Well it was down to almost $2.00 a month ago, now it's around $2.30
I do not think i have seen it go for more than $2.40 ever since i switched last spring.

 

its 2.12 here, also wanted to let it be known i ran e85 on stock fuel system with no ill effects besides reducing the life of the injectors(running 125% idc's lol) and having to run low boost which would obviously defeat the purpose of using the gas anyhow. Just tried it once because i was short on cash and needed gas and knew what was needed from researching alot ect which is the only reason i even tried it on stock fuel components.

 

Does E85 smell good like race gas?

Also, What mods are done to Lucas's Evo? 11.2 @121...stock turbo? Seems to be moving for Stock turbo and E85....

 

2.19 here.. And i love the way it smells, kinda like kettel corn.. hehe
really sweet.

 

I have been following this E85 trend and been reading up alot. The sad part of it all is that since this car is my DD and it comutes 30+ miles daily and twice that on weekends. I'm worried that the comsumption levels would chew through my wallet. I normally do 260-280 miles per week at most and I already am spending close to $50 per week

With the availabilty of E85 and the comsumption amounts during combustion, is it worth it at this moment, from a financial perspective? I would say yes, but for how long? Prices will be on the rise eventually, as is everything in life.

for example. If 93 octane is $3.25/ cost $45.5 (14gallon tank)/ assuming 20mpg = $45.50 would be the price to drive 280 miles.

if E85 cost $2.6 (as it probably would in NY)/ cost $36.4 gallon tank)/assuming one tank will last 180 mles. That would be 12.85 per gallon. Therefore in order to get 280 miles for the week it would cost 280-180=100. 100/12.85=7.78. Then 7.78 * 2.6= 20.22

On E85, (above numbers are close estimates) it would cost 20.22 + 36.4 =$56.62

93octance = $45.50
E85= $56.62

The above numbers may be off, but I think its shows my point.
At what price per gallon does E85 price outweight its advantages......$3? which would be $65 per week using the above figures.

 

Wow, that's certainly an interesting way to do calculations

Gas is 20 mpg, $3.25/20= $0.16 per mile

E85 is 15mpg, $2.6/15= $0.17 per mile

And that's conservative. E85 is more like 16mpg, in which case it will be the same as reg gas, $2.6/16= $0.16

So it'll either cost the same or maybe slightly cheaper or slightly more expensive depending on prices and driving habits. Also don't forget you will get 40-50 hp/tq increase from raising boost from 21 to 27. If you have to pay an extra penny per mile to do that, i think it is worth it!

 

Yea, I kno. I did the long calculations to provide as much data as i could. Only 4 stations in my vicinity, all of which are too far (30+ miles). I'm patiently waiting until I have a station next door...lol

 

where i live now is awesome for stuff like stations. I live in a nice little neighborhood but not even a block down the road is a station with E85, E20, 91, and 93.

 

lucky u....

 

To me, there are three main factors that should dictate whether E85 is right for you:
1. Driving habits. If you take lots of road trips, E85 may not work. The Evo's tank is small, and it gets even smaller on E85. If you don't know exactly where the E85 stations are along your route, you might be in trouble!

2. Station closeness. You probably want an E85 station no more than a couple miles from your house.

3. Willingness to deal with a little care and feeding. Even if you don't take a lot of road trips, if you take any at all, you might want to consider having a map on hand for 93 oct and E85 both. That means having ECUFlash and a Tactrix cable as well as probably an EBC with presets for both fuels.

Also, perhaps even worse, unlike FlexFuel vehicles the Evo has no way to detect ethanol content. And that's bad because E85 isn't always E85 They reduce it to about E70 in cold parts of the year since cold E85 is hard to start. So if you are tuned to the max on E85, the lower octane of E70 might start causing autoignition at high boost. Now the Evo's knock sensor is pretty tight so I would not worry about blowing your engine up, but it will kill your performance.

I am planning on getting set up for E85 in the next couple months, but for me that means not only larger injectors and a pump to deal with the higher fuel volume, but also an EBC to allow me to switch boost for 93 oct. vs. E85, and also a wideband to monitor fuel composition and be prepared to retune myself seasonally to cope with the lower ethanol in the winter. Still a bargain for 50hp (plus I think alternative fuels are cool in general), but not a trivial thing.

 

Those are good points. You do not have to have an EBC, you can use an MBC just fine. And yeah for trips and such you would need to have a laptop with regular gas map available.

When it comes to ethanol content there's a thread in this sub-forum about a gauge to measure that. Merkzu made one for himself, so it can be done.

Lower ethanol content in winter(and fall and spring as far as i know) is a reality, but you can offset that by simply lowering boost to, say, 26psi.

 

Great info. I wasnt sure on the whole E85 situation and what you had to do. Ive seen it and wondered and now reading this i get the jist of it. You can still use WAI using E85 instead of reg. 93 ? Im going to have to see where they supply E85 around here does anyone know of a site that locates stations near you ?

 

WI (water injection) is always a good idea.

http://e85vehicles.com/e85-stations.htm for locations.
Or you can use google maps.

 

I just checked a few sites out of curiosity to see how many stations i have located around my area. I got the shaft though living in Rhode Island theres only 1 E85 station and its not even in RI and its Massachusetts. So looks like ill have to wait till i get some pumps around my area. Sucks though seeing i would definitely convert and atleast be able to say i contribute to the cause to fight global warming using alternative fuels.

 

I actually read that thread, but there are 2 issues:
1. It's a total custom job. He has enough info there that you could probably replicate it, but...
2. All it does is report ethanol content. The stock ECU can't actually do anything with that information, so you still need to retune if the composition changes.

Because of those 2 factors, I elected to use a wideband AFR instead, because that will register changes in fuel composition as well (hydrocarbon content not ethanol content directly, but you can still tell when the composition changes), and you need a wideband to tune yourself anyway, whether or not you have an ethanol gauge.

And you're right lowering boost would be enough, but I am a tweaker. Lower ethanol content means higher gas content means slower burn rate means you can crank your timing up. Or looked at another way, just lowering the boost without increasing timing is leaving power "on the table" so to speak. I want max power in all seasons! But yeah it's a trade off...convenience vs. max power.

Also, yes I do have an MBC currently and I considered using that instead of replacing it with an EBC, but I decided on an EBC for 2 reasons:
1. Convenience. With an MBC you'd want to do some minor logging/tuning any time you switched fuels to make sure you didn't get it a little off and cause some knock. Or there is that ECU mod I read about in another forum that flashes your CEL when the knock sensor goes off...that would work too...
2. Performance. A large part of E85's benefit happens at higher RPM. The faster burn rate matters a lot more for power generation on the top end. And one of the problems with an MBC is boost taper. Less than the stock solenoid but it is still there. EBCs (or at least the one I was planning on getting -- Apexi AVC-R) lets you tune by RPM to counteract boost taper and get as much out of the top end as you can.

As far as WAI, that would not harm an E85 car, but it also won't add as much as it would to 93 oct. The purpose of WAI is to increase the heat content of the air/fuel charge and to (in the case of the "A" part) increase the octane and burn velocity of the fuel. E85 already does all of that. In many ways, E85 + bigger injectors is almost like doing WAI in a different way. Me personally, I would do either/or, and I chose E85 since it's only one tank to fill and all the non-performance-related reasons to use an alternate fuel that's produced domestically and all (of course that last part is totally individual).