e85 while towing any users?

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

fordrocks wrote:
I know there is a drop in gas mileage with e85 everyday driving, But if pulling a camper and only getting 10mpg with regular gas. Wouldn't u use e85? Where I live it is .40 cents cheaper. So would u get less then 10mpg if so how bad would it get? It couldn't go under 8 mpg? Im getting my new tt 3-29-13 so haven't had any experience with this. I know my truck gets 15 more hp and 10 more torque which is to consider. I did have a starting problem it started, but took longer. Called dealership to see if they heard of it? Right away said e85 doesn't like cold so I topped off with regular never happened again. So any e85 users while towing? Thanks

You will loose right at 30%. So if you get 10 on gasoline you will get 6.5 to 7 on E85. It won't work out if you want to save $$$.

I see this misinformation ALL the time. True, you lose some mileage, but 30% is not the number.

Last summer, right after I bought our Expedition, we traveled from our home in SE Wisconsin to Door County with it. At the time, this was about 500 miles of mixed Interstate, county road and low speed stop-and-go driving. We averaged 16mpg combined, running regular 87 octane unleaded.

Last weekend I took the same trip with the same truck and tanked up with E-85 because I figured I would never get as close of a comparison again. Same route netted 14.8mpg running a full tank of E-85.

By my math, that is a loss of 7.5%.

And here's the kicker, last summer the temp was around 75-80 degrees, and we ran the AC the entire time. Last week the temp was 15-20 degrees, and we ran the defroster the whole time. Most people will agree that the temperature drop alone could explain 1-2mpg of lost mileage due to the denser cold air needing slightly more fuel to maintain the A:F ratio.

True, there is less energy available in E-85, but an engine managment system capable of utilizing it will alter the injection and spark timing to make the most out of the 100+ octane rating E-85 carries. In other words, the engine will run leaner and spark will stay closer to TDC because pinging will not occur. (On a typical gas engine, knocks and pings will be detected LONG before a human can hear them, causing the spark to come earlier and the fuel mixture to get rich to protect the engine.)

Think about that.

-Jim