*****E85 ethanol will it pimp in my ride*****

[Sodbuster]

Ethanol is not a drug that your car is going to Od on!
If you drive a fuel injected car, truck, fuel injected horseless carriage that is lets say 86 and up.. throttle body, sequential or multi port fuel injected you are ready with just a few things on the to do list. Number one..... start of easy put a couple of gallons of e85 in your fule tank, see how yea like it feel the love! Next.... on the next fill up try 4 gallons
Feel the love!
NOW it is time to change your fuel filter, the E85 Ethanol, just pulled all that junk up out of your tank from all that junk pump gas and put it in your fuel filter. Now lets go 50% 50% and see if she will smoke the tires ( JUST KIDDING) lets take her out on the highway and stretch her legs. But all of the sudden the check engine light comes on
What have I done!!!!! Nothing relax chill out the ECM ( Electronic control module/computer) noticed Via its fuel Senior that some how some way there is a large amount of ethanol in my tank! And AND AND the ecm does not have the correct receipt for the correct fuel delivery for ethanol (none flex fuel)and the check engine light is ON.
No worries, the light will go off just as soon as you put junk pump gas back in it, but if it is say 1995 and newer you have the OBD 2 computer system and the ECM will record in its history what has just happened.
Ok lite is on so what!!! it is just a light, we got gauges... WATER TEMP, FUEL, OIL PRESSURE, VOLTAGE we can still monitor are ride with pride, so lets go!
So lets fill it up BIG TIME!!!!
No not yet, CHANGE YOUR OIL .... Yup all that junk pump gas has left carbon deposits in your motor and the ethanol is breaking it loose and it is time to CHANGE YOUR OIL (aNd FiLtEr).
Now you ready, lets feel the love, fill er up all the way e85 .....
Ok so you did and on the way home you noticed the ping in my engine is GONE
Hey !!!! she runs pretty Darn gooD WOW .... 105 octane my friend she is going to run just fine.
Well the next morning lets say it is about 32 deg outside and you fire up the horseless carriage with E85 and it does not start the very first time, Yup E85 Ethanol some times don't like the cold, but you have a garage time to clean her out .
No garage...Ok no worries... block heater, no money for a block heater, ok give it another shot she will start on the second try have faith.
Ok she is all warmed up lets go, what the %`^#~~/'' is going on, she almost stalled when I gave her a little foot feed on acceleration, Yup that was the ECM trying to figure out the fuel delivery and it just compensated for yea and you felt it stumble. Continue these should only happen ONE time when you first accelerate the rest of the trip it Most likely well not happen again.
Do a few things when running on ethanol change your fuel filter often, high mileage cars more so. It really is a good Idea to change your oil lets say every 2000 miles the first year of E85 use.
Carburetor motors..... Give it a shot do all the above see what happens, I have seen carburetor motors run perfect on ethanol and some fall on there face.
If she falls on her face and just will not run like she use to, it is time to rebuild the carburetor. If you have never rebuild a carburetor now is not the time to experiment, just because you need to re-jet the main jet to a larger size. Find yea a good mechanic that will work with you and till him your problem. However there are mechanics out there that still have no clue on ethanol and will try to convenes you that you are going to destroy your motor. Nope never happen if your car/ horseless garage takes a dump it was not the ethanol / E85 fault it was yours for not taking care of it and changing the oil religiously. Will I hope these helps, I have bean running ethanol in my 98 chevy 5.7 vortec motor for over 100,000.00 miles with no issues and the truck has over 200,000.0 miles on her. Even if the price of ethanol goes for more than junk pump gas, If I don't have to, pump gas will never see my tank again!

[Robert Jackman]

Do You have the 2.0 liter or the 2.4 liter engine?

[Terra]

I have the 2.4 liter engine.

[Jody Sinex]

I have a 2008 Scion tC. I frankly do not care if it voids the warranty. I am not filling some Arabs anymore! One of my concerns is that I have just 3,500 miles on the car. It has the 2.4 liter engine same as the Camry. Will I still have to change the fuel filter and oil so soon even though it's a brand new car?

[Robert Jackman]

I would not bother to change oil except during normal changes. The fuel filter is probably OK, as-is in a newer auto.

I would approach the 50% and higher concentration gradually. Your engine computer might hick up at some point north of 60% Ethanol.

I'd love to know how high a concentration You can burn without the Check engine light coming on.

[Anthony]

I have a discussion going on a local forum but since I'm not or do I claim to be any type of mechanical expert, I need some help in answering some one else's comments. Here they are:

I'd be totally behind the ethanol movement if it was as grand as David Blume claims. However, there are lots of problems he doesn't address, like shortened vehicle engine life (ethanol doesn't lubricate the upper cylinder walls above the oil rings like gasoline), crop unreliability due to disease and weather, and it's corrosiveness, to name a few.

I hope someone can answer them for me so I can relate them back.

[boothillfarm]

I just found a Youtube vid that describes a big SUV that ran 100k miles on E85 and it was NOT a Flex-Fuel vehicle. The local tech school tore down the engine, and it showed minimal wear, especially given the miles. It was very encouraging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuOs1yap8mU

I am starting the transition in my own vehicles to E85 and will upload results for all to see. For four years, I have owned a 99 Pathfinder and 04 Honda Odyssey, and I have used E0 (pure gasoline) exclusively. Since reading ACBAG two weeks ago, I have started to use E10, and will gradually work my way up to E50 via splashblending. I am tracking mileage, any check engine lights, plus unusual sounds, and engine performance.

There are E85 stations and pumps in the area (northeast Wisconsin), so sourcing EtOH is not an issue.

Cheers!

[Sodbuster]

These is a older post that I made, sorry for all the pore grammar but its all fact!

[Sodbuster]

Sup MatT,

I am sure you are going to get several different answers on this question.
Now not having a in line filter can be frustrating, and having to pay a shop just to change the pump because the filter is part of the pump is costly, so if it were my vehicle i would run it to the pump goes and then make the repair.
Now check this out, my 98 Chevy 5.7 vortec 4x4 pick up at 92,000 miles had 6 fuel pumps put in it before i made the switch to E85. At $350.00 bucks a pop and I installed them my self ( and you have to drop the tank)
putting a fuel pump in almost every year was becoming a freakin night mare.
I made the switch to Ethanol 3 years ago and have logged over 112,000.00 miles on my pick up and I have not had a single issue with my fuel pump.
Ethanol is a solvent, a cleaner,it will clean your tank spic and span, it will remove all that varnish that junk pump gas has lift in the fuel lines and injectors. It is going to clean up that fuel pump in your tank like new again
and if something fails like the pump than its time has come and it is time to change it out.
Pump gas that we get today is not what we were getting twenty years ago, this gas is trash! full of contaminants and it is any wonder that are vehicles will even run at all on such poor quality fuel. You will never ever have any issues with ethanol unless it is contaminated say by the tank at the fill station or the junk pump gas that it has to be blended with. I run ethanol in all my equipment, weed eater, mowers, ATV, power washers,
and my other two vehicles that are none flex fuel and have not bean converted just straight E85 in the tank.
Now when I say converted I meen no flex fuel conversion kit like the ecm snap on, plug and play kit that they sell for fuel injected vehicles. All my rigs have had some very miner adjustments made to them as far as carburetion goes, air fuel mixture was all that was changed with very small adjustments.
My 4 wheelers are race bikes and they have bean re jetted but this is a hole different ball game because I run NOS and there piped.
Matt if this was my Mazda and I had access to E85 I would not even think twice about filling the tank full now
and if the pump goes than it goes, it was not from the Ethanol... it was from running junk pump gas for 60,000 miles. One last thing, go to my video that I had posted and watch the one that explains how they tore apart a none flex fuel chevy Tahoe.
,

[Randy]

I just filled up my once-was-gasoline-but-now-ethanol-powered 2002 Honda Civic yesterday - full to the brim with E-85. Loving it!

All it takes is $500 to get it converted.

[Sodbuster]

Randy your civic is going to run like it never ran before! way to go man ..... 500 bucks well spent.
I to want to get this kit but it has not bean available for my pick up until now.
There is one thing that I have noticed when running ethanol, and that is when it gets cold like it does here in the mid west some times I may have to key it twice and warm up time is twice as long.
However if you run a little more gas when filling up it will take care of the problem, But I never do if I don't have to. I do not want to have to run that crap junk pump gas in my rigs unless I have no choice.

[Shilo]

I'm going to start slow like R. Jackman suggests with my 2006 Toyota Corolla that has 70,000 miles on it.
Well I will start as soon as I get off 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week. Only 3 E85 stations in metro Atlanta so it's not going to be the easiest project.
I'll probably start a new thread when I start and post my results so they can be recorded.

[JT]

Great information SB! I'm all set emotionally to get off pump gas, but the fact the nearest station is 32 miles away, sours my mash. The only viable alternative is to make my own,and I cannot do that living in a PUD (Like a condo community).
So now I have to get other people interested in making and hosting a coop still. So awayyyy I go.