Well I started using E85 today and I am diffently not going back to regular 87. After a couple hours of driving I can already tell a diffrence in the way the engine is preforming. It is much smoother and feels better. Dont know about milage or power but the smoother the better.

About E85, Ford made the super stallion natural gas/gasoline prototype. The car got better gas milage and made 50 more hp on the natural gas. Mind you that car was about 500 HP from te get though.

Which stations carry E85..............

Does anyone know of any in the houston area that carry it?????

When i bought the truck the guy at the dealership said...............

"Oh yeah all stations have it", but I never found it at any stations!!!

E85 is very hard to come by. not all brnds of gas stations have it. I think it is really up to the station owner. I know there isnt a single station within 2 hours of me that carries it.

When i bought the truck the guy at the dealership said...............

"Oh yeah all stations have it", but I never found it at any stations!!!
Typical salesmen :rolleyes:

I wish I had a FFV 3.0L. I would love the 24lb injectors and extra power! Though, like most of you I don't know where the hell I'd get the E85 at lol!

What would E85 equal to in octane rating? 89??

Does anyone know of any in the houston area that carry it?????

Nowhere in Houston I've ever seen carries it.

Which stations carry E85..............Does anyone know of any in the houston area that carry it?????

You can find a fuel station that sells E85 here:
http://www.e85fuel.com/database/search.php

Other Good Resources for Ethanol information:

http://ethanol.org/usingethanol.html

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/e85toolkit/


What would E85 equal to in octane rating? 89??

Several websites I found say E85 has 100 to 105 Octane.
Bring on the boost!!! :headbang:

As soon as they get a station near me, I'm going to start using it. Wish I could put it in the SVO and turn up the boost.

Several websites I found say E85 has 100 to 105 Octane.
Bring on the boost!!! :headbang:.


Yes i have heard between 100 and 105 octane rating too. I was impressed lol.

how much money is it a gallon

Holy cow, that much huh!!! I wonder if my Bamachip can take this!!??


Egad! Only one place in GA has this stuff and it's private access only!!? Oh yea, save the earth baby- I love our new DOT person :thumbsdow

Well thanks to Gold 2000 i found a place only 15 miles from me that carrys it so once this tank is gone its E-85 for me! Will let you guys know what my thoughts are on it once i run it.

Nowhere in Houston I've ever seen carries it.


Hey guys! I found this website which tells where to find E-85 in Texas (although 4 out of the 5 locations are private facilties without public access)! http://www.e85fuel.com/database/locations.php?state=txTexas I am quite a ways from the public station in San Antonio (sounds like I need to take a little road trip)!

The E85-based vehicles we used to use (Government DOE site) would run like crap. Hard to start, stall out randomly, etc. There was an instruction book in every car to tell you what to do when they didn't run right. They were all Taurus' and Rangers. That was 5 years ago though - maybe things have changed.

Also note that ethanol takes more energy to produce than it yields, so you're not doing much of a favor to the environment in the big picture. It does burn cleaner though, thus cutting smog. It's also more expensive per gallon, and since ethanol contains roughly 1/2 the energy per volume that gas does, you'll cut your MPG nearly in half. This can be nearly outweighted though with higher compression (forced induction, etc), yielding more power per engine revolution. Saab's doing this with a variable boost car that can run on ethanol.

Work's boring today, sorry for the nerd-out.

The whole "more energy that it yields" issue is mostly propaganda from the pro-oil folks. They factor in the fact that the factories/truck mostly use diesel fuel for transportation/distribution of the bio-fuel and that the factories are using older distilling technology. With denatured E10, there is a 5% INCREASE in mileage, and as technology increases, distilled E85 should be more powerful than gasoline (BTU wise) and more of a bargain. [I did an E85 research paper last year :E ]

The positive NEV (Net Energy Value) studies I've seen are pretty sketchy. Some don't take into account domestic energy being used (i.e. coal/nat gas/nuclear energy) in ethanol production, only liquid fuels. I can start rattling off names & studies, but a quick Google search will do the same (if anyone's interested).

A good starting point (http://www.ethanol.org/pdfs/est_energy_balance.pdf).


The number one reason I believe there's still a negative NEV (i.e. takes more energy to produce, than is produced) is due to observing our capitalistic economy. If there is a positive NEV, why isn't everyone using ethanol? With a positive NEV, we're essentially getting "something for nothing" (the suns energy is free), and, (on paper at least), the price of such a product would approach $0 as equipment/transportation/storage debts get paid for. According to popsci (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/automotivetech/564c1196aeb84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html) there is a $.51 tax CREDIT per gallon of ethanol used. To further offset the enormous cost of infrastructure/production shift to ethanol production, there are gov't incentives for farmers & ethanol producers alike. Yet, ethanol prices are still higher than gasoline.

I would further believe that more of the oil industry would be on the bandwagon to get the ethanol ball rolling. BP seems like it's off to the right start; but why not everyone if there's nothing to be gained but free energy? The oil companies would be the logical industry to develop the technology - they have ownership of the distribution infrastructure, the engineers, and, (most importantly) the capital to implement such a technology. The reason they don't is because 1) more profit (right now) can be had from gasoline, and 2) there is not enough evidence that a positive NEV can be achieved.

Phew! Friday afternoons at work will do this to you....

Oh, and the BTU content of E85 can't change (unless you change what it's made of, then it wouldn't be E85 anymore!) But I know what you mean - the NEV (in BTU's) of manufactured ethanol increases as the technology advances (and will thus drive down the price as well).

I wasn't going to go that deep on the forum :E
But, yeah...

These estimates are based on the use of corn specifically grown for fuel consumption and doesn't mention some key issues like we are paying farmers NOT to grow corn (through things like the annual set-aside program, The PIK program, the acreage reduction program and paid acreage diversion program), and that the bulk of the corns fiberous material is left over for use in animal feed or 100% bio-degradable Corn plastic (for Cups (http://www.customcupstore.com/corn_cups.htm), Picnic Cutlery (http://www.ecoproducts.com/Business/food_services/tableware/cutlery/fs_cutlery_index.htm) and Pens! (http://www.grassrootsstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=424)). Once these are fatored in, things look better.

One of the biggest complaints about price is that if the government subsidy goes away, the price of E85 would be even higher, but the subsidy is to (as you said) get the ball rolling for infrastructure, which is near zero. By the time the subsidy goes away, the technology SHOULD have brought the cost down further. I don't give a rats butt about the final price as long as it's reasonable and available. While I don't think we'll ever see it "replace" gas in our lifetime, I would love to have the option of telling OPEC to pack sand :E.

The ethanol plant in western KY made 3.5 million dollars profit it's first year, bought 85 million bushels of corn and produced 25 million gallons of fuel. The numbers I've read say that 1 bushel of corn can crank out over 3 gallons of ethanol.

I used a tank of e-85 for the first time over the weekend, and I concluded that it is way cheaper to just run 87 octane. For a gallon of e-85 it was 2.05. Down the road a couple of exits reg unleaded was 1.94 a gallon. So for now I'm sticking w/ 87 until (if ever) e-85 will become readily available and relatively cheap.

So that's what like a $2 per full tank difference? (assuming 20 gallons)

E85 is 22 cents more here than regular 87 octane. Dont ask me why. This is Wisconsin and the nearest ethanol plant is 25 miles away...

I would further believe that more of the oil industry would be on the bandwagon to get the ethanol ball rolling.


I'll tell you why. Ethanol easily mixes with water! Old pipelines let moisture in. Oil and water don't mix so it's easier to separate the water out when necessary. Separating water and Ethanol is very difficult. Oil companies have Billions invested in their current infrastructure. This makes it necessary to truck or rail the Ethanol much further than gas. E85 is also mixed with 15% gas and it ends up being done late in the delivery stage. More jockeying of the fuel around adding to the cost.

well, from what i've read, 100% ethanol would run about 115 octane, so you get about 1.15 octane per one percent of ethanol. To cover another issue, it could be that ethanol does take more energy than it yields. I had heard this already from some people but i asked my environmental geology professor and she said that corn takes considerably more water and nutrients outta the ground to grow than most crops. In the midwest where the U.S. grows most crops such as corn, the water table is already being depleted much faster than it is being replenished. So what we're facing with ethanol from corn is basically a water crisis in the future instead of an oil crisis. My new geology prof. says that companies are already buying rights to water sources for the future because as the population grows water will be more scarce and within 50-100 years we could be paying dearly just to wet our whistle. But in the meantime, ethanol sounds good, but what about methanol? or just converting all new vehicles to bio-diesel?

How bout we ride bikes:)?

Hey ya'll. sorry about this stupid question, but I am lost...

What ranger engines (if any) will run on E85? Dont have one near me, so doesnt really matter, but I was just wondering!

on that e85 site it gives a list of all vehicles that can run off of it. including rangers with the 3.0l. i want to try it but athe only around me are for military fleet vehicles so no go for me. cant wait to try it one day though.

krafty mentioned bio-diesel, and the reminds me that in foreign markets they are already diesel rangers on the road, I believe they come with a 2.5l turbo diesel engine, but a 2.9l version is in the works for the U.S. possible in 2008 or 09. the 2.5l has 180hp, and 275ftlbs of torque. interesting if you ask me, maybe a bio-diesel conversion will be possible.

A buddy of mine from work just bought an 1984 ranger, maybe I can convince him into trying. It needs a new engine soon anyway, and he wants more ponies.
Muhahahahaha