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Has anyone tried to put E85 in their mk3? I wanna give it a try but I've heard a few times that it's bad for small engines.
E85
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regardless of whether or not its bad for small engines, its not worth it. My gas mileage was horrible on it. i tried about 4 tanks and the cost per mile was about 3-5 cents more than with 87 oct. i know 3-4 cents per mile isnt much but i hated the inconvenience of having to fill up sooner. this was on about 95% highway miles with the cruise set at about 75mph.
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2,211 Posts
I have posted extensively about how much I don't care for E85 but don't take my word for it. Ford actually considers it a hardship on your motor oil, lumped in with driving in dusty conditions:
Change your oil and filter more often if...
Towing or carrying heavy loads
Idling extensively or driving at low speeds for long distances
Driving in dusty conditions
Driving off-road frequently
Using E85 fuel more than 50% of the time
http://support.ford.com/maintenance/when-to-change-oil
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Okay then. Thanks everyone for your quick feedback. I'll be sure to stay the hell away from it lol
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I've never met anyone who was enthusiastic about using E85. Heck, I've never known anyone to actually try it.
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MIghty car mods just posted a video yesterday where they tuned their bosted Legacy to run on E85 and gained over 30hp just from the e85 alone. BUUT, they made it clear that E85 will only give gains like that on boosted cars. They said the gains would be very low on a N/A car. So for our Mk3 it's probably pointless.
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jburks is right. It was pretty cool seeing that jump. I feel if you wanna go E85, you should have a tune, including NA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuCUf2Qrzhs
I used to print several ethanol companies public financial statements, if the government ever drops the subsidy on ethanol it will dry up overnight, still costs like $6/gal. to make. You're paying for it with your taxes whether you wanna or not.
The moisture issues it brings are horrible, not bad on a car used everyday but if one you then let sit, like throwing acid in the tank.
The moisture issues it brings are horrible, not bad on a car used everyday but if one you then let sit, like throwing acid in the tank.
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I've read it's even worse on direct injection engines because of carbon build up.
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I'm pretty sure any DI engine suffers from it regardless
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You can add E-85 at any time (half & half is fine IF you have a FlexFuel vehicle) ((E-85 = less solders per mile)) [grinking]
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I rarely use e85, running it this tank, and notice no difference with performance or anything, only difference is my 30mpg average is now at 22.3mpg.. but where I am, it is roughly 70 cents cheaper per gallon than 87 so it kind of makes up for it.
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I fill up last Saturday 1.96 a gallon.
I JUST bought my focus, so I have not used E85 and it's not easily available for me here anyway. But I have used E85 in other vehicles (an 09 Impala 3500 runs fine off it). It gives you a bit more horsepower, but less gas mileage. I had a bad experience using it in a Ranger I used to own, it clogged the injectors all of the time. I even tried a different brand of injectors with no better luck. I could definitely feel a power gain when using E85, but in the end it was not worth it.
http://forums.focaljet.com/ti-vct-t...results-dyno-graphs-inside-7.html#post7976590
10-15 HP with no tune. My car is an early build without Flex-Fuel capability but I notice a gain from 87 octane to 91-93 octane as well. It's probably not as pronounced, though.
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94 Posts
I filled up with E85 today and plan on filling my car with it for a month or so. Just want see for myself what the performances is like and how much of a drop in fuel economy occurs compared to what I normally get with E10. Since it was only about $1.36 per gallon and I normally use Premium (don't judge me), it shouldn't hurt cost-wise.
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