Has anyone used E85 in their Caravan, Intrepid, Stratus, Ram, Durango, etc. that have a flexible fuel engine (3.3L, 2.7L, 4.7L only)equipped in their cars? In the town where I am currently a resident at has a station that offers this fuel. My family is going to visit me soon and they have a 2002 Caravan with a 3.3L FFV engine and I was trying to decide whether or not to recommend them to fuel up with this fuel, since it is 30 cents less expensive. I know E85 does not get as good fuel economy, but I have heard the lower price makes up for the difference. I have read studies before that compared two vehicles equipped with a FFV engine. One had just gas in it, the other had E85. The one with E85 had significantly less wear on the engine. I guess what I am asking is this. If they are just going to fill the tank up one time, do they have to make some adjustments to the engine that would make it not worth it? What are your experiences? BTW, I know better than to fill this fuel into my 3.5L powered Intrepid because it is not a FFV engine, just in case anyone was concerned that I would do something that foolish.

 

Actually its supposed to be close to the same economy, and in Brazil you can by 100% ethanol and their vehicles run on it all day.

 

Actually there is a difference. I have talked to many people with GM products that used E85 and they claim there is a significant difference. At least 4mpg lower. They claim that the lower price does make up for the difference. I've heard that cars in Brazil have a higher compression ratio, which helps them to use the Ethanol more efficiently than the FFV engines over here.

 

Here's an interesting video on ethanol.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...88889128950913

I want to see this happen. One can only imagine our US$ being sent to farmers and not to the middle east.

 

I've used E-85 many times and have had no problems other than a little worse mileage. The price seems to make up for it. I usually mix it to get better mpg.