E85 in a 5.0 Experiment
 

Normally, I detest ethanol in fuel. As a motorcycle rider, I've seen it destroy fuel systems. It's nasty stuff in power equipment too.

Since the 5.0 is a "Flex Fuel" engine, I decided to cruise up to my local E85 pump last night and fill up. I calculated about 5 gallons of gas still in the tank, so it's not pure E85 at this point. I know my mileage will decrease, and I'm seeing about 1mpg less so far. Too early to judge right now.

I did a lot of research on both sides of the E85 fence. Read the pros and cons. Yes, it's more expensive to run E85 even though it is about 10 cents cheaper than 87 octane gas. The 5.0 is supposed to adjust to the higher octane E85 and advance timing to add about 15hp. Can't tell it from the butt dyno. Can't really tell any difference yet.

Would love to hear from you folks out there who have experience with E85. I have some experience with running diesels, and did a lot of research into making biodiesel in my garage. Seems it would be AWFULLY easy to make ethanol. Don't know about the cost of the source material, but making a still is not difficult and here in the South it's fairly common knowledge. :D

Anyone tried making their own fuel?

I love E85 on my Ecoboosted Flex, had to do some fuel mods for the headroom to be able to make it happen but well worth it and the 80+ HP I picked up. :) Put some boost on that bad boy and E85 is AWESOME!!!

Yeah...if you put the squeeze on, the extra octane would be awesome. Sadly, my 5.0 is a sucker, not a blower, but it does have variable valve timing which can advance the timing and take advantage of the higher octane corn juice.

I tried E85 last fall and I was getting 15 MPG and it went down to 13 MPG, but the engine had around 10,000 miles on it. I have 20,000 now and might give it another go and see what it does. Only problem I have with it is there is only one place to get it around me and the pumps for it are fing slow to pump. It must of took me 10 minutes to fill it up.

I run E85 in my 2013 5.0, in fact that is all I run. I see about 1-2 miles less per gallon but at the price of E85 vs E10 it is a winner for me.

I've run it a ton on mine. 12' 5.0. It's about 60 cents cheaper/ gal. I normally get 14.5-15 mpg in town on 91. With e85 I get around 11.5-12 mpg in town. There is a pretty decent increase in power. Get on it a few times, and let it adjust and you'll feel it takes less throttle to move to the truck. It just feels more aggressive, and your exhaust smells like alcohol.

With the price differential I have seen in this thread you are either spending alot more money to travel the same distance with E85 as compared to regular gas or you are only saving pennies (yes, pennies) on each tank due to the loss of mileage. What good is E85 because it certainly is not for $$ saving reasons.

Its a thinly veiled scheme to funnel money to adm, cargill, and to a lesser degree, corn farmers, in the name of "energy independence", even though they won't allow U.S. natural gas-based ethanol to be used.

I'll have to check to bw sure but I'm almost certain ford says to run regular gas every so many(think it was 10) tanks of e85.

So far I'm seeing about a 2mpg drop in mixed driving. From mid 15's to mid 13's. The throttle response is noticeably better.

It is a losing proposition on cost. E85 is only about 10 cents cheaper a gallon. Just figured I'd give it a try.