Can I put ethanol e 85 fuel mixed w/gasoline in my 2003 mazda p.u. truck it has a 2.3 ltr. 4 cyl.?

Question

What 's the bad side effects?

Answer 1

I have a 2004 Ford Focus, 4 cylinder.  I have been using a mix of E85 and gasoline in it for about 3 years now.  I have never had one ounce of trouble.  The Focus runs the exact same on 30% ethanol as it does on straight gasoline.  I've heard it all.  Your seals will crack, it will corrode your fuel lines, blah blah blah.  Ethanol is a very weak base.  The ph is 9.8.  It is not corrosive at all.  It's another lie propagated by big oil.  I have been blending E85 into my non-flex fuel ford focus for awhile now and there is zero difference in performance. And Ford owns and operates Mazda.  You can see this at www.ford.com   So take it as you wish.  Just wanted to share this and say I've never had any issues.

Answer 2

If your Mazda has a "flex Fuel" certification it can handle any mixture of E85 and regular gasoline.  If it is not then you should only put in about 10% E85.  This is the same method a lot of major population centers do in the winter to help the area meet DEQ standards.  The Portland Oregon area does it for example.

The only problems you will have is the lower mileage with the mixture due to the lower energy content of the alcohol-gasoline mixture.

Sometimes the fuel filter gets plugged due to the cleaning action of the alcohol tends to loosen any sediment in the tank and cause it to be brought to the fuel filter.

Answer 3

Read the owner's manual. It will tell you what kind of fuel you can safely put in your car.

Answer 4

No-

The only Mazda's that are factory equipped Flex-fuel vehicles are B3000 pick-ups, years 1999. 2001 & 2002, with a 3.0 V6,  and the 8th character of the vin is "V".

Answer 5

Don't do it. Your Mazda is not set up to run on Flex Fuel. You would be disappointed anyway. You would get horrible economy even if you could get your truck to run on Ethanol. Then there is the corrosive effects of ethanol to consider. Do you know where the E-85 refilling stations are?

An indirect side effect of turning corn into ethanol is the surprise spike in the cost of milk. It seems that cows are not very productive when hungry.

Answer 6

Wouldn't work well.  Ethanol has 30% less energy content than gasoline (by volume) so the fuel injection system would need to inject more fuel.   Yours doesn't know how to do that, so the engine would "run lean" and make lots of NOx pollutants.

How does a fuel injection system calibrate itself to the fuel?  In closed-loop mode, it gets a signal from the oxygen sensor saying whether there's oxygen in the exhaust or not.  It tweaks fuel injector settings until it finds the point where the oxygen sensor "just" turns off, which is perfect combustion.   That point would be in a really strange place because of the ethanol, so the computer would get really confused and probably blow an error and inject fuel all wrong.  That would mess with your power and driveability.

What's more, the lean running could damage the engine, like overheating the reducing cat.  Also the spark knock could cause all sorts of damage to the engine, from blown cylinder heads to holes in pistons.  Hopefully the computer would do everything possible to de-tune the engine to prevent that.  Hopefully.

Oh yeah and there may be corrosion issues internal to the engine, mainly around rubber seals, and pump and injector internals.

You might want to learn a little more about how electronic engine controls work before you try it.

Or moot the point by selling the truck and getting a diesel, then run biodiesel in it.  Biodiesel doesn't have these problems!

Answer 7

If the car has not been set up to run on E85 I would not use E85 in it.

Answer 8

No, it will not run on it correctly and will cause long term damage if you continue to use it. I build Mazda Engines. !!!!!!!!!