E15 fuel debate

CanadianNick · Dec 29, 2017

Ok so what about the flex fuel engines? What if you use better gas than e85. Is it bad because it’s tuned for cheaper gas ? Would it be bad running premium gas ?

Magdiel · Jun 2, 2019

This is all I am saying.I have a 2017 . If you look at your manual it says "89octane recommended---87 octane acceptable--- 0-15% ethanol..... People are worrying about nothing!!
MY GOODNESS!!!!

QwikKota · Jun 3, 2019

My parents have had check engine lights come on in their Honda/Nissan when using E15 gas. They are only saving $0.02 per gallon. Why take the risk is beyond me. Lean codes I believe.

Marine Les · Jun 3, 2019

avantiguy said:
Personally, I'm waiting for E100. Hard to buy good corn squeezin's under $2/gal anywhere else these days.

Wow! I never thought about it but E100 would mandate alcohol tax because you know people would be filling little brown jugs from the pump. If we can subsidize alcohol for burning why not drinking it? I'll bet at $2 a gallon we export billions of gallons every year making the U.S. the Saudi Arabia of booze.

Riccochet · Jun 4, 2019

Go get one of those test kits to test the ethanol content of fuels. Plenty of vids online showing gas from not top tier stations having higher than 10% ethanol content. Some as high as 25%, even though it's marked as being up to 10% on the pump.

You'd be surprised what we're being sold and not even realizing it. The issue comes from phase separation happening in the storage tanks. As the ethanol separates and sinks the float pumps pull the gas off the top. Then when the tanks are refilled the ethanol on the bottom gets stirred up and reintroduced to an extent. So you wind up with gradually increasing levels of ethanol in the fuel. You can guarantee these older mom and pop stations are not doing tank maintenance by routine purging's of their holding tanks.

High volume stations of top tier fuel vendors are your best bet.

E15 probably won't hurt your vehicle engine or components. You'll just see a reduction in fuel economy. I wouldn't put it in a boat though.

Casper · Jun 4, 2019

Markcuda said:
I thought modern day fuel lines and such can't handle more than 10%?
Or, do I have that wrong?

***
Unless a vehicle is a flex-fuel (E-85) vehicle it should not be run on anything above E-10.

Corrosive
Absorbs oxygen from the air until it reaches saturation point (temperature changes can then force water back out in your tank).
Lower BTUs that same volume of gas only
Can flash to vapor at fuel injection psi/temps--more a problem for early FI than today.
Eats plastics
Grows organics which create gritty deposits

Marine Les · Jun 4, 2019

I agree with Riccochet and try to only buy Top Tier fuels because to be so listed means those fuels are held to a higher standard.

IdahoEagle · Jan 27, 2020

-B- said:
this is incorrect in fact it cools better , alcohol is a proven intake and combustion chamber cooler it has been used to do so in fuel mixes for 100 years . The original reason for 10% in fuel for winter bends was to help cool the engine to produce better complete burn reducing emissions.

Alcohol at standing temperature does cool better. However since it BURNS longer it can overheat engine components due to incomplete burn during the power and exhaust cycles.

IdahoEagle · Jan 27, 2020

-B- said:
this is incorrect in fact it cools better , alcohol is a proven intake and combustion chamber cooler it has been used to do so in fuel mixes for 100 years . The original reason for 10% in fuel for winter bends was to help cool the engine to produce better complete burn reducing emissions.

Alcohol at standing temperature does cool better. However since it BURNS longer it can overheat engine components due to incomplete burn during the power and exhaust cycles.

kurek · Jan 27, 2020

E15 is great, I wish it was available near me. I wish E85 was available near me. If you can inject the added fuel (either due to the vehicle being built for it from the factory or due to a conversion) E85 has almost none of the spooky doom prophecies people go on and on about.

As for the energy content thing.. that can be easily understood using candy.

ChrisD00 · Mar 2, 2020

I visited this thread in 2017 looking for someone's experience in running e15 but rather, found people saying not to do it because of this, this and this. Basically what you can find on any Google search.

So I decided to test it myself. From 2017 to current. Only used E15
2008 Ram 5.7
Starting mileage: 128,030
Current mileage: 136,654
Oil: Mobile 1, changed every 3500miles
1 throttle body swab and seafoam treatment.
Climate: Midwest, Iowa, humid summers, below 0 winters
Usage: Every day driver until May 2019. May 2019 to current - only used for towing/work.
Towing: 10+ times <4000lbs. 3 times >4000lbs.
Payload: 10+ times at 50-75% capacity.

0 problems, no knocks in the motor,
0 heating/cooling problems.
0 corrosion problems, the only thing thats rusting out are my damn wheel wells. Per usual.

E15 fuel debate

CanadianNick

Senior Member

Magdiel

Junior Member

QwikKota

Senior Member

Marine Les

Senior Member

Riccochet

Senior Member

Casper

U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Marine Les

Senior Member

IdahoEagle

Junior Member

IdahoEagle

Junior Member

kurek

Senior Member

ChrisD00

Junior Member

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