oh. so you haven't driven many miles like this then? i'll just wait for you to drive some more so that it establish the correct percentages.

650 global

5.88
4.2
2.808
1.992
1.488
1.2
0.912

 

I've been @ 522 globally for a few months now. I'd let the car run over a period of a few weeks to see where the LTFTs setup and to wait for the fuel delivery here to stabilize (the station near me fluctuates too much in their Exx percentage, I found one on the way to work that seems stable @ E79).

 

Anything down to around 10F I was fine... but in the zero to -15 range it sucked. This was also with my EVO VIII equipped with the AEM EMS, and some big cams... so starting issues on a MIVEC equipped car on the stock ECU may not be as bad.

For me, it does not make sense economically to run E-85. Around here is varies from $.20 less than 87 octane up to or higher than the price of 87 octane! With the fuel milage hit you take, it ends up being substantially more expensive on a $ per 100 miles driven than I get on 93 octane.... so I use it mainly for the power advantage. For that reason I will be running it only during the race season. When I put the winter tires on I will switch back to 93 octane Right now where I live, 93 octane is $2.799 per gallon and E-85 is $2.499 per gallon. Based on my results in my EVO VIII I am expecting around 16.5 mpg on E-85 vs 20.5 mpg on 93 octane for daily commute, around town driving. This give a price per 100 miles of $13.70 on 93 octane and $15.10 on E-85. That adds up based on 15,000 miles a year driven to $2055 a year for 93 octane or $2265 on E-85. So, $210 may not be a lot of money, but add in cold start issues, and the short range of E-85 when driving on long trips and I want to have my vehicle flexible. On long trips out of state I will run 93 octane (other than tuning trips, or to the shootout that is) and in the winter I will run 93 octane. If filling stations that carry it become more wide spread, AND I don't have the winter starting issues I expect, then I will re-think my position.

Later,

Keith

 

$210 in the grand scheme of modding is nothing...I don't even count stuff that is 200 or less usually (as in think twice about buying) and especially if it spread out over a year.

E85 for me is way worth it, you are paying for the performance not money savings. However it is usually only 1.85 in the summer here, so its a wash in MN for price difference.

 

When I did the math before converting E85 was a saver for me... but as week after converting the Krogers started fixing the price to 10 cents less than 87 rather than the 20-25 cents it had been. That made it more expensive due to the lower fuel economy.

 

Damn, $1.85 would be nice! For consistency's sake I would rather they ran E-70 year round or E-85 year around rather than flopping back and forth. I would love to have one fuel I can optimize for rather than having to do a compromise map that works for both. E-85 usage is so low here that the official dates for swapping from one blend to another are meaningless... you may get pure E-85 in December, and E-70 in July if the usage levels are low enough. One more reason I wish we had blender pumps instead of dedicated E-85 tanks. A blender pump with a selection of base gasoline and E-98 to blend together would be great!

Keith

 

The trims have stabilized:


Idle: 0.195313 Cruise: 2.73438

That's not too bad.

 

I did some calculations just for the hell of it the other day. I saw a 3.5 to 4 mpg loss in fuel economy on E-85 in my old EVO VIII running the AEM EMS. Assuming I see the same change with the Ralliart, my "break even" price difference for running E-85 when 93 octane is hovering around $2.799 per gallon would be $0.55 lower, so right at $2.249. The actual price for E-85 here is crazy, it can vary between $.30 lower than 93 octane, all the way up to $.20 higher than 93 octane. This seems to be because they only change the price of E-85 when they get a new batch in, and the low volume of sales results in wild variations in price compared to gasoline. So in a time of rapid price changes like we had when gasoline was over $4.00 / gallon if the price of gas dropped $.40 in a month the price of E-85 actually hovered above 93 octane until the "expensive" E-85 was all used up... and nobody wants to buy E-85 at higher than 93 octane prices so it would hover their forever.

Now the price point of 100 octane E-70 and 105 octane E-85 is awesome compared to 100 octane and 105 octane unleaded race gas

Keith

 

closest e-85 station is 29 miles away or i would have switched by now

 

Considering the Evo's range on E85 you'd have to be insane to convert for the money. The torque of E85 is something that you'll never want to give up once you've felt it.

 

200 miles between fillups with a max range of about 250 before I get worried... as long as you have a good set of stations in your area and map out any long trips you are fine.... I don't like having to make more fuel stops on a long trip, but it is better than getting stuck between stations and having to fill up on 93 octane and switch maps.

I just ordered a pack of 6 15ml graduated test tubes (with caps) to use in E-85 testing... I got them cheap, and will give a few away free to anyone willing to pay shipping.

Testing is simple, add 2.5 ml pure water to the bottom, fill to the 10ml mark with your fuel sample. Shake it up, wait 15 min for complete separation and measure the ml of gasoline at the top. Subtract that from 10 and multiply by 10 and you have your ethanol percentage. You can just read the scale on the side up to the bottom of the gasoline layer and be within 2% or 3% of the ethanol content... that is how the testers on the market for $15.00 are used. I think the official tester rig is 100ml, but that seems like a waste to me when 10ml of fuel should work just fine.

Keith

 

What? E85 is $1.85/gal in MN during the summer? There is two stations in my town that has E85 and a few a long the way to MN. I'm still debating if I should make the switch or not....

 

Yea e85 is real cheap in the summer, or it was last summer, 1.85 was the lowest I saw last summer, it was usually under 2.00 if not always.