I was wondering how E85 would work in my 2000 Ram 1500 5.9. Comments ideas etc please

 

I believe the owners Manual states not to use e85

 

Many here claim that it won't do anything.

However, there is a reason some vehicles are E85 certified and some aren't. If you do a search, you should fine some threads on it.

 

All you need to do to run E-85 and make the engine run right is raise the compression to 10 to 1 or higher, richen the air fuel ratio by 60 to 80 % and it will be close to right. As it is now it will be way too lean and burn valves and/or pistons.

 

The compression thing is correct. However, richening the fuel ratio (which I'm not sure is the right procedure, as with a high enough compression the ethanol has a higher octane rating then gasoline) will drop the MPGs, so you may be back to where you were in the beginning.

It also has a habit of eating away at things. Supposedly flex fuel certified vehicles have a lot of stainless steel parts in their fuel systems, to prevent that.

 

Ethanol like methanol is an oxygen bearing agent if I am not mistaken. That is the reason for it has to be a richer fuel to air ratio.

 

Looked it up a bit more, and yeah, the ratio needs to supposedly be 40% richer than normal.

And it turns out flex fuel vehicles have all bare magnesium, aluminum, and rubber parts removed from their fuel systems, and replaced with plastics or stainless steel.

 

So im thinking ill just stay away from the Bull corn E85. Thanks guys

 

Wow, there is so much crazy talk about E85 in here it's sad.

1. Your vehicle does not care what type of fuel you use. It could be rocket fuel or Unleaded or anything in between. Your O2 sensor's job is to determine what the proper air/fuel ratio is no matter what fuel you use. So all the talk about needing to richen the mixture by 60 - 80% is crazy. If you've got spare injector room and a working O2 sensor, your vehicle can run E85.

2. It's not 40% richer than normal. At WOT, E85 requires ~30% more fuel...Which again - if you've got spare injector room, you will be just fine.

3. You can run blends of E85 in any vehicle. I've run blends of E85 in a 1996 Dodge Ram 1500, a 2006 Mazda 6 and a 2005 Chevy Silverado V8...Plus pure E85 in a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse turbo.

While my Ram only has the 5.2l engine, I've successfully run 55% E85 and 45% unleaded without problem. Once you run out of injector room, you will get a CEL. Every time I fill up, I try to increase the amt of E85 I run. Today, I'm going to see if I can push that limit to 65% E85 & 35% Unleaded.

Before someone else jumps in and says it'll ruin your vehicle, I've burned blends of E85/Unleaded for 2 years now without any problems at all. Sure, my water pump went out and my TOB went out, but those are unrelated and are to be expected on a 175,000 mile truck.

Oh yeah - my MPG on 50/50 E85/Unleaded was 17.1mpg. Avg MPG on 100% Unleaded is ~18.5mpg. So about a 7.6% decrease. I figure 100% E85 should show ~ 15 - 18% decrease.

I await all the nay-sayers wrath. But remember this - 2 years and about 40,000 E85 miles without issue.

 

I cannot say either way if it is OK to run E85 in any car, but, it does cost more to run E85 compared to regular 87. The advantage of E85 is lower emissions and less oil dependancy but costs the user more to run.