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I've put three tanks of Wa Wa 89 octane ethanol free gas through The Beast now.
Last night I went for a drive to Bradenton.
About 200 miles. Religiously at the speed limit.
Average fuel economy was 25 miles per gallon.
I'm happy with that because it beats the EPA highway number by a whole mile per gallon! It's also close to what The Precious would do.
Ethanol supplemented fuels suck donkey scrotums. They rob the engine of power, they degrade and screw up fuel tanks, fuel pumps and fuel lines. And they collect water, which is a real problem down here in Florida.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check to see if the local WaWa has real fuelfuel. I don't drive often and I worry that the existing fuel in my van will start screwing it up.
Thanks for experimenting. Gives me something to think about.
And the weird sad thing? With the huge gigantic petroleum reserves off of Florida's East Coast, Florida could be an energy producer, if only our state would allow pumping and refining. Most all the oil seeps on the east coast are from natural sources, not from wrecks like most people think.
E85 is actually popular at the drag strip I go to. But you have to have the right set up to take advantage of it. Mostly it is certain LS and Hemi engines with ECMs that can sense and adjust to it or be tuned to it to take advantage of the effective 103 octane and increase timing and/or boost to make power from it. C7 Z06 with the right tune and some of the supercharged Hemis in particular E85 is popular. Non "Flex Fuel" LS tend to not be able to take advantage of E85 w/o aftermarket tune. Of course gas milage isn't really even a concern for thes particular applications. They also sell E100 at the track. Mostly it is Econorail folks that run that. Usually with dual 4bbl carbs on a > 8 liter big block Chevy. Also there are some classes when they run IHRA events where alky is used. Top Alcohol and Alcohol Funny Car in particular. They also sell alcohol free dino gas at 93, 95, 97, 107, 110 and 117 octane. Availability varies though. IHRA weekends and right after they usually have more options on hand until they run out of some of them.
ReplyDeleteThe Beast is flex-fuel capable. Not sure where to get E85 locally to see what the lower energy content in the stuff does to mileage.
DeleteThe "E15" around here is actually E7 according to the alcohol sensor PID.
Actually the "E15" really "may contain up to 15%"... so 7% is as advertised.
DeleteMy experience is that E85 in the Silverado (direct injected 5.3) gets 2-3 MPG less than E10. However it is usually $0.40 less a gallon. Supposedly it can produce 10-20 HP more than 87 octane fuel due to the effective 103 octane although I suspect to see the top end of that may require an aftermarket tune. Probably also needs the upgraded airbox and exhaust that the Silverado has on it in order to flow more air to go along with all the additional fuel. Supercharged or turbocharged engines apparently can take much more advantage of that than normally aspirated. Also I suspect that engines designed for Premium gas with higher compression also see bigger gains than a truck motor designed for regular gas.
ReplyDelete-swj