Drum E85

[Pressure Ratio]

This popped up in a feed today. Very fitting haha

 

[Pressure Ratio]

Sweet just sent in request to join. How are you guys testing quickly at the pump? Do you always have a gas can and a bottle of water with you at all times? lol

I asked the Adims to not approve the request. lol

I have the test tube, ear dropper like this, and Snapple bottle in my car. The snapple bottle is easy enough to fit the nozzle in and get a small sample. As well as not make a complete mess. lol Transfer e85 from the snapple bottle with the ear dropper, put cap on, shake, and wait. lol


You should just get three 5 gallon pales. That tank will last you the whole season.

Find a high-throughput station close to home. Once it hits the summer 83%, it's good for a long time. No need for testing until the fall.

This. The three stations by me go through a lot of e85. So once it tests well in spring I don't typically worry about it. I just check my short term fuel corrections after fill ups. If it isn't subrtacting a lot, I know I am good to go.

I have yet to fill up in summer where I had any issues anywhere. I try to stick to Throtons and other known places. But even testing at unknown places have been fine.

93 is no fun after you feel e85 and lots of boost so once I switch I don’t switch back till storage

Dat e85 life is fo real!

 

[b4black]

I turned my car for E80ish with zero knock. Then I let the LTFT handle the variations in blend percent. Summer - winter, same tune - three years, no issues.

Watch your AFR and KR gauges and you'll be fine.

 

[1quick]

The new mustangs figure it out pretty fast when I switch to oxygenated c85 for the track I do a couple half throttle pulls, you can see it start to go lean then fix itself, then a hard rip or two after that the afr is on the money for some full 1/4 mile passes

 

[95SC]

Flex fuel tune FTW

 

[03GTGreen]

If you can't find anything higher than 65%, you must be testing wrong. I rarely find anything below 70%. And I have never found anything above 85%.

By law, it cannot be over 85%. Actually 83% is the highest it can be. The 85% ethanol is fuel grade, denatured ethanol, so its not pure. Any number you get above 83% is most likely test error.

Speedway is often the highest for me. They sit at 83% all summer and are mid-70's in the winter.

wait wut? ive tested multiple stations at 90% before with no test errors

 

[b4black]

The spec for E85 is ASTM D5798. 83% ethanol is the max.

The changing ethanol-gasoline content is solely for the purpose of keeping the vapor pressure higher enough so cars start. Colder temps require higher vapor pressure which requires higher gasoline content. In the summer, ethanol can be maximized, up to 83%.

https://www.astm.org/Standards/D5798.htm

1. Scope

1.1 This specification covers the requirements for automotive fuel blends of ethanol and gasoline for use in ground vehicles equipped with ethanol fuel blend flexible-fuel spark-ignition engines. Fuel produced to this specification contains 51 % to 83 % by volume ethanol. This fuel is for use in flexible-fuel vehicles and is sometimes referred to at retail as “Ethanol Flex-Fuel.” Appendix X1 discusses the significance of the properties specified.
1.2 The vapor pressure of ethanol fuel blends is varied for seasonal climatic changes. Vapor pressure is increased at lower temperatures to ensure adequate flexible-fuel vehicle operability. Ethanol content and selection of hydrocarbon blendstock are adjusted by the blender to meet these vapor pressure requirements.

 

[Pressure Ratio]

I believe 1quick said that they changed the way they deal with winter blends as well. They use different additives/formulas to keep the ethanol % high and not have vapor issues. Butane was one of the newer ones I believe. I keep forgetting the ones he mentioned. So even with the higher % or E testing the fuel still is not as good as "summer" blends.

 

[1quick]

I believe 1quick said that they changed the way they deal with winter blends as well. They use different additives/formulas to keep the ethanol % high and not have vapor issues. Butane was one of the newer ones I believe. I keep forgetting the ones he mentioned. So even with the higher % or E testing the fuel still is not as good as "summer" blends.

im not sure that they do that in e85 it was regular gas that I know they were adding butane to

 

[b4black]

That applies to all gasoline, including the 30% or so in winter flex fuel. Winter gas has higher butane levels (nothing new there). Not sure why that's bad though.

Butane is cheap, high octane and high vapor pressure. Works great in winter, but vapor pressure limits it's use in the summer.

 

[1quick]

except they dont use normal gas for the e85 blends, its natural gasoline a very unrefined version and I doubt they add butane to it since it has a decent amount to begin with

 

[b4black]

Most still use gasoline. It's already at the terminal. Natural gasoline would require a separate storage tank and that's hard to justify for a small throughput fuel like E85.

 

[1quick]

Most still use gasoline. It's already at the terminal. Natural gasoline would require a separate storage tank and that's hard to justify for a small throughput fuel like E85.

the terminal I worked at sold the gasoline to the ethanol plants, it was not regular unleaded, the vapor pressure of the natural gasoline is 14, normal 87 has to be under 9 so they dont need to add butane to the ethanol blends since it already has alot of vapor pressure in the gas they just add some more gas and cut the blend down

 

[95SC]

Few times I went to my brother in summer time . I pumped E85 at BP gas station in Manteno , they had very high % there , my Ecutek software was showing 90-92% . I have also seen % into 50s in winter months here

 

[MrMezger996]

I was able to get my hands on C85 at Chicago Connection in Chicago. This place is awesome, Bill is an extremely nice guy and it’s good to see there are some speed shops still around. I wanna say Bill also owns 41???





Edit: it was $55.45 for 5gals, so pricing was really good

 

[b4black]

the terminal I worked at sold the gasoline to the ethanol plants, it was not regular unleaded, the vapor pressure of the natural gasoline is 14, normal 87 has to be under 9 so they dont need to add butane to the ethanol blends since it already has alot of vapor pressure in the gas they just add some more gas and cut the blend down

Where the ethanol plants shipping E85 directly to retail sites? Or were they just using the natural gasoline to denature the ethanol?

 

[1quick]

Where the ethanol plants shipping E85 directly to retail sites? Or were they just using the natural gasoline to denature the ethanol?

now im going off what the drivers told me but it sounded like they just went straight out to the gas stations from there, they used the same drivers for all the movements

 

[b4black]

For those of you that test E85 with those little test tubes and often get really high or really low results, you might want to look at this report:

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63503.pdf

Conclusions Ninety-one Ethanol Flex Fuel samples were collected from the continental United States in all Specification D5798-13a classes...This study showed that lowering the minimum allowable ethanol content to 51 vol% (the allowable range in Ethanol Flex Fuel is from 51 vol% to 83 vol%) increased compliance over previous surveys. Two samples exceeded the ethanol content requirements..... The average ethanol content in classes 1–3 was 77 vol%, dropping slightly to 71 vol% in class 4. Compliance

91 samples. All on-spec for % ethanol except one at 95% and one at 85%.

 

[PANDA]

Go By Palatine Oil in downtown Palatine. They had the most consistent and best E85 I could find in the area. The was like 10+ years ago though when I ran E85. Hopefully its still the same.