Everyone has their own motivation for running (or trying to run E85) in their vehicles: less harmful emissions, green gas, sticking it to OPEC (my personal favorite), and while we recognize that E85 might not be the greatest answer to our energy problems, it is a step in the right direction.
Personally, I would rather give our local farmers (I'm a Michigander) the money, rather than handing it out to other countries, increasing our national debt. The problem: my car is not a flex fuel vehicle. I drive a 2004 Grand Prix GT, with the 3800 (3.8L) Series III V6. The owners manual says to use unleaded fuel - no mention of ethanol or E85.
So, like any other internet using person, I Google'd the issue. What I found is suprising - there are people across the spectrum, some saying "Naw, I run E85 in my non-FFV no problem! It's been 20k miles so far!" to others saying, "You idiot, you're killing your engine! Don't you understand cars?"
In my many hours of reading, this is what I understand: E85 requires about 30% more fuel injected in order to reach the proper ratio of air:fuel for combustion. Most non-FFVs do not have the proper programming, or even if the computer can handle it, large enough injectors to handle the increased fuel injection.
So the fuel injection maxes out, which is still not enough fuel to meet the proper fuel:air ratio, meaning the engine runs lean. Running lean can lead to pre-ignition (firing before ready), which can cause engine damage. On the flip side, ethanol is high octane, so it is resistant to pre-ignition ("knocking").
Most of the people who try to run high percentages of E85 end up throwing error codes, meaning the Check Engine Light (CEL) comes on, and the code is usually informing you that the engine is running lean.
Which leads to me, and my next post...
1 comment:
I have corolla 1995/ 1.8 first time I used E85 I added about 9 gallons E85 to one gallon unleaded fuel that was already there in my car tank, the car was running good but with lower acceleration, I cut 250,000 with this fuel mixture, with gas prices going up I was encouraged to put 10 gallons of E85 in an empty tank last time I was in fuel station, since then the engine is not running soft, I think that I cannot but use E85 without mixing it with some regular fuel.
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