Cruecible
Titan Swapped / SAS'd
- Location
- Albuquerque, NM
I have no first hand experience with ethanol or methanol, and the limited knowledge I did have about E85 was that at first it was hailed as the new "street racer" fuel of choice. A friend of a friend ran it and had a tune made for his car to run it and saw pretty healthy HP gains. That same friend later went on to remove the tun from his car and stopped running E85 because he heard that it breaks down the internals much faster than conventional gas. Aside from that, I also heard second-hand that flex fuel fleet cars that were running E85 also were showing abnormally pronounced engine wear. I never saw proof of this nor looked into any actual science about it.
Now, I know this may be a raw subject for some folks, but I've been looking more into the E85 and the use of ethanol and/or methanol in regular "everyday" cars. It's really hard to find what I would consider real, concrete evidence of either pros or cons of using ethanol as anything for it's use could be considered "hippy propaganda" and anything against it's use (or pro-gasoline only) could be considered government or big oil lobbying propaganda. I don't want to get into a political debate here, or hear about how alternative fuels could destroy tons of American jobs in the process. What I want to know is; has anyone had real first-hand experience with using E85 in an Xterra?
In my limited research so far, practically any car that is American made from the mid-90's and up is "flex fuel" compatible. Mechanically speaking, there is no difference between a "normal fuel" vehicle and a flex-fuel vehicle. The only thing that separates them is the tune on the ECU. Which falls in line with my limited understanding through the aforementioned friend of a friend. There are conversion kits available and unfortunately there seems to be quite a few different styles on the market. The most reputable one I could find is about $400, and it's a piggyback type of programmer that re-maps the ECU to be able to run gas, ethanol, methanol, or any combination. From what I have read, E85 has a general octane rating of 98, and has been shown to be very effective and friendly in forced-induction applications (mine being supercharged, this is pretty cool). According to the info found here: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml it says that generally a vehicle will get less MPG's that conventional gas and that the cost per gallon of E85 is not too much cheaper than regular gas.
Here is the site for the conversion kit: https://www.change2e85.com/index.php?route=common/home
If my Xterra wasn't a daily driver, I would buy the conversion kit to give it a try and see if it works. While using the E85, I would periodically check the engine for signs of wear and monitor it very closely. And even though it is a daily driver, this still sounds interesting enough to give it a shot.
What do you guys think?
Now, I know this may be a raw subject for some folks, but I've been looking more into the E85 and the use of ethanol and/or methanol in regular "everyday" cars. It's really hard to find what I would consider real, concrete evidence of either pros or cons of using ethanol as anything for it's use could be considered "hippy propaganda" and anything against it's use (or pro-gasoline only) could be considered government or big oil lobbying propaganda. I don't want to get into a political debate here, or hear about how alternative fuels could destroy tons of American jobs in the process. What I want to know is; has anyone had real first-hand experience with using E85 in an Xterra?
In my limited research so far, practically any car that is American made from the mid-90's and up is "flex fuel" compatible. Mechanically speaking, there is no difference between a "normal fuel" vehicle and a flex-fuel vehicle. The only thing that separates them is the tune on the ECU. Which falls in line with my limited understanding through the aforementioned friend of a friend. There are conversion kits available and unfortunately there seems to be quite a few different styles on the market. The most reputable one I could find is about $400, and it's a piggyback type of programmer that re-maps the ECU to be able to run gas, ethanol, methanol, or any combination. From what I have read, E85 has a general octane rating of 98, and has been shown to be very effective and friendly in forced-induction applications (mine being supercharged, this is pretty cool). According to the info found here: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml it says that generally a vehicle will get less MPG's that conventional gas and that the cost per gallon of E85 is not too much cheaper than regular gas.
Here is the site for the conversion kit: https://www.change2e85.com/index.php?route=common/home
If my Xterra wasn't a daily driver, I would buy the conversion kit to give it a try and see if it works. While using the E85, I would periodically check the engine for signs of wear and monitor it very closely. And even though it is a daily driver, this still sounds interesting enough to give it a shot.
What do you guys think?
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