https://neutrium.net/articles/properties/specific-energy-and-energy-density-of-fuels/

 

The e85 can cause a long start condition but haven’t read of any other real issues. Mine is a flex fuel and it was reading 85% ethanol despite not having any ever used. Reset it and didn’t really notice a difference in anything.

Run a couple of tanks and see what you get for mileage and then do the math to figure out if you are really saving anything.

 

I used to run E85 in my Tundra. The only problem I had was I didn't get the MPG that I got with regular gasoline. However, at that time, gas was $2.50 a gallon (give or take) and E85 was 2 bucks. It was a wash for me but if it was almost 2 dollars less than regular? I'd be running E85 all the time. The MPG was less but not THAT much to pay almost 2 dollars more per gallon.
I'd run it and see how it does.

 

I had the occasion to use E-85 on a hunting trip to North Dakota a few years back when I had my Chevy Silverado. It was definitely cheaper than 87 octane, however it dropped my mileage to about 12 mpg vs the 18 that I got on the highway using 87 octane. I also had a problem with the gas gauge when I switched back to 87. The thing would bounce around and act really wonky. Luckily after a couple tanks full of 87 everything smoothed out and was fine. That said, I would never again use it, the mileage drop completely offset any price gain and I felt lucky there weren't any others problems that had to be resolved from changing over.

 

E85 when used on a tuned vehicle for e85 is great. But on these trucks, with flex fuel capability it causes more problems than remedies. Going back and forth between e85 and gas causes issues with the sensors on these trucks. Toyota stopped producing flex fuel motors for a reason.