Quote:
Originally Posted by compdoc777
E85 with the proper tune should give you about 20% more power. Who cares about the mileage. E85 is a $1.00 cheaper!
|
The Wikipedia entry says that it takes a higher compression ratio to get better performance from 100% ethanol (E85=85% ethanol). They say that the compression ration needed to achieve this would render the engine useless for regular gas. On our standard engines it actually reduces the effectiveness of the fuel because ethanol does not create as much specific energy as gasoline. If you have an engine that is created to handle E85, then you have the ability to change the compression ratio(or your engine has the ability to do so) to compensate. Most cars out there are NOT created to handle this fuel and therefore suffer 34% power loss and fuel mileage goes down, both because the fuel creates less power and because most people are probably pushing the gas more to get the same power.
Case in point: I have been asking around to avoid E10, but got trapped the other day because I was on E. I immediately found that power was dropped dramatically throughout the rev range. I filled up to half tank and burned it all up in 1 day. This same amoutn of gas would have lasted me 2-3days on pure gasoline. I Have not looked at my gas mileage meter yet, but it previously read between 28-33mpg. I'll try to look today and see what it says. I can only find one place around here that doesn't use E10, but I am willing to pay the price to avoid the power loss. Also, E10 damages lawn mowers. The local news here in Birmingham did a report and showed lawn mowers going bad because ethanol leaves a residue behind because the engines are not able to completely burn ethanol away. Over time the ethanol enamel causes engine failure. Supposedly this is for smaller engines only, but I wonder if this will eventually include 4-cylinder cars that are not designed to handle E10?