I have a flex-fuel Ford F-150 Truck. With talk of fuel hitting $4p/gal when is ethanol a cost effective alt.?

Question

I know ethanol burns faster but how much faster and when is it worth it?

Answer 1

You will burn 2x as much. If it takes you 3 gallons to go to work you will burn 6gallons with ethanol. i wouldnt reccomend ethanol for anything maybe find a disel motor and switch out?? diesel is way more expensive but goes a long long way compared to gas and ethanol good luck and your right i hate to see these gas prices soon!

Answer 2

first of all the flex fueling they are talking about is the ability to use E85 to straight gasoline. you cannot run straight ethanol even with a flex fuel vehicle as the fuel maps are not designed to allow that. your engine would always be running lean, and that would cause you to have even worse fuel economy due to a lean miss, and to cause engine damage due to detonation problems caused by the lean mixtures, and the heavy load demands placed on the engine.

Answer 3

I have a flex fuel GMC Yukon. We did some testing on the flex fuel and found I did not get better mileage. I have been told by someone at a dealership that they have problems from using this fuel. Its really not that much cheaper anyway. At least in my area. They also told me that if your going to use it use it all the time and don't go back and forth from gas to ethanol..

Answer 4

if u mean 100 %  ethanol..it will not be cost effective for decades if ever... without government subsidy's current cost would be 4,00 dollars a gallon...and you only get 2/3 power gallon per gallon...

Answer 5

You will use 20% - 30% more ethanol than you will gasoline. So, if you get an already horrible 14 mpg city, you will get an even worse 10-11 mpg city. Since it cost almost as much, you will be back more often to fill up.

I would rather eat my corn and get the most fuel efficient vehicle for the ACTUAL need.