Can E85 be used in any "regular" fueled vehicle?

Question

Can E85 be used in any "regular" fueled vehicle?

Answer 1

I wouldn't even run it in a 'flex' vehicle, since I don't want to take a 50% mileage hit.

Answer 2

You can but over time it would damage your car.  Ethanol is very corrosive, and using it in a regular fueled car can cost you.

Answer 3

NO.

E85 and other flex fuels are more corrosive than the fuel you normally put in your car. Also flex fuels burn slightly different than normal fuels.

If you want to use E85 in your car you need to make several adjustments. First you would need to adjust the fuel injector. Also you need to change the fuel hoses and tank to a more corrosive resistant material. In all the adjustment for a new car can run between 100~500 dollars plus labor.

Answer 4

Any carburetted vehicle will run E85 just fine if you adjust the mixture - you will still get crappy milage though.

Answer 5

As long as it is fuel injected/does not have a carburetor.

Answer 6

most vehicles can safely take up to 10% ethanol (E10), but do check your owner's manual.  If you do the math, based on your vehicle's tank size and amount of fuel still in it, and if you are somewhat accurate in your gas pump jockey skills, you could self-mix E85 (85% ethanol) and regular gasoline (provided it doesn't have any ethanol in it already) to get yourself a 10% ratio of ethanol to gasoline...

Yes, you can physically put E85 in a "regular" gasoline vehicle, but you wouldn't want to.  (so do NOT do it!  You should NOT put E85 in a gasoline vehicle.)  The higher concentration of ethanol can eat away plastics and other fuel line components over time (corrosive to the car).  The air/fuel ratio will also be off in your car, giving you poor cold start emissions (triggering a check engine light), and potentially damaging your engine over time with incorrect detonation.

You should only use E85 fuel in a vehicle that is designed to use it, called a flex-fuel vehicle (or labeled E85 capable).

Do note that E85 fuel has a lower BTU/energy content than gasoline, so expect your fuel economy to be slightly lower.

also note that there are few E85 fueling stations, so most flex-fuel vehicles never actually run it.  (even though the automakers get a 1.2mph bonus credit to their CAFE averages for each flex-fueled vehicle they sell!)  You can look up E85 refueling stations here:

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/et...

http://www.e85refueling.com/

You can view all of the E85 capable flex-fuel vehicles through:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/f*g/byfueltyp...

http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelve...

http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/to...

Answer 7

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Ethocrap is highly corrosive.  You would ruin your engine if you used it in a non-E85 car.  

Lets not forget that you reduce your gas mileage tremendously when you that garbage which does nothing but drive up the price of everything from a corn tortilla in Mexico to the price of beef here in the states.  Lets also not forget that you dump tons of unnessesary synthetic fertilzers on those crops and use hundreds of gallons of water to produce your "feel good fuel".

Answer 8

yes if you change the tank and all lines gaskets and seals in the fuel system to hdpe (high density polyethylene) the same plastic that rubbing alcohol comes in you also need to change injectors or re-jet carbs larger. plus it helps if the engine is 10-1 compression or better, this improves mileage. or you can preheat the fuel as the auto ignition of ethanol is 105 deg f. higher than gas. also about 5# of boost doesn't hurt. point is there's a lot of tricks to get very close to the same mileage as you do with gas.

have a still in my backyard and converted my ski-boat and Mercedes(for an around town car) to ethanol.

Answer 9

it can if you change all the rubber parts in the fuel system & recalibrate your carburator or injectors to put more fuel into the engine. but you will have to buy a lot more of it to go the same distance as gasoline.

for example if you have a flex fuel vehicle that gets 20 mpg on 87 octane gas it will only get 14.6 mpg on e85. this will make the oil companys very happy because they get an extra .51 cents a gallon from the tax payers to make the alcohol & you will use more of it than gasoline so its a gold mine for the oil companys!