New truck shopping

Don't tell me you have converted to "new math"?!
66% of $2.65 is $1.75, not $2.05...and they do lose quite a bit of MPG on E85...20% is common, and exactly what I found on our Taurus.

 

That flex fuel dakota I had 10 years ago did 30% or so worse maybe more. It got about 8mpg on e85 and about 15 mpg on e10

 

Yeah, I can imagine that. Vehicles are a bit more efficient than they used to be, but even if the cost per mile is the same, the e 85's better performance would be reason enough for me.

 

My seat O pants meter , it felt the same for me. It cost me the same thing, maybe even $0.10 more per gallon to buy the e85 too.

 

I haven't looked lately, but E85 was $0.05 less per gallon than regular...and our Taurus didn't have any more power on E85...maybe less if anything...but it was an '00 too...

 

There is only a handful of stations that have e85 within 75 miles of my office.

 

Yeah there's not many around here either...this is dairy country...we use corn for cow fuel, not car fuel...

 

Yeah, it all has to do with being able to effectively harness the different fuel. It burns cooler, and timing can be altered to suit. When the 5.0 coyote came out, the V8 program manager for ford said that running e85 in the F-150 gained 15 hp and 10 tq over e10. I can't imagine that those numbers would be any worse now that the coyote makes 35 more hp, and 20 lb ft of tq than they did in 2011. Motor trend did a scientific style e85 performance vs mpg test on the long term Silverado 5.3 they had. 0-60 and 1/4 mile times were better on e85 while mpg did drop, it wasn't above the "doesn't make sense" threshold.

 

I get the performance gains on e85. It's alcohol after all. BUT do you really think you would notice 15hp or whatever on a 400hp truck or whatever that motor makes now a days?

 

Look where I live. We've got a bit of dairy... In the dairy state

Oh yeah, we've got many ethanol plants here too.

One thing that many don't know about making ethanol from corn, is that you can make ethanol and use it for animal chow. It's not mutually exclusive. I'll also contend that corn is a poor food source as it's largely indigestible. You can make ethanol from algae, switch grass, sugar cane etc, but due to many reasons, it's cheapest to make ethanol from corn.

The best use for corn is alcohol. Either fuel, or bourbon. I'm saying that even after just having some of the best corn on the cob I've had in my life.

 

Yes. Motortrend saw measurable performance improvement when they treated their long term V8 Silverado.

10-15 hp is what a set of aftermarket headers adds. This requires no hardware change. With a tune for e85, you can get a lot more.

 

HILLBILLY!!

 

I'm drinking my corn-o-hol now.

 

Nah...propah hillbillys make a different kinda fuel from corn...

 

I don't like the looks of it, but the white rebel looked nice. I've never cared for any pics or videos I have seen of it. The first one I saw in person was that copper/ brown color and it was hideous. I'm concerned about the reliability of a Ram since Fiat owns them. Their trucks don't seem to perform too well for the power they have and the 8 speed trans.

 

I doubt you could tell a difference. I've heard you need to pick up 10% before it is noticeable. With a tune the e85 gains would be more significant.

 

For the average consumer, no they probably wouldn't notice 50 more HP. But for someone that is in tune with their vehicle, you absolutely will notice 15HP.

I know that a lot of people will use E85 for performance engines, because it's way cheaper than race gas, but they need to put huge injectors in.

When we switched my friends Mustang to alcohol a few years back he needed at least a 60% larger fuel cell.

 

messed with e85- cost less but off set by significant reduction in milage - so not a win situation on the other end of the scale same applies non ethanol fuel being almost $.075/gal more offset by not enough gain mpg. course it does not rot out your fuel system which is likely why ethanol laced fuel is not allowed in plane engines.

 

Up here in the marinas some have it BUT can't sell it..

 

They stock product they can't sell?