E15 gas...good idea or bad?

Something else that enters the picture is the federally required corporate average fuel economy. The average fuel economy of all the vehicles sold has to be a certain number. So, if a company sells a bunch of big gas guzzling trucks, they have to sell a bunch of tiny little cracker box cars to meet the average. Gas mileage is counted as MPG of GASOLINE. So, a car that runs on E85, gets an incredible number of miles on a gallon of gasoline, since the gasoline is only 15% of the fuel used. So, if that car gets 30 MPG of E85, thats 200 MPG of gasoline used.

 

Might want to brush up on your math skills, as what you wrote makes zero sense.

 

1 divided by .15 equals 6.66666. So that means 6.66666 gallons of E85 FUEL contains 1 gallon of GASOLINE. So, 30 MPG of E85 times 6.66666 equals 200 MPG of GASOLINE.

 

I dont think the difference in the energy content of e85 compared to 87 is that great.
It's more like 25% . So one gallon of E85 is the equivalent of .75 gallons of 87 unleaded.

Either way, we can both agree... Screw E85!

 

It's not energy content that the're counting. It's the quantity of gasoline. E85 is only 15% gasoline.

 

So if that car has an 20 gallon tank, the epa would say that car that gets 4000 miles on one filled up. Something seems wrong!

 

The problem is that you're looking at it as a rational human being, not as a lawmaker. And you're also kind of flipping it upside down, since that wouldn't suggest that the EPA thinks that it would actually travel 4000 miles on a fill-up, rather that a 20 gallon fill-up only really contains 20*0.15=3 gallons of gasoline.

 

Yeppers.

Have also read that car mfgs. are given energy credits for doing well in the CAFE department. Toyota supposedly has the highest marks, and...they can sell these energy credits to other car mfgs.

What would we do w/o the U. S. law makers.

A kid in school makes straight As. He can sell one or more of his As to failing student(s).

 

Ran it pretty low...
here is statics...

At the gas station across the street
10% ethanol 87 octane $2.49

At this gas station,
0% ethanol 87 octane $2.59
0% ethanol 91 octane $3.19

Right now, going by odometer, I get about 11MPG, (factor in about an additional 14% for larger tires and speedometer being off) so if I'm figuring this right, to be worth the extra $$$ I need to get 14MPG (according to odometer) . If it runs better or any other benefits, I would say an increase to 13MPG would justify the extra cost.

We will see....

 

My gas cap on my 15 says to use up to e15. I use 89 e10.

 

You won't gain 1 inch of range with the change from 87 to 91 (but you could REDUCE your range), but you could gain by the change from 10% to 0%. That is a $0.10/gallon difference, or 3.86%, which means that you would only have to go from 11 to 11.42 mpg to justify the switch.

87 and 91 are exactly the same fuel in so far as their energy density. They make the 91 by increasing the concentration of a combustion inhibition additive. Basically, the additive just causes a marginal increase in the temperature at which the fuel ignites so that it doesn't ignite too early in the cycle of an engine that operates at a higher compression ratio.

There are two broad categories of justification for using "high octane" fuel in a vehicle that doesn't require it;
1) Some people who don't grasp the physics and have this crazy belief that it must be "better" because it is more expensive,
2) Sometimes you will come across gas stations that have less (or no) alcohol added to higher octane fuel. In these rare cases, the high octane fuel may actually be better fuel.

 

I'm not doubting you bro, I'm just running it for the sake of testing if paying for 'the best' gas makes a difference. I'll try 0% ethanol 87 octane on next tank.

But, I drove the Tacoma to work and running errands all day, usually at 50 miles give or take... I'm at 1/4 tank. So maybe something to this. We will see...

 

I've been using 89 octane Ethanol Free gas almost exclusively for about a year now. Runs great with it, not that much more $.

 

I had to start 0% ethanol test over again. Seems that you can't find 0% ethanol gas everywhere when you are on empty. So I had to keep filling up sometimes with 10%.

Fixed that, now I fill up the Tacoma after I've been driving a while and I see a 0% station.

Results so far on 0% ethanol...

Remember, 3.73 gears, 35x12.8 tires, 20" wheels.


Start...

Tank was full of 87/10, ran 206 miles of normal day to day driving. On fill up, took 18.14 gallons.

Ran it pretty much dry.

This set baseline.

Started 0% ethanol again.

Traveled 115 miles, day to day driving, burned 9.9 gallons of gas. When I filled up, 0% was $2.37/ga, 10% $2.29/ga

Travelled 127 miles all highway running at approx. 85MPH. Filled up with 0%.

I had used 11.7 gallons of gas. At that location, 0% was $2.35/ga and 10% was $2.19/ga.

After full, ran 113 miles at approx. 70MPH. Refueled with 0%. I had burned 7.79 gallons of fuel. Price for 0% was $2.37, price for 10% was $2.29.

Regearing is going to through another 'monkey wrench'in this test, but between now and then I'll try to drive there Tacoma as much as I can to get some readings on 0%, then switch to 10% and get what I can. I think East Coast gives you like 30 days before you have to send 3rd member back.

Then test starts all over with 4.56's. Lol!

 

For those who may try something for themselves here is one of the sites that lists stations carrying nonethanol https://www.pure-gas.org/

 

Remember folks. E anything is a government ploy towards energy independence from decades ago. Which we now can't shake loose of because big ag wants to keep selling corn.

It takes more energy to convert the corn to fuel than is saved by displacing the fuel offset by the corn.

So if you want to have a meaningful discussion with your congressman, this is a good topic. The only divisiveness it will cause is with big ag.

 

SoCal? I would think you’d have at least some options...

Have you seen this?
https://www.pure-gas.org/

Edit: Hey @Taco’09, great minds think alke...

 

yeah nope.... 10 "stations" (which are most likely high performance race shops selling it out of the jugs)

just have a look

https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.jsp?statecode=

 

Using corn as fuel is dumb; ethanol has a way lower energy content compared to gasoline.

 

...you mean grate minds, he, he...