E85 and mileage, real world

[EyesofThunder]

For those of you who have switched over to E85, any clue on your ACTUAL % of mpg drop?

Thanks!

 

[Eric Stage I]

Yes, 25-30% drop.

 

[northerngn]

ask how much the power went up....
-dan

 

[novaderrik]

generally, with straight E85 my mileage went down from 17 to 13.
but i had one magical tank of E85 that got 24mpg with 2 other people in the car for 150 miles. i know that one tank was an anomaly- mostly 80mph on the interstate with the AC cranked. it makes no sense, but that's what it computed out to.
i have discovered that a 50/50 mix with 87 octane gives me the same mileage as straight gas, but a whole bunch more power.

 

[EyesofThunder]

On my SC3800 (00 Park Ave Ultra) mine dropped right around 30-35%, worse than my 94 Fleetwood LT1, that one only dropped 20% tops. I guess 10:1 compression on iron heads might help too....

generally, with straight E85 my mileage went down from 17 to 13.
but i had one magical tank of E85 that got 24mpg with 2 other people in the car for 150 miles. i know that one tank was an anomaly- mostly 80mph on the interstate with the AC cranked. it makes no sense, but that's what it computed out to.
i have discovered that a 50/50 mix with 87 octane gives me the same mileage as straight gas, but a whole bunch more power.

 

[northerngn]

i find i care less about mileage loss and care more about performance gains
i like the fact i am consistently past the 20 psi mark and haven't seem any knock in over a year

i know when i want performance... i drive my GRAND national
and when i want mileage... i drive my GRAND am

-dan

 

[novaderrik]

i find i care less about mileage loss and care more about performance gains
i like the fact i am consistently past the 20 psi mark and haven't seem any knock in over a year

i know when i want performance... i drive my GRAND national
and when i want mileage... i drive my GRAND am

-dan

is it somehow a bad thing to want to get good mileage with the weekend toy?
less money spent on fuel means more money for other stuff.

 

[Heg87t]

Don't forget to compare the cost to premium fuel. Here in Michigan E85 is about 15% cheaper than 93 premium. That helps the overall cost with the reduced milage. I am looking at it really, really hard once I fix the other darn things I need to on my T. I agree with NorthernGN. Feed it the corn, turn up the boost and run it!!!!

 

[jdpolzin]

We havent seen a bit of knock with E85. This stuff is awesome. I dont have gas mileage results yet but we will have stats after the Power Tour on a few different combos.

 

[QWKRTNU]

Give and take. Power=less mpg but thats ok

 

[northerngn]

Give and take. Power=less mpg but thats ok

Amen brother:biggrin:

 

[herrakani]

Have any of you guys switched to E85 on a naturally aspirated car and getting the compression up to 13:1-15:1 or so? As some of the articles tell you that fuel consumption about the same on cars with higher compression rate.

One drawback would naturally be that you aren't switching back to regular fuel on that king of CR.