king nothing

I will agree that e85 has the potential to make more power in an engine optimized for it. Without seeing proof, I dont believe it will make more power in a stock engine than gas. You know, thinking about it the ecoboost would make a great candidate to run E85, but ford says no.....

packplantpath

You want proof? Just look at fords published hp specs for the 5.0 on 87 octane vs e85. All the proof you should need.

SFWD 1934

iTrader: (2)

E85 will make power in a round about way if you will. It is less prone to knock (detonation) so in say like an Ecoboost motor it would allow you to run more aggressive timing than you could on pump gas, thus producing more power. That is the good side of things. The down side of things is that it is much more corrosive than pump gas. With the cam driven fuel pumps you want to check and maintain them as you will get the nasty black build up inside the pump housing, which can affect the spill valve and such. The other down side is that your fuel mileage will suffer. It takes about 30% more fuel to achieve the correct stoich point for E85. Now granted you can run a tad leaner on E85 as opposed to pump gas, but now with the newer E10, you run about a little over a half point richer than before, so that 30% maybe closer to 25%. The stoich point has changed on pump gas (E10) from the traditional 14.7:1 to 14.07:1. I do a bunch of "mixed" blends for guys that have the Mazdaspeed 3/6 cars that have the 2.3L DISI turbo motor. Almost all of them run about 3 gallons of E85 mixed with 91/93 pump gas (depending on where they are). If you are just NA, it is great to save some money at the pump, but I would not expect you to see any noteworthy gains that would make it worth it.

Jason

ClaySlayer

This isn't something we just pulled out of our *****...keep in mind too that these are peak numbers and when under higher loads the gain could be higher then ~15hp & 10lb-ft at a given rpm. Ford also published similar gains for the 5.4 the last couple years it was put into the F150.

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/09...5-ethanol.html

MynameisMatt09

iTrader: (-1)

Kind of an old thread but I would like to revive it with my experience.

Gas has risen recently in Iowa to $3.44 a gallon, while E85 has been decreasing to $2.69. I decided to run a few tanks and had mixed results, my first tank being a mix of mostly highway(80%) and city(20%). I averaged 15.7 for that tank, which was just below the usual 16 or so, give or take a bit. The second tank I filled up and did a long highway trip(95% highway and 5% city) and ended up getting 13.6. On the highway trip I was going 80MPH for almost the whole trip, and incurred quite a few hills. 13.6 seemed terrible, but then again I was going 80 and it was quite hilly.

I was just wondering if anyone else uses E85 and what kind of results they are getting? I know E85 is most popular in the Central states, so not sure how many of you will actually use it, or even have tried it.

SultanGris

You need e85 to be 20% cheaper to break even on cost per dollar cause you get 20% less miles per gallon with it. It gave my 5.4l noticeably more power the few times I used it. If it was handy and cheap enough id use it. The closest source of it to me is 60 miles away and quite out of the way when I did go there or I would've used it more. haven't paid attention lately but the price was not anywhere close to 20% cheaper though but I would've run it now and then just for the extra pep.

Would run it regularly if closer and cheaper. Lots of misinformation about it out there but I kinda like it for everything but my super charged jet ski, makes it run a little warmer.

MynameisMatt09

iTrader: (-1)

What I just noticed as very odd when I went on a 100 mile drive today, the first 50 I went 70MPH and stayed in the slow lane almost the whole trip, and ended at 13.2. On the way back I went 80-85 the whole time hammering it, and ended the trip at 14.1. I know that is a short experiment but it kind of makes me wonder.. I did seem to have alot of power, and the more I used it the more my mileage increased.