Can you use E85?

[Luke]

I just found out that a Chevron a few miles away from me is now offering E85. I heard that E85 is a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Would that be a good alcohol to run in our cars? I've never heard of anyone mixing alcohol and gasoline. Just alcohol and water. What do you guys think?

 

[pacecarta]

guess it depends on the kit
on a shurflow pump alky kit , NO

an an SMC intank kit i guess it could work since those were fuel pumps but dont know how safe it is with the hoses in those kits

 

[wbrophy]

guess it depends on the kit
on a shurflow pump alky kit , NO

an an SMC intank kit i guess it could work since those were fuel pumps but dont know how safe it is with the hoses in those kits

I think he means in the car's gas tank.

 

[pacecarta]

I think he means in the car's gas tank.

i am fairly certain he meant in an alky injection application , as per the reference to mixing alky and water

 

[wbrophy]

Got to it from "new posts" and did not notice the section he posted in, so I would say: your right

 

[b4black]

I run 50/50 ethanol/water.


I buy the E85 for cheap and when I mix in the water, the gasoline floats to the top. Pour it off and use it in the lawnmower.

 

[Luke]

Interesting...

I run 50/50 ethanol/water.


I buy the E85 for cheap and when I mix in the water, the gasoline floats to the top. Pour it off and use it in the lawnmower.

That's pretty cool. Have you had any problems with it? I was just curious because of how convienient it would be to get it at the pump. Maybe I'll give it a try.

I'm guessing that leaving the gasoline in the E85 would just reduce it's effectiveness?

 

[TurboBuRick]

I run 50/50 ethanol/water.


I buy the E85 for cheap and when I mix in the water, the gasoline floats to the top. Pour it off and use it in the lawnmower.

Come on. Are you serious? I got to try this.

 

[FlaBoy]

While I haven't seen it in person, It makes perfect sense.. Alcohol is VERY hygroscopic, and as such is EXTREMELY miscible in water (why we have to go such trouble distilling it to separate the water out) while most petroleum distillates (gasoline, etc.) are almost completely immiscible in water and should separate very easily. If you can get your hands on a separating funnell it will make the job a LOT easier, though any large tall funnel you can see through with a relatively small spout should work... the funnel and small spout make it easy when you get to the water/alky - gasoline boundary to get all the good stuff and none of the bad. Typically if you're trying to separate a substance from a solution, you will "wash" the solution several times to make sure you got it all by taking the gasoline, and adding more water, and doing it all over again to get all the alky out... but since the first pass is probably pretty effective, and any successive washes would just dilute your end product (alky) with more water, you probably don't need to.

 

[TurboBuRick]

While I haven't seen it in person, It makes perfect sense.. Alcohol is VERY hygroscopic, and as such is EXTREMELY miscible in water (why we have to go such trouble distilling it to separate the water out) while most petroleum distillates (gasoline, etc.) are almost completely immiscible in water and should separate very easily. If you can get your hands on a separating funnell it will make the job a LOT easier, though any large tall funnel you can see through with a relatively small spout should work... the funnel and small spout make it easy when you get to the water/alky - gasoline boundary to get all the good stuff and none of the bad. Typically if you're trying to separate a substance from a solution, you will "wash" the solution several times to make sure you got it all by taking the gasoline, and adding more water, and doing it all over again to get all the alky out... but since the first pass is probably pretty effective, and any successive washes would just dilute your end product (alky) with more water, you probably don't need to.

Very interesting..........

 

[FlaBoy]

While I haven't seen it in person, It makes perfect sense.. Alcohol is VERY hygroscopic, and as such is EXTREMELY miscible in water (why we have to go such trouble distilling it to separate the water out) while most petroleum distillates (gasoline, etc.) are almost completely immiscible in water and should separate very easily. If you can get your hands on a separating funnell it will make the job a LOT easier, though any large tall funnel you can see through with a relatively small spout should work... the funnel and small spout make it easy when you get to the water/alky - gasoline boundary to get all the good stuff and none of the bad. Typically if you're trying to separate a substance from a solution, you will "wash" the solution several times to make sure you got it all by taking the gasoline, and adding more water, and doing it all over again to get all the alky out... but since the first pass is probably pretty effective, and any successive washes would just dilute your end product (alky) with more water, you probably don't need to.

I just wanna add a note: While I stand by what I said, keep in mind I've never done this before with E-85 specifically. I'm no expert, just a guy whos had a lot of lab/chemistry experience, and while the theory is good, I have no idea how well it would work with E-85 in real-life. They may have included additives that act as surfactants to allow the fuel to stay evemly mixed, I just don't know. while I think it's worthwhile for someone to maybe do some experimentation on this, I just didn;t want anyone to read what I'd said and then blow their motor because I was incorrect somehow.

 

[onefastcar]

What would need to be done to run this in the actual tank of our cars if anyone knows, GM already has products that will run this as do most South American countries are already using Ethanol. I am just thinking out loud but presume different various rubber seals in the fuel system maybe different fuel pump, O2 sensor, chip burnt for the application, i do not know wether this fuel has enough lubricants within to allow our particular seals to last.