nismax1994

I've been hesitant to post this but here goes. During the past month we have had a gasoline shortage in my area. When gas was available it would only be 87 octane. One day I was at 1/4 tank and instead of waiting in the gas line that was two blocks long I did the unthinkable....pulled up to the E85 pump and put in about 4 gallons of it. The car ran absolutely splendid.

Since then I've been trying to different blends and haven't had a problem until I got a little crazy last night.

Last night I mixed it close to straight E85 just to see how much it could take. I left the station with about 1/2 tank of the stuff. Got on the freeway, seemed fine. Then I got onto the surface streets and started stumbling and surging. I put in 2.5 gallons of 87 and the stumbling subsided but it still wasn't exaclty smooth.

Today I drove around noting the roughness was getting better. After 20 mins of driving stop and go, I restarted the engine and it ran smoothly albeit with a loss of power. It was evident the ECU was working the problem out. I drove another 15 min or so and the check engine light came on. I stopped and added 2 more gallons of 87. The light stayed on when I restarted the car but went off in less than a mile, and it drove and accelerated very smoothly.

Given the past month of unscientific study of ethanol in the Maxima I would assume it would be safe to run up to a 30% ethanol blend. It can take up to around 50% before any apparent problems, but my fear is this:

***It might be running lean before I notice stumbling or get a CEL.***

But with that said it was good to do some experimentation considering I live in a 'green' city that is pushing for more ethanol in gasoline. The cut and paste internet wisdom is that the ECU is very slow to adapt to changes in fuel. i.e. it takes a whole tank of premium to reset the advance after running regular, etc. On the contrary I've proven, to my own satisfaction, that the ECU can go from one end of the spectrum to the other in about 30 min of varied driving.

OK thats enough hot air for one post. I just thought I would share my experience.

Dhunterx

iTrader: (6)

Doesn't running E85 mess up older cars internally? I've been hating the stuff ever since gas pumps around here started with the 10% ethanol; made my mileage worse.

nismax1994

True. The danger is two-fold.

Older cars may have materials in the fuel system that the ethanol will eat up. In the late 80s and early 90s, manufacturers switched to ethanol compatible materials. My 94 Owners Manual states I can use E10.

The other consideration is ethanol will loosen up gunk in the fuel system, once this gunk is on the move, it may wreak havoc for a while.

vernk

you could maybe get away with running more E85 with a bit of tuning with a piggy back the results would be better with a VE then a VG due to CR other then that be sure to change your fuel filter after the first tank or so due to all the gunk that gets loosened up in the tank and maybe put in a higher temp thermostat to counter the temp drop from the ethanol burning cooler

other then that I was really sad to say that I just got back from Seattle and did not see one E85 pump the whole way.

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

I have problems with ethanol blended gasoline..... I cant get any decent fuel mileage, or power from the 10% e85 at some of the stations around here.

I simply stay away from it as much as possible.

Pearl93VE

iTrader: (14)

+1, I wouldn't even want that **** getting near my car. If I can find a station that doesn't have it, I'll make the extra drive so long as it's in town. Since Florida is pretty much mandating all stations to run E10 it is getting harder, but I rarely put more than $10 of gas in at a time if that's the case. Runs so much better on the pure 94 pump gas out by the interstate.

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

There are only a couple stations left in my town that don't have ethanol, a few exxon stations, and one conoco/Phillips66 station.

luckily the conoco station is 5 minutes from my house

1992maximase30

one the guys at my job has a f150 and he can use e85.
he said he tried it once and the response was horrible and so was the fuel economy.
odd thing is he said the dealer told him he can't use premuim.

but it's nice to know that a 3rd gen can run better than a 05 f-150 on e85

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

CAN'T use premium? i've never heard of a dealer saying you can't use premium.... is in his owner manual as well?

Pearl93VE

iTrader: (14)

My Dad's old Triton 5.4 2000 F-150 didn't run as well on premium... the cheaper the gas the more ***** that thing had. And it hauled.

LvR

Never believe all you say

gapboi210

I was looking at a Silverado z71. It was a Flex Fuel. I asked the dealer and he said that the E85 is about $.60 cheaper per gallon in the area. He said it is designed for a cleaner burn and better emissions. He said to expect about a 30-35% reduction in power and about 11 mpg. Many people think it is for performance but it isn't Just a cleaner buring fuel. In this case even though it was $.60 cheaper the drop in mileage made it not worth it.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

*coughadvancethedamnthingstimingcough*

Pearl93VE

iTrader: (14)

He pretty much drove it how he bought it, and he ran premium through it like once a month. No sense in advancing ignition timing on a vehicle that runs perfect on regular octane gas and still has all the power you could want.

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

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

all the power you would want? well i guess if it's got enough for what you're doing then the extra $.35/gal won't be worth it.

i'm getting tired of the E10 around here... i put $20 in this morning and the thing clearly stated "E10 may be dispensed here" and i cringed... but there wasn't much I could do about it either..

vernk

yea that also if your going to run E85 all the time or a other type of high octane fuel

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

what sort of fuel did you usually have available to you when you owned Wingnut? The injectors all ohm'd ok and so far so good.. (except he doesn't have a plate for the car so he can't drive it...) but i guess we always have to worry about ethanol-laced gas eating the rubberbits and such.

vernk

well it could have seen some high ethanol fuel while driving in the midwest but more then likely not much but yea I would run it when ever I could find it. I know when I first got it the fuel filter was really bad cuz when I changed it the gas that came out when I pulled the filter was black so I kept the filter off then turned on the fuel pump (just turned the key to on so the pump came on) and let it pump out the dirty gas that was in the line. I'm sure that the fuel system parts are made to take ethanol due to that it says to run higher octane fuel and I think that most of it contains ethanol since it would be the cheapest way to raise the octane.

I have never had a issue with running ethanol fuels in any of my Nissans I just change the fuel filter after the first tank or two due to it cleaning out the fuel system, once in awhile it will have a bit of choppy running while cold till all the water is worked out of the tank.

Brad92SE

iTrader: (9)

I think you are right with the "no more than 30%" thought. However, if it isnt mixed up well in the tank you will run extremely lean. In my experience, I have run 100% E85 and have had to increase fuel supply by 25-30% in order to get the car to run well with the correct AFR. My mileage also dropped about 3-4 mpg. I ran a few tanks like that, and didnt have any problems with o-rings, fuel lines, or anything. From other information that I have read, these things are not affected by running E85.

I guess the bottom line is to just be careful, as the car will run very very lean on a high % blend of E85.

vernk

did you advance your timing?
I don't think running a bit lean on E85 is going to be such a big issue as with gas due to octane, I'm not saying that it's a good idea just saying it wouldn't "knock" as easy when you go a bit lean unless you have a really high CR

how was the power when you got the AFR dialed in?

1992maximase30

he said even in his manual.
i told him if he had i distributor he could advance his timing.

Brad92SE

iTrader: (9)

I dont have my timing advanced due to boost, but it will definately allow you to do so. In order to take advantage of the benefits of E85, you would either have to be running high boost, high compression, or a combination of the two. On a relatively stock engine, the loss in gas mileage doesnt really pay off, especially since E85 is usually only around 50 cents cheaper than 93 oct. Its cheap race gas, if you need race gas. I didnt turn up the boost at all when i was running E85, so power felt the same.