I have a 1998 grand caravan with the 3.8L engine. From what i know the 3.8 and the 3.3 are essentially the same accept the stroke. My question is why isnt the 3.8 flex fuel compatible? I would think that the 3.8 and 3.3 would get the same fuel lines and everything else. Can someone shed a little light on this for me?

 

Well' you are not going to like this answer, but E85 was a political answer that the automakers catered to. Once E85 was in the system, almost all fuel lines became compatiale with alcohol. The main difference was in the ECM calibration, and trust me, it was relatively minor. I don't think that your 3.8 will run wel on E85 only because of the ECM calibration.

 

plus E85 is crap ne way MATH time I have taken the level 4 driveablity class so if ne one else has something to offer chime in.
If u take normal gas the computer is running fuel adaptives in teh 3 to 5 range which means adding 2 -5 % of fuel to ge to 14.7 to 1 ratio.
When u use E85 the computer has to add more then 33% fuel for the same running standards aka sitting at idle at a stop light.

SO if u do that math U are using more fuel just to keep the van running the same to keep the air fuel mixture 14.7 to 1.
U burn more fuel,it may cost less but if u add it up for one month i bet u pay close to the same amount for regular gas and for all u people out there thinking about nothing but gobal warming u pump more crap into the air by buring E85 because u haft to use more fuel just to keep the van running.

 

Well im not even that interested in running e85 (i dont even know where to get it) i was just wondering why 2 engines that are basically the same would get the different parts. But thanks for the input i knew a little about how the gas mileage would drop because the energy content is less. It was just something i have been wondering about for awhile

 

The gas mileage I think is better if you increase compression. And if you DO get interested, you can get this kit to make it work properly.

 

just a heads up we used E85 in our van but we got about a 2/3 of the normal milage so to us it wasn't worth the 5.00 it saved as we ate it up in fuel economy lost

 

America is a crazy land

In Europe the lowest grade you can find is E95. Well you can theoretically find E92 but you have to know where
And you talk about using E85. I remember this fuel being available in 1991

No offence but just imagine how strange it sounds to me, when someone considers using E85.