E85 in your hummer....

[rockstarbass1]

Would you do it? Do your trust it? Is it really that unsafe, or are the oil companys just pushing that into your head because besides diesel its the only competition for gasoline?

Me and my buddys were having this talk the other night, all of us have extensive car knowledge, one is a gm mechanic.
Obviously a few hummers were made for flex fuel. But what is special about it?

Obviously a tune for e85 would be most beneficial. But besides that, what physical parts changed? Without changed parts what do you think would happen? What about the claims to run e85 for 100k in a non flex fuel car and have no problems. What about all the horror story's?

 

[derian06]

Would you do it? Do your trust it? Is it really that unsafe, or are the oil companys just pushing that into your head because besides diesel its the only competition for gasoline?

Me and my buddys were having this talk the other night, all of us have extensive car knowledge, one is a gm mechanic.
Obviously a few hummers were made for flex fuel. But what is special about it?

Obviously a tune for e85 would be most beneficial. But besides that, what physical parts changed? Without changed parts what do you think would happen? What about the claims to run e85 for 100k in a non flex fuel car and have no problems. What about all the horror story's?

I've heard that E85 doesn't put out as much power as regular gasoline, so it's not worth the price difference. I think the article said like 75-80% of actual gasoline?

 

[cgalpha08]

I never will, its bad for your engine. Personally if I can find it I run alcohol free gas.

 

[abearden]

Horror stories are mostly from older cars where the ethanol eats the seals. It's still a horrid replacement for gasoline. Energy per volume wise, ethanol is 21 MJ/L, and gasoline is 32 MJ/L, so per volume you're only getting 80% of the energy content in E85 that you would from pure gasoline. So you need 25% more to go the same distance AND ethanol is heavier than gasoline, which increases weight all around further decreasing efficiency. It also readily attracts water, which is GREAT for your fuel system and longevity of the fuel. :huh:The only benefits are less of certain tailpipe byproducts and an increase in octane for performance engines. Otherwise, it's a crappy way to subsidize the corn industry.

I use diesel though, so I don't have that dilemma.

 

[chaos254]

Not worth it on our trucks unless maybe your running a turbo or supercharger. Great for performance cars since you can get ~105 octane right out of the pump.

 

[Woodtick]

The only time I use it,is when I have to return a rental car full of gas. Pure gas for me. A lot of the E85 pumps have been taken out in my area. I don't know anyone using it.

 

[Renagade132]

I always wondered about this, thanks for the info guys

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

alcohol is awesome in race cars, you can run higher compression, more timing advance and you don't have knock... while it is true, that you need 1/3 more alcohol to get the same power, that isn't the entire story. Alcohol burns cooler, so you don't need as much of a cooling system, and since you can run amazing compression ratios (13:1 on the street), you get 500 hp out of an otherwise mundane 350. If you're turbo charging, alcohol is the schmidt because of the higher octane (read, resistance to pre-detonation).

With that said, unless you're running mud bogs, avoid alcohol.

 

[High Five H2]

E85 is retarded fuel. it has less energy, like other people have said, per volume and here's why - gasoline is basically carbon and hydrogen in chains. 7 carbons, usually, with 2 or 3 hydrogens per carbon. If it's branched or something then it behaves differently and is more or less stable, which is where the term "octane rating" comes from. It's the percent of the gasoline that behaves like octane, or an 8 carbon chain. When gas is burned it's oxidized - oxygen reacts with the carbons, forming CO2 and water. Alcohol is a hydrocarbon (carbon and hydrogen) that's already partially oxidized. Ethanol (the same stuff that's in alcoholic drinks) is what's in E85. It's 2 carbons, 6 hydrogens, and 1 oxygen. Fully half of the carbon atoms are already oxidized. That is a completely retarded replacement for gasoline. A whole lot of the energy is already used. Not only that, how much energy does it take to actually make the ethanol? it's not just sitting in the ground in giant reservoirs like oil is (which needs to be purified, of course, but at least it doesn't need to be made).

not to get political, but ethanol as fuel is what happens when idiotic pie-in-the-sky liberal politicians get together and try to be engineers.

just my completely unbiased opinion