E85 gasoline?

I'm a little leery that the manual says it'll run on E85. E85 is 85% ethanol. Your car will probably run on 10-15% ethanol but I'd be surprised if it'll take E85.

Than again, I've been wrong before...

If does say it is a flex fuel vehicle, capable of running on E85, it won't do any harm. However keep in mind, E85 is 85% ethanol. Most modern cars are not set up to tolerate anything above 10-15% ethanol. If you have the percentages backwards you might be misunderstanding what the manual is saying.

A crude google search does turn up flex fuel 2000 caravans, but only with the 3.3L V6. quick and dirty, might not be right.

Just be very sure the vehicle is meant to run on it, otherwise you might find yourself draining the fuel tank to get it going again.

I drove a vehicle recently that was running e85. It burned about 10% more fuel than with regular gasoline but performance seemed ok. This was a new vehicle though.

In my area e85 isnt that much cheaper so the milage difference makes it marginal at best and there are not many e85 stations .

There is also E20 which might be a good way to try out a higher alcohol gas . Make very sure though that your car takes the E85 fuel.

As said make sure it is a flex fuel engine. What is the engine code? All reports I get on it it drops gas mileage some. So you may not save much in $. :grinyes: :lol: But if it is flex fuel try it and see what it does.

Thank you! I mistakenly said 3.8 but it IS a 3.3L V6, it is stamped right on the engine.

Anyway, I'm still not sure if I want to use E85 but what if I mix half a tank of regular Ethanol with half a tank of E85?

Thanks again! Steve

"Steve" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

If the manual says it's OK for use with E85, then it's OK for use with E85.

The problem with E85 is that the amount of alcohol in it is extremely damaging to the rubber components used in the fuel system of a car made for the usual maximum of E10.

E85 cars use a different kind of rubber that *is* compatible with E85.

We have a 1999 Plymouth Gr. Voyager with the flex-fuel engine and we had the same hesitation about trying the E85 fuel. But you don't need to worry. Other than some loss of mpg, you probably won't notice any difference. The engine automatically senses the E85 and adjusts itself to the fuel. Our van ran just fine on it.

Hey thanks!

This gives me alot better feeling to try it now.

Steve

If you meant a 3.3 engine you MAY have a flex fuel vehicle. That was the ONLY engine in the vans offered with the flex option.

Take a look at the VIN number. If the 8th character in the VIN is E , G or 3 It has a flex fuel engine in it and can run E85, It should also have a gas cap labeled as E85/Gasoline.

If it doesn't have these items DON'T USE E85, it WILL damage the converter and the engine by running lean.

Oh and if you do run E85 expect to lose mileage and use more fuel.

From an article called the Top ten facts about Flex Fuel vehicles. By Brian Chee

Simply put, a flex-fuel vehicle using gasoline travels farther, at a clip of about 3 miles per gallon. That?s what we discovered while driving a 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche with flex-fuel capability. We clocked an average fuel economy of 13.4 miles per gallon using regular grade unleaded ? not so hot, but much better than E85. A tank of E85 gasoline registered just 10.4 miles per gallon under virtually identical driving conditions. This makes the use the E85 more expensive, by around $20 more per tank. And while that may seem like chump change, it?s exactly the opposite of what people are currently looking to accomplish.

The 8th character is a G. But the gas cap does NOT have E85 anywhere on it that I can see?

Currently I get about 23 mpg on regular ethanol gas. Do you think I would lose more than 3 mpg? I figured if E85 is about 30 cents a gal less than regular and if I lost 3 mpg off of 23 mpg that I would do just a couple dollars better than break even over 1000 miles of driving. Probably not worth the worry of what it will do to my engine............

Thanks!

Steve

If the VIN is G your OK.

The average losses I have heard about and seen have been between 10-20% range. Oh and if the federal subsidies on E85 production get dropped expect the price to jump at least 58 cents.

I think you are missing something here. There's no such thing as "regular Ethanol," E85 *IS* the highest percentage of ethanol commonly available. "Regular" fuel is gasoline with 0, 5, 15, or 20% ethanol adulterat^H^H^H^H^H^ added to it :-)

Yes! I am used to being accused of "missing something" all right! /:-D

But here in MN I think the regular gas has 10% ethanol?? But not really sure.

Steve

If the price jumps that much, the gas stations will be tying up a tank that will never get used.... But then who knows???

Steve

They won't have to worry. They can just blend it into the normal gasoline. 99% of the regular sold in the US already is 10% Ethanol anyway. If your in a state like NY or CA it is even higher% in the winter.

It's not on the gas cap, its on the inside (or backside) of the gas filler door. It's a decal that says use unleaded gasoline or E85 ethanol. Make sure it's there before you try E85.

I rented one of the new Impalas a few months ago with a flex-fuel engine. Besides the loss of gas mileage, I also noticed that there was a loss of power. It ran fine, but crushing the gas pedal didn't have nearly the same effect as it would have with the regular in the tank. The other negative I remember that nobody has mentioned as that the E85 STINKS! It's more booze than gasoline and if you spill a drop on yourself or the body of your car you will think your stuck in the 14th inning of an August baseball game by the smell of spilled beer.

I was really disappointed with my experience. The stuff doesn't burn as well, so you don't break even on the cost/mileage. It really is the corn farmers boondoggle that some complain about. When they go to switchgrass for feed stock let me know.

Matthew

The supposed goal is not so much to reduce costs as it is to 'reduce dependence on foreign oil'. ADM is the big backer of corn-based ethanol. They have lots of lobbyists and make lots of campaign contributions. The farmers probably get a piece of it but the big beneficiary is ADM (and the politicians they buy).

Then GM did it wrong. Ethanol has a higher octane and should have produced more power if the engine management system was done right. See the ford "Super Stallion" concept.