e85 Disappearing Act - NY Special

[Luckrider]

That is exactly where I stand. I would rather pay $3.90 and get the power than pay $3.90 and just be running 93.

[brichard0625]

I'm not sure if the sporadic changes in weather that causing the prices of e85 to go up but regardless im actually on a flex fuel kit for the first time and im doing a test to see if a flex fuel kit= better gas mileage compared to someone that is just switching tunes back and fourth. when i didnt have a flex fuel kit i avrg around 20-23mpg driving normally but when i drove aggressive i got like 17-19mpg. I wonder if tuners can offer a conservative e85 map for those times were your casually driving and then a aggressive e85 map. wonder if it would even make a difference

[Luckrider]

Originally Posted by brichard0625

I'm not sure if the sporadic changes in weather that causing the prices of e85 to go up but regardless im actually on a flex fuel kit for the first time and im doing a test to see if a flex fuel kit= better gas mileage compared to someone that is just switching tunes back and fourth. when i didnt have a flex fuel kit i avrg around 20-23mpg driving normally but when i drove aggressive i got like 17-19mpg. I wonder if tuners can offer a conservative e85 map for those times were your casually driving and then a aggressive e85 map. wonder if it would even make a difference

Something is wrong with your tune then. I gt 20-25 heavy on the throttle with e85. If I am nice to it, I can get close to 30. On 93 with the same driving I got 26-30 heavy on it and ~35 being nice. This is with a MT, not AT.

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by Luckrider

Something is wrong with your tune then. I gt 20-25 heavy on the throttle with e85. If I am nice to it, I can get close to 30. On 93 with the same driving I got 26-30 heavy on it and ~35 being nice. This is with a MT, not AT.

wow thats the most ive heard someone say they get on e85. u get more than me on pump as well. on 93 i get 24-25 driving hard and normal driving i get 27-29. ive gotten 35..38 the highest but i never went past 60mph and it was all highway. maybe im driving wrong lol

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Luckrider

Something is wrong with your tune then. I gt 20-25 heavy on the throttle with e85. If I am nice to it, I can get close to 30. On 93 with the same driving I got 26-30 heavy on it and ~35 being nice. This is with a MT, not AT.

Not necessarily anything wrong with his tune, the type of driving makes just as much of a difference as 'heavy' vs 'light' on the throttle. For instance, my 93 average is around 22-23 MPG... I'm not babying it but I'm not being a menac on the road either. Thing is, it's 99% very short trips (2-3 miles), not sure what brichard's trips are like. I haven't even clocked my mileage on E85 - don't really care actually, didn't buy the car for fuel economy

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

Not necessarily anything wrong with his tune, the type of driving makes just as much of a difference as 'heavy' vs 'light' on the throttle. For instance, my 93 average is around 22-23 MPG... I'm not babying it but I'm not being a menac on the road either. Thing is, it's 99% very short trips (2-3 miles), not sure what brichard's trips are like. I haven't even clocked my mileage on E85 - don't really care actually, didn't buy the car for fuel economy

I spend most of trips and traffic. at least 20-30 min a day in traffic. i dont really rev my car up i shift around 2800-3000 rpm, i do around 65mph highway driving

[Luckrider]

Originally Posted by brichard0625

wow thats the most ive heard someone say they get on e85. u get more than me on pump as well. on 93 i get 24-25 driving hard and normal driving i get 27-29. ive gotten 35..38 the highest but i never went past 60mph and it was all highway. maybe im driving wrong lol

I got 45mpg on my way home from picking the car up, but that was at 52 mph straight down 9W for about 30 miles. I had a full tank and filled it when I got home to get the calculation.

[evo4g63]

E85 down here in Phoenix is $2.99/gal and has been for some time. Some weeks it goes down to $2.89/gal

Out shitty piss water CA 91 pump fuel is $3.68-$3.89/gal. It's a no brainier for us down here. Another factor is I do not trust the shitty grade 91 pump fuel we get. It's way to in-consistent.

[HunterGreene]

Originally Posted by Luckrider

So, I ended up looking up the permits for NY and the federal one, and I am thinking of submitting an application with the Feds and State for an Alcohol Fuel License for the hahas of it. If I actually get one, I would then see about pushing to actually make the stuff myself.

Ah, the old Top Gear adage: What could possibly go wrong?

I know that E85 is great for performance, but its days as a fuel are becoming numbered, at least as a "widely" available fuel source. While it has been around for a while, it was really pushed hard as an alternative fuel to gasoline back in the W days (still marketed as such), and initially, it was a lot cheaper. However, auto manufacturers were slow to catch up, and provide vehicles that were "Flex Fuel" from the factory. Also, the fact that cars are less efficient when using E85 (even with the power bump) scared away some customers.

Then the prices started to go up, and people started to find out that producing the so called "greener" fuel was almost as expensive (depending on grain prices) and did almost much damage to the environment (due to the energy used to distill the ethanol used in the process).

Now you see the final nail in the coffin being set up: Prices for E85, which was initially much cheaper than gasoline, is very close to regular prices for gasoline (still cheaper than premium, but the difference is becoming minimal). Unfortunately, if you put the now standard E10 next to E85 at the same price, people are going to go with the E10, simply because they get more mpg with the E10. And with corn prices continuing to rise, the price of E85 may soon spike as the OP was told.

I would love to be wrong on this, as E85 is a good fuel, even better than E0 or E10 in many cases, but the market is the market and would seem to be headed this way.

[Hawaiian]

Last year i filled up for $2.14 a gallon. Now it is up to about 3.40

[brichard0625]

Lets hope it goes back down lol.

[Luckrider]

Originally Posted by HunterGreene

Ah, the old Top Gear adage: What could possibly go wrong?

I know that E85 is great for performance, but its days as a fuel are becoming numbered, at least as a "widely" available fuel source. While it has been around for a while, it was really pushed hard as an alternative fuel to gasoline back in the W days (still marketed as such), and initially, it was a lot cheaper. However, auto manufacturers were slow to catch up, and provide vehicles that were "Flex Fuel" from the factory. Also, the fact that cars are less efficient when using E85 (even with the power bump) scared away some customers.

Then the prices started to go up, and people started to find out that producing the so called "greener" fuel was almost as expensive (depending on grain prices) and did almost much damage to the environment (due to the energy used to distill the ethanol used in the process).

Now you see the final nail in the coffin being set up: Prices for E85, which was initially much cheaper than gasoline, is very close to regular prices for gasoline (still cheaper than premium, but the difference is becoming minimal). Unfortunately, if you put the now standard E10 next to E85 at the same price, people are going to go with the E10, simply because they get more mpg with the E10. And with corn prices continuing to rise, the price of E85 may soon spike as the OP was told.

I would love to be wrong on this, as E85 is a good fuel, even better than E0 or E10 in many cases, but the market is the market and would seem to be headed this way.

As a personally produced product it is still economical. It can be made for less than $2/gallon and the permits are free for the NY and federal ones.

[HunterGreene]

Originally Posted by Luckrider

As a personally produced product it is still economical. It can be made for less than $2/gallon and the permits are free for the NY and federal ones.

Thats fine, I don't know if I would trust it in my car though (if I even ran E85).

[86viper]

Originally Posted by HunterGreene

Ah, the old Top Gear adage: What could possibly go wrong?

I know that E85 is great for performance, but its days as a fuel are becoming numbered, at least as a "widely" available fuel source. While it has been around for a while, it was really pushed hard as an alternative fuel to gasoline back in the W days (still marketed as such), and initially, it was a lot cheaper. However, auto manufacturers were slow to catch up, and provide vehicles that were "Flex Fuel" from the factory. Also, the fact that cars are less efficient when using E85 (even with the power bump) scared away some customers.

Then the prices started to go up, and people started to find out that producing the so called "greener" fuel was almost as expensive (depending on grain prices) and did almost much damage to the environment (due to the energy used to distill the ethanol used in the process).

Now you see the final nail in the coffin being set up: Prices for E85, which was initially much cheaper than gasoline, is very close to regular prices for gasoline (still cheaper than premium, but the difference is becoming minimal). Unfortunately, if you put the now standard E10 next to E85 at the same price, people are going to go with the E10, simply because they get more mpg with the E10. And with corn prices continuing to rise, the price of E85 may soon spike as the OP was told.

I would love to be wrong on this, as E85 is a good fuel, even better than E0 or E10 in many cases, but the market is the market and would seem to be headed this way.

In the short term perhaps say 5 years, but In 10 years there won't be a choice. Petrol/Gasoline will be so expensive that the only alternatives will be biofuels or electric.

Once production of biofuels is at a level it should have been years ago the prices will stop going up quickly rising only with inlfation, while petrol/gasoline will rise fast.