E85 /flex fuel
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E85 /flex fuel
I have a 4.7L 08 Dakota and it says that engine is E85/Flex Fuelcapable when "properly equipped".
Does anyone know what "properly equipped" is or have one of these and how does it run?
Thanks
Does anyone know what "properly equipped" is or have one of these and how does it run?
Thanks
Thread Starter
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Registered User
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 20
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RE: E85 /flex fuel
Forgetaboutit.
I just did some research and the E85 vehicles get about 20 to 30% lower MPG's.
so the savings really doesn't do any good.. I'm staying with good old petrol..
I just did some research and the E85 vehicles get about 20 to 30% lower MPG's.
so the savings really doesn't do any good.. I'm staying with good old petrol..
Professional
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 153
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From: Toledo, OH
RE: E85 /flex fuel
I´ve got an 07 with the factory flex-fuel 4.7L V8 and have been running it exclusively (ony had to put in regular gas twice - once when I first bought it to get close to the e85 staitons at home and once on a long trip when I couldn´t quite make it home.)
They are correct, I get less mileage with it compared to regular gas, but its also cheaper at most places too. I´m not sure exactly how much mileage I lose, but suspect its about 30% (this is based on my 05 Dak with the 3.7 V6 getting ~13MPG from work to home and a nearly identical 07 4.7 running e85 getting ~10MPG.)
Since I live so close to work (less than 5 miles each way) its not much of a cost idfferential, but let me crunch the numbers to show you:
e85 is about $3.35/gallon today and regular gas (u87) is about $3.85. I live close to 5 miles from work (lots of speed bums and stoplights hence the crappy mileage with both fuels) so I drive about 10 miles per day (use the wife´s car for most errands.)
This means I use about 1 gallon per day or about $3.35/day with e85.
If I used gas I would use about 10/13 ~ 0.77 gallons or 0.77*$3.85 = $2.96/day
So I am ¨donating"about $0.39/day to help encourage the development of one of our more viable alternative fuel infrastructures. Whether you want to do the same thing is going to depend on a lot of things (I am lucky to live so close to work that the cost differential is negligible for me) and you should also be aware that e85 as its made and distributed today leaves a LOT to be desired (being made from corn has some negative side effects and is probably not a good long-term solution and doesn´t scale well enough to completely replace gas by itself.) However, there are some promising technologies coming online (like making it from other parts of the plant/celulosic ethanol) and if you add in other alternate fules like biodiesel (if I had a farm, I would probably try an acre of sunflower seeds or even just use soybeans for it to see how much yield it would turn-out.)
The final thing for me is that it helps keep the money in the US instead of sending it overseas.
So, long-winded way of saying you probably won´t save money unless you live in one of the states that has REALLY cheap e85, for now its mostly a matter of making a conscious choice for energy independance. Also, if your vehicle is not specifically made as a flex-fuel (some other guys above mentioned looking for the badge on the tailgate that says ¨flex-fuel¨ or look for the yellow gas cap too) you´ve got other considerations. I looked into a conversion kit for my wife´s PT cruiser and there is a company that makes a legal conversion kit, BUT I had some reservations: apparently their kit goes inline with the fuel injectors to tell it to squirt more fuel in when running ethanol in different ratios. However, the factory units supposedly have a sensor in the fuel system to tell them what the ratio is. These kits do not and depend on your engine´s other systems (I guess the O2 sensor?) to make that adjustment. Supposedly it works, but I am too leary to try it myself until I hear from someone who tried it in the same vehicle. Another potential gotcha is the corrosiveness of ethanol, apparently mot mdern cars are ¨probably¨ OK, but that´s a risk I was leary of taking at this point. Finally, they mentioned that if you had an older vehicle, the first couple of times you used e85 it might wash all the crap out of your tanks/lines and require a fuel-filter change.
Hope this helps,
John
They are correct, I get less mileage with it compared to regular gas, but its also cheaper at most places too. I´m not sure exactly how much mileage I lose, but suspect its about 30% (this is based on my 05 Dak with the 3.7 V6 getting ~13MPG from work to home and a nearly identical 07 4.7 running e85 getting ~10MPG.)
Since I live so close to work (less than 5 miles each way) its not much of a cost idfferential, but let me crunch the numbers to show you:
e85 is about $3.35/gallon today and regular gas (u87) is about $3.85. I live close to 5 miles from work (lots of speed bums and stoplights hence the crappy mileage with both fuels) so I drive about 10 miles per day (use the wife´s car for most errands.)
This means I use about 1 gallon per day or about $3.35/day with e85.
If I used gas I would use about 10/13 ~ 0.77 gallons or 0.77*$3.85 = $2.96/day
So I am ¨donating"about $0.39/day to help encourage the development of one of our more viable alternative fuel infrastructures. Whether you want to do the same thing is going to depend on a lot of things (I am lucky to live so close to work that the cost differential is negligible for me) and you should also be aware that e85 as its made and distributed today leaves a LOT to be desired (being made from corn has some negative side effects and is probably not a good long-term solution and doesn´t scale well enough to completely replace gas by itself.) However, there are some promising technologies coming online (like making it from other parts of the plant/celulosic ethanol) and if you add in other alternate fules like biodiesel (if I had a farm, I would probably try an acre of sunflower seeds or even just use soybeans for it to see how much yield it would turn-out.)
The final thing for me is that it helps keep the money in the US instead of sending it overseas.
So, long-winded way of saying you probably won´t save money unless you live in one of the states that has REALLY cheap e85, for now its mostly a matter of making a conscious choice for energy independance. Also, if your vehicle is not specifically made as a flex-fuel (some other guys above mentioned looking for the badge on the tailgate that says ¨flex-fuel¨ or look for the yellow gas cap too) you´ve got other considerations. I looked into a conversion kit for my wife´s PT cruiser and there is a company that makes a legal conversion kit, BUT I had some reservations: apparently their kit goes inline with the fuel injectors to tell it to squirt more fuel in when running ethanol in different ratios. However, the factory units supposedly have a sensor in the fuel system to tell them what the ratio is. These kits do not and depend on your engine´s other systems (I guess the O2 sensor?) to make that adjustment. Supposedly it works, but I am too leary to try it myself until I hear from someone who tried it in the same vehicle. Another potential gotcha is the corrosiveness of ethanol, apparently mot mdern cars are ¨probably¨ OK, but that´s a risk I was leary of taking at this point. Finally, they mentioned that if you had an older vehicle, the first couple of times you used e85 it might wash all the crap out of your tanks/lines and require a fuel-filter change.
Hope this helps,
John