E88 gasoline also known as E15, at 70 cents less per gal

[Wmjohn]

I've been seeing this at various stations in the last year and was tempted to try in my 2016 5.7 HEMI.

Most discussions about alternate ethanol fuels talk about lower mpg so I hadn't tried any.

Today I found this from an apparently solid source mnfuels.com or Minnesota:
"The energy density of Unleaded 88 or E88 and regular unleaded are very similar, and it’s unlikely you’ll notice any difference in fuel economy. In fact, one study conducted by the University of California showed some vehicles achieve slightly better miles per gallon with Unleaded 88 than regular unleaded."
And further," It’s good for your engine. Unleaded 88 burns cleaner and slower than regular unleaded, which has an octane rating of 87. The higher octane level helps boost horsepower and efficiency."

At the large savings per gallon, curious to know if others have tried E88. Seems worth a try.

 

[06 Dodge]

Ummm no, I do believe your mistaken, E88 would be 88% Ethanol and 12% gas just like E85 is 85% Ethanol and 15% gas. BTW most of theses type of gas testing about how great Ethanol is, well what they do not tell ya is the fact they do not go out to the local gas station and buy the gas they will use for all those the test in their published report, what they do is they go buy fresh Ethanol direct from the refinery & the gas from a distributor that meets there requirements, they then mix the Ethanol & gas on site... People need to stop and ask why they will not go to the local gas station an buy the same ethanol blend gas that the every day public has to use to do all of there fancy testing? There is a reason they do not use same Ethanol blended gas the public has to use...

 

[crash68]

There's been several threads of people using E85 fuel with the same results, less fuel economy and power. Makes sense since the fuel has less energy per gallon than regular gasoline.
If I'm not mistaken neither the Hemi or Pentastar engine is suggested to run E85 fuel, only the older FlexFuel vehicles.

It’s good for your engine. Unleaded 88 burns cleaner and slower than regular unleaded, which has an octane rating of 87. The higher octane level helps boost horsepower and efficiency.

Who writes this bull excrement? What's so higher about 87 octane? It will only make more horsepower if the engine is tuned for high octane fuels. As for being "good for your engine", there's a few Dodge mechanics that will highly disagree with this statement.

 

[Wmjohn]

To be clear, this thread is about E88. Not E85. E88 refers to 88 octane. An important question: has anyone tried it and what was the performance and mpg?

For what it's worth, Fueleconomy.gov, which is run by U.S. Department of Energy, says unleaded 88/E15 will get 3% to 4% less miles per gallon than regular unleaded 87 gasoline.

(That seems similar to what other posters have found on E85.)

And there's this, "tests done in California show that newer vehicles were only 1.3% less efficient when using unleaded 88 rather than unleaded 87. The test looked at 20 newer vehicles and included everything from a 2018 Honda Civic to a 2018 Chevy Suburban."

"Underwriters Laboratories announced its research supports the use of fuel blends containing 15% ethanol."

So what matters most is what Ram E88 users have experienced.

 

[GTyankee]

the compression ratio of your engine determines the octane rating for the gas you should use for your truck. The higher the compression ration of your vehicle, the higher the horsepower. This is why high-performance engines require more octane.
If you have the HEMI V8 engine, you should use the 89 octane, if you have the base V6 engine, then it is okay to use the 87. Just never use higher than 89!

. Mid grade is recommended. Premium is a waste of money. This assumes it is a Hemi. If it’s a V6, anything other than regular is a waste of money.

They say 87 acceptable, 89 recommended and DO NOT USE E85.,
If i remember correctly, in your Owner Manual, it reads
that you could use 10% ethanol.
It never reads that you could use 15% ethanol

 

[04fxdwgi]

To be clear, this thread is about E88. Not E85. E88 refers to 88 octane. An important question: has anyone tried it and what was the performance and mpg?

For what it's worth, Fueleconomy.gov, which is run by U.S. Department of Energy, says unleaded 88/E15 will get 3% to 4% less miles per gallon than regular unleaded 87 gasoline.

(That seems similar to what other posters have found on E85.)

And there's this, "tests done in California show that newer vehicles were only 1.3% less efficient when using unleaded 88 rather than unleaded 87. The test looked at 20 newer vehicles and included everything from a 2018 Honda Civic to a 2018 Chevy Suburban."

"Underwriters Laboratories announced its research supports the use of fuel blends containing 15% ethanol."

So what matters most is what Ram E88 users have experienced.

Like I would believe anything that is stated as fact coming out of CA (the guys that want to ban ICE's).

Just look at the BTU/g rating of the gasoline vs ethenol. BTU's (or the energy rating) are what is needed to create heat / energy. Gas is 125,000 BTU/g and ethenol 84,530 BTU/g. The math is pretty simple and VERY obvious

 

[kurek]

There has never been a religious conflict in human history as passionate or irreconcilable or dogmatic as the uh "debate" about ethanol. Nobody will ever under any circumstances learn anything or change their mind about anything in a hundred billion of these threads regardless of any evidence or documentation provided.

 

[Atcer2018]

To be clear, this thread is about E88. Not E85. E88 refers to 88 octane. An important question: has anyone tried it and what was the performance and mpg?

For what it's worth, Fueleconomy.gov, which is run by U.S. Department of Energy, says unleaded 88/E15 will get 3% to 4% less miles per gallon than regular unleaded 87 gasoline.

(That seems similar to what other posters have found on E85.)

And there's this, "tests done in California show that newer vehicles were only 1.3% less efficient when using unleaded 88 rather than unleaded 87. The test looked at 20 newer vehicles and included everything from a 2018 Honda Civic to a 2018 Chevy Suburban."

"Underwriters Laboratories announced its research supports the use of fuel blends containing 15% ethanol."

So what matters most is what Ram E88 users have experienced.

It’s not E88, it’s UNLEADED 88 or E15 as per the Minnesota Fuels article you referenced. E88 would be an 88% ethanol fuel. Most gasoline sold in the US and Canada contains up to 10% ethanol making it E10. Ethanol is an alcohol and just like when we humans drink alcohol it dehydrates. On old vehicles with rubber seals the ethanol dries out the seals. Fuel with ethanol that sits for extended periods absorbs water and gets “gummy”. Outdoor power equipment is prone to ethanol fuel clogging up the small carburetors. Don’t take my word for it, Google it. As for your references, fuel economy dot gov takes me to their home page not any specific article and the California testing results takes me to a “tweet” by Robert White who is the president of the Renewable Fuels Association. MNFuels and the RFA are in business to sell bio fuels so of course they will espouse all the benefits of ethanol mixed fuels. Your Bio says you have a 2016 truck, have you checked the owners manual to find out if your vehicle can use E15? I own a flex fuel Pentastar V6 and I’ve tried E15 and E85. I have no long term usage data as I only find E85 available in Pennsylvania when visiting my sister. The few times I’ve used it mpg was poor but the motor “felt” peppier which is subjective at best. E15 fuel I’ve used on long highway trips and I’ve been pleased with the mpg versus price compared with regular 87 octane. Mpg’s were the same as per the dashboard mpg readout. Again no long term data as these fuels are not available in my home area.

 

[Travelin Ram]

I expect the differences between 87/E10, 88/E15, and 89/E10 are so slight as to be imperceptible to most drivers. I’ve run all 3 at various times in the Wagon -and the occasion 91 or 93- and whatever changes in performance exist are overshadowed by other variables like elevation change, traffic, wind direction… you get the idea.

No doubt, on an instrumented test vehicle with a repeatable drive cycle, differences could be measured. Or at the drag strip. That’s not the real world I drive in, though.

For an imperceptible difference, I’d damn sure buy it for $.70 less.

In the markets I’ve seen it, octane seems to be the price driver and it’s not cheaper than 87.

 

[Dredger]

88/E15 is always cheaper where I'm from. Heck, this week, Sheetz is selling it for $1.99. They do this several times a year. And it can be used in the 6.4.

 

[KKBB]

I was forced to use it a couple weeks ago in my wife's Durango with the 5.7 hemi. We were low on fuel in Minnesota on our way to the Mayo clinic. When we stopped to fuel up, the only option was the 88 octane/15% ethanol. Regular 87 wasn't working. It seemed to get a little worse mileage than the 87 I usually run, but was hard to tell based on the wind. Didn't notice anything else out of the ordinary though when we used it. It was cheaper than 87, but only by 10 or 15 cents per gallon where we filled up...if I remember correctly anyway!!

 

[NETim]

Ethanol is better for the environment. That's what we're told. At least until all the diesel required to produce the corn to make the ethanol is factored in. And the loss of wildlife habitat due to increased corn acreage.

 

[NETim]

88/E15 is always cheaper where I'm from. Heck, this week, Sheetz is selling it for $1.99. They do this several times a year. And it can be used in the 6.4.

I wonder what ethanol prices would be if the taxpayer funded subsidies were removed?

 

[runamuck]

one thing about these new fuels is that one of my harleys is a carbureted 2001 wide glide and every year after winter downtime I have to pull the carb and replace a cpl. of rubber o'rings before it will run. the idle jet one is usually not even there anymore. I use the ones that are made to work with ethanol fuel but they still ruin.

 

[Dredger]

I wonder what ethanol prices would be if the taxpayer funded subsidies were removed?

It would be interesting to see where they settled. Certainly higher

 

[turkeybird56]

one thing about these new fuels is that one of my harleys is a carbureted 2001 wide glide and every year after winter downtime I have to pull the carb and replace a cpl. of rubber o'rings before it will run. the idle jet one is usually not even there anymore. I use the ones that are made to work with ethanol fuel but they still ruin.

I am a bit luckier. My 2006 Gold Wing is injected. But I also run it all winter, As long as temp over 40, I can survive the 5 miles to town and back and keep putting in and mixing "fresh" fuel. If it is gonna sit for a while, on goes the tender and Stabil in the fuel tank, which I run up and down lil hills near my garage to mix well, than park.

 

[Sherman Bird]

I've been seeing this at various stations in the last year and was tempted to try in my 2016 5.7 HEMI.

Most discussions about alternate ethanol fuels talk about lower mpg so I hadn't tried any.

Today I found this from an apparently solid source mnfuels.com or Minnesota:
"The energy density of Unleaded 88 or E88 and regular unleaded are very similar, and it’s unlikely you’ll notice any difference in fuel economy. In fact, one study conducted by the University of California showed some vehicles achieve slightly better miles per gallon with Unleaded 88 than regular unleaded."
And further," It’s good for your engine. Unleaded 88 burns cleaner and slower than regular unleaded, which has an octane rating of 87. The higher octane level helps boost horsepower and efficiency."

At the large savings per gallon, curious to know if others have tried E88. Seems worth a try.

"In one study"? Really? What was the N factor? What about the study being conducted across all climes and seasons? Remember that correlation offers no proof.

 

[chri5k]

"In one study"? Really? What was the N factor? What about the study being conducted across all climes and seasons? Remember that correlation offers no proof.

Reminds me of this XKCD comic.

 

[runamuck]

I am a bit luckier. My 2006 Gold Wing is injected. But I also run it all winter, As long as temp over 40, I can survive the 5 miles to town and back and keep putting in and mixing "fresh" fuel. If it is gonna sit for a while, on goes the tender and Stabil in the fuel tank, which I run up and down lil hills near my garage to mix well, than park.

yas I'm riding less and less in my old age. I also have a 2009 ultra classic that is injected. we do some cruising on that one. after I bought the wide glide my wife decided she would like to go too so I bought an ultra and later a newer ultra and we have traveled many miles on it. our favorite trip is from ft. worth to durango co. and the many roads around durango and taos n.m. and then back to DFW. we have done the hill country many times too.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Royal Farms Stores a gas station/minimart with locations in 6 US states within the Mid-Atlantic region, sell non-ethanol gas, 90 octane. The one near me has it at every pump for $4.45/gallon.

Their regular gas is not Top Tier, and they don't have enough locations to be remotely convenient so i go elsewhere for my gas and coffee.

This doesn't address the issue of the price of ethanol gas that is not subsidized, but for me it shows the price of doing away with ethanol altogether. And that $4.45/gal would likely come down should demand increase dramatically.

Check for a place near you, US and Canada: https://www.pure-gas.org/