Why are fellow honda swapers aginst E85

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9

97hatch

?
ive noticed over the past week or two many members are puting down e85 saying its not worth the added cost and its no better than pump gas. these are some of my experiences with it and what i think

1. My sohc d16y7 made 265hp 247tq on a 16g at 15psi on stock internals with E85 i made 224hp 230tq on 93octane

2. My stock internal LS turbo made 387hp 346tq on E85 with a SC34 at 18lbs It bent a rod was trying for 400hp stock block. Drove it daily at 12psi and it was making 334hp 307tq

3. Friends 14:1 CRvtec P&P head cams and ITBs made 291hp on E85 dont rember Tq it was almost 2yrs ago. He still drives this car almost daily if its not raining or snowing

4. Friends Built bottom stock head 9:1 B16 with a SC34 made 387hp 303 tq at 25psi on 93octane and made 504hp 395tq at the same boost with a retune on E85


These are just a few of the cars that i have tuned and deal with all the time and know E85 has worked very well in. I know that it is not any cheeper realy than pump gas but when you look at the fact that its 105 octane and readly avilable in most places why wouldnt you want to run this.

I have allready been playing with methanol blends to run if or when E85 is no longer available. So far a 75%meth 25% 93 octane blend works great on my D16a6 on 8lbs no horible corrosion yet and it seams to make more power than e85 did havent got it on the dyno yet ive been monitoring fuel system componets for effects of the meth but i think the gas blend keeps the corrosion down
 
1) it's not readily available in most places. i've YET to see a pump for it in my life.
2) it's not cheaper, the price per gallon is, but it uses more fuel to produce the same work, plus the conversion process of removing anything rubber
3) it's corrosive and non-designed motors will have a shorter life
4) use of the fuel eats crops. crops feed us and our animals. it may make 5% more hp on your car, but i don't want to be eating $50 delmonico's.
 
depends on who you talk to really. lots of folks in the mirage community use emanage, and have a gas and e85 tune. around here there are fairly few places that even offer it.


B, the closest pump to me is in newton.
 
lots of people use it in south florida. unfortunately there arent any stations close to me here in palm beach or i would use it too. it does really good things for supercharged cars, helps with the heat a lot.
 
ive never once seen a pump for it but im not hating i would so use it if i was running a boost setup...problem is you cant drive anywhere with it unless you know where you going has an e85 station around
 
Your gas mileage drops. As much as 10%. I would argue the power numbers but I'm on an iPhone right now. In
central Texas, all fuel is now 10% ethanol, which pisses me off. I don't get any say In the matter.
 
E85 is pretty common around WI. My new vehicle is flex fuel but I haven't used E85 yet due to the fact that gas is still pretty competitive in price. The dealer I bought it from (salesman is a good family friend) pointed out the drop in MPG but also said that when gas was soaring last year the price of E85 more than made up for the lost milage. It's nice to have the option but I wouldn't use it unless it made sense.
 
ok being in the mid west probaly helps on the availabilty of it. There is almost a station that has e85 at every exit off the interstate around here. ive drove as far as 300mi away and didnt even worry about not being able to find fuel.
 
phyregod said:
Your gas mileage drops. As much as 10%. I would argue the power numbers but I'm on an iPhone right now. In
central Texas, all fuel is now 10% ethanol, which pisses me off. I don't get any say In the matter.
Click to expand...

I work for a gas station in Central Texas. I've noticed a drop in mpgs since they started putting ethanol. It blows.
 
I've yet to see a E85 station in NC.

Otherwise, as far as power goes, I've only seen people with turbo cars see gains; mainly because it's more resistant to knocking. As far as fuel goes, if unleaded gasoline is getting better MPGs, I'll just stick to that. Our Honda fuel tanks aren't that big and one thing I like is not having to make many stops.
 
i will completly agree that e85 isnt a very good fuel for a normal every day driver. But if you have a highly modified car like many of us do and have setups that would benifet from race fuel e85 might be a good choice for you its 105 octane the alcohol provides great cooling on a turbo engine. Also when you compare E85 to 91-93 octane it dosent cost any more per mile than premium. if you look at it right now with what my local prices are its 2.59 for reg 2.84 for premium and 2.25 for E85 so in a car that averages 30mpg on gas to drive 10 miles would cost

$0.86 on 87
$0.95 on 93
$0.98 on E85 when you look at e85 vs premium it looks much beter and yes i calculated in the 30% more fuel
 
Stille Nacht said:
I work for a gas station in Central Texas. I've noticed a drop in mpgs since they started putting ethanol. It blows.
Click to expand...

Werd. Buddy of mine's dad did an experiment. His CRX in 2002 got got 54MPG (on average) recently he's been lucky to get 40. So when we went to the track he got some ethanol free 100 octane and wouldnt you know it, his car got 52 miles to the gallon that week.

Ethanol is the devil. Could you imagine what kinda mileage my s2k could get if i get 28mpg WITH ethanol. This right here should be enough reason to say 'fuck iowa, you're going to the back'. Stupid ethanol vow. Cant believe GW followed through.
 
reikoshea said:
Werd. Buddy of mine's dad did an experiment. His CRX in 2002 got got 54MPG (on average) recently he's been lucky to get 40. So when we went to the track he got some ethanol free 100 octane and wouldnt you know it, his car got 52 miles to the gallon that week.

Ethanol is the devil. Could you imagine what kinda mileage my s2k could get if i get 28mpg WITH ethanol. This right here should be enough reason to say 'fuck iowa, you're going to the back'. Stupid ethanol vow. Cant believe GW followed through.
Click to expand...

i find this hard to believe this as you wont get the same mileage on 87 as 100 due to the fact that 100 burns much slower and takes more fuel for the same amount of energy
 
believe it buddy. why do you think CRXes that once got 50-55 MPG now get 40. Its not because the engine is old its because of the gas.
 
All of this is at STP:

1 US gallon of automobile grade diesel = 130,500 Btu
1 US gallon of gasoline = 115,000 Btu
1 US gallon of ethanol = 76,000 Btu

You can see which is a better fuel.
 
yes gas is the better choice for a dd but if you are looking at the performance aspect of it E85 is much better. Many of the fastest race cars have been runing methanol for years and its not much diffrent than ethanol except its made from wood.

As for your 52mpg on 100octane and 87 octane. i just dont beleive it. I log my mpgs every time i fill up and ive done the regular vs premium many times and the difrence between premium and regular is 4-5mpg. its nearly imposiable to get the same mileage out of 100 as 87 because it burns so much slower there for the engine makes less power and has to work harder to move the vehicle unless you add lots of timing to compensate for the slower burning fuel. It just cant happen
 
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