I will be curious to see. If you're only getting 12 now, you'll probably struggle to get 8 on E85. That's less than 200 miles per tank. Ouch.

 

even at 8 its more like 275 man, and i doubt it will be that low. I drive 15 miles to work and we dont really take my truck out now so that would still last me quite a while

And like Mike said, I think you jumped on board not knowing all the facts. I dont know all the facts either, but I cant see the stuff losing more money than its worth and still selling at more and more stations and more and more vehicles being produced that run it. We also got a compressed gas station and its only 1.50ish a gal, and a few companies have fleet vehicles that run it

 

you will get about 65% of your normal MPG so if you get 15 mpg consistantly with unleaded gasoline you will get approx. 9 - 10 mpg

 

see ive never heard 65, everything ive been told was between 70%-80%....PURE ethanol might run around 65 but E85 is 15% gas

Ive got an idea....I am getting my truck back tomorrow, filling up with ethanol then. I will do a hand calc on it and we will see the difference because I did a hand calc on regular two weeks ago

 

a guy i work with took two vans the exact same but one could use e85 and one not and figured the e85 had to be .38 cent cheaper to break even due to the millage lose

 

Negative, fuel cost per mile will not increase significantly...the e85 is 1.91 whereas regular is 2.69 at the cheapest, with ethanol being around .75 or .70 as efficient it does NOT raise my cost

Damn where i live E85 is only 20 -30 cents cheaper than E10. Your state must seriously subsidize that stuff.

 

I think your math may be off. Your tank is 26 gallons, that's 208 miles at 8 MPG. I never got more than 24 gallons into my 2002 running the needle way below "E", which would be 192 miles. Not a big deal if you don't drive it much. And the nice part of the "flex-fuel" is that you can switch back to gas for long hauls.

You may want to use Stabil or equivalent if you regularly use E85 and don't go through tanks quickly. Ethanol sucks up moisture like a sponge and that's not a good thing to have in your fuel.

I think you misread what Mike said. I don't think he's for ethanol, I think he was agreeing with me.

The facts are out there if you look for them. While gasoline has a $0.184 per gallon federal tax, ethanol has a $0.51/gallon subsidy (in addition to the $6 billion annual handouts the farmers get for destroying food). If the feds dropped the taxes and subsidies, gasoline would be equivalent to $1.80/gallon (($2.50 -$0.18) * 0.718) and E85 would be $2.42. And I'm not even considering the $0.20/g tax Louisiana puts on gas because I don't know if they charge E85 the same tax.

The long and the short of it is that ethanol is bad for this country but keeps on trucking because of a few powerful corporate lobbies and their wholly-owned lap-dog Congress critters.

Having said all that, I'd try it if my truck was flex-fuel. It would be nice to get some of my tax dollars back! Apparently they sell it at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for even less, and I know somebody with a PX card!

 

Not sure that matters as much with a flex fuel designed vehicle. I think that is taken into consideration in manufacturing. They use less ethanol vulnerable internal parts which is why they can run E85.

 

im tired of arguing about this and my truck had 3/4 tank when i got it back so I didnt fill up. I do agree that its not perfect right now because it uses more energy to produce it than it makes in fuel, but its getting bigger and bigger and logic would stand that if it was such a drain it would be dying out in a recession (that ended two years ago according to our dictator). I just saw a new Tundra with a flex fuel sticker...even the foreign companies are buying in to these few politicians and lobbyists? We get to hear what people want us to hear and thats all there is to it

and negative on my math being off, Im graduating in December with a minor in business....i have a 34 gallon tank man, and i dont think its that uncommon

and if that guy found that it had to be $0.38 cheaper it would definitely help because its almost 80 cents cheaper here

 

I have yet to try E85 in my truck. I did speak with a coworker who knows racers that use it because of its higher octane than street gas for less money than racing fuel. He did say that it starts making your oil look milky with continued use, kind of like when you have a head gasket leaking coolant. I expect that is why the manual says change oil at 3k miles if you use any E85.
I drive up to OKC routinely to visit my kids. Might have to try E85, as there is now a station that offers it (On-cue). I only have the 26gal tank, and the trip is 140 miles each way, so I'll have to watch the fuel burn...
I remember my best friend telling me the govt wanted them to not plant as much corn, but to plant alfalfa instead. And they paid them do it!? Just another way the govt is overspending us into ineptness, but I digress.