My F150 5.4 is a flex fuel vehicle and I have used E85 fuel in it. There was a noticeable decrease in flue mileage and probably an increase in HP and torque. All the reports state this Ford V8 will make some more power and torque on E85 fuel (320 hp and 390 lb-ft, respectively). But I have not seen any reports where someone has used E85 while towing. It seems that E85 could be used in situations where more HP is needed. Especially on long grades or high altitudes. Has anyone tried using E85 in these situations? If so what was the outcome?

Seems counterintuitive that it would produce more power, but I admittedly don't know anything about it. I would go by the manual.

brirene wrote:I would go by the manual.Sounds like brilliant advice. See what the manual says about towing, specifically what fuel to use. I believe GM advises against using E85 to tow. I think it burns hotter than E10 or regular gas, which could be counter productive to lowering temps when towing.E85 has about 30% less energy than E10 and 33% less energy than good ole fashioned non-ethanol gas. I can't speculate about increased HP and torque... but I know that your fuel economy will go down. E85 tends to be a couple cents cheaper per gallon, but your economy will be about 30% worse.

E85 ethanol has an octane rating of 100-105, versus 85-95 for gasoline.A gallon of E85 ethanol has only 72 percent of the energy in a gallon of gasolineA tank of E85 ethanol will take you only about 80 percent as far as you could drive on a tank of gasoline.

As others have posted, ethanol has less energy content than gasoline. But the reason why they can make more power is that the high octane allows for more aggressive timing and ignition curves. If an engine was optimized for ethanol, it could get almost the same fuel economy as gasoline engines. A Subaru owner did a write up on how he optimized his wrx to run on the stuff and got the same fuel economy as he did when it ran on gasoline.

jus2shy wrote:As others have posted, ethanol has less energy content than gasoline. But the reason why they can make more power is that the high octane allows for more aggressive timing and ignition curves. If an engine was optimized for ethanol, it could get almost the same fuel economy as gasoline engines. A Subaru owner did a write up on how he optimized his wrx to run on the stuff and got the same fuel economy as he did when it ran on gasoline.The guy with the WRX has a nose as long as a telephone pole. :R You can't make up 30% energy loss from nothing. I race against methanol boys and believe me their engines are optimized as good as it gets and they have and use twice as big of a tank as we do on gasoline. The reason is methanol has about 1/2 the energy as gasoline. As pointed out ethanol is better than methanol energy wise but not even close to the energy gasoline has.OP, depending on the tune, the alkie will give you more power but as you found out, a lot less mileage.

Has anyone used E85 for more towing power? | Good Sam Community

17 Replies

noteven
Explorer III
Dec 23, 2013
Next some damnphool is going to post that using premium non gasohol gasoline (where available) in a modern engine can increase cost per mile economy. As if.
TNRIVERSIDE
Explorer
Dec 23, 2013
JIMNLIN wrote:
Has anyone used E85 for more towing power?

Doesn't look like many have tried it.

Well I tried several tanks of E85 in the wife 1500 crew cab chevy 4x4 5.3 3.73 axles pulling my blue tractor on a 10k trailer. Some of my trips were out to 175 miles.
Of course mpgs dropped steadily for the first few tanks till it was running on mostly E85. I noticed a good seat of the pants difference in towing performance. MPGS dropped to 9 'ish over several tanks vs 10-11 on E10 with the same trailer on the same hauls. My wife even made a comment the 5.3 doesn't sound like it was struggling like it did on E10.

IMO its good to know her truck will run on E85 if we had to but most of her driving is with a empty truck so the big hit in mpg drops with a empty truck doesn't make cents at this time.

Now if I could drop (at no cost to me) another tank in the bed for towing with straight E85 .........

Thanks for the report on using E85 and towing. There is a lot of bad information out there. Ford says my 5.4 has in increase in HP and toque on E85. It looks like an easy way to get a little extra power if you needed it while towing. It looks like your one of the few that has tried this. Again thanks for the information.
dodge_guy
Explorer II
Dec 23, 2013
RAS43 wrote:
dodge guy wrote:
Less fuel mileage and less power!
Stick with the watered down e15 gas!!!

Do you have E15 in your area now? The EPA has decided against that move and is actually looking at relaxing the 10% rule.

Sorry, I had E15 on the brain. I meant E10. they did something to the fuel around 2010. I used to run 87 OCT and my power and mileage slowly dropped. I started running 93 OCT and my power and mileage came back. since then I started running a tuner and now run 89 OCT. with better mileage and power. Despite what they say, Ethanol is killing power and mileage in cars not originally designed for it. I would not run E85 in a car designed for it, when towing!
JIMNLIN
Explorer III
Dec 23, 2013
Has anyone used E85 for more towing power?

Doesn't look like many have tried it.

Well I tried several tanks of E85 in the wife 1500 crew cab chevy 4x4 5.3 3.73 axles pulling my blue tractor on a 10k trailer. Some of my trips were out to 175 miles.
Of course mpgs dropped steadily for the first few tanks till it was running on mostly E85. I noticed a good seat of the pants difference in towing performance. MPGS dropped to 9 'ish over several tanks vs 10-11 on E10 with the same trailer on the same hauls. My wife even made a comment the 5.3 doesn't sound like it was struggling like it did on E10.

IMO its good to know her truck will run on E85 if we had to but most of her driving is with a empty truck so the big hit in mpg drops with a empty truck doesn't make cents at this time.

Now if I could drop (at no cost to me) another tank in the bed for towing with straight E85 .........
Bedlam
Moderator
Dec 23, 2013
Due to the high octane rating of E85, you can run greater compression, heat and ignition advance without predetonation resulting in better engine performance. Because the energy contained in E85 is less than pure gasoline or E10, it will get worse mileage (efficiency).

A friend recently built a race engine tuned for E85 and has found fuel consumption to be 50% higher than stock tune with aviation gasoline. Part of the additional consumption was due to the extra power he was able to get out of the engine with the higher octane but most of it was due to the reduced energy content in E85. He had to increase his fuel tank size due the reduced range (the original foam lined fuel cell was not compatible with E85 and had to be replaced anyway).
GoPackGo
Explorer
Dec 22, 2013
There are less BTUs in alcohol then there are in gasoline.

The more alcohol in the blend, the less power and less fuel mileage.
skyhammer
Explorer
Dec 22, 2013
There is commercial on TV with a NASCAR driver that says they use E-85 in their cars as it gives them more power.
RAS43
Explorer III
Dec 22, 2013
dodge guy wrote:
Less fuel mileage and less power!
Stick with the watered down e15 gas!!!

Do you have E15 in your area now? The EPA has decided against that move and is actually looking at relaxing the 10% rule.
TNRIVERSIDE
Explorer
Dec 22, 2013
Lynnmor wrote:
You may get a little more HP with the E85 for those moments when the throttle is wide open. It will consume more fuel all the time.

Some info

Thanks for the information. Looks like with E85 you get better HP and Torque. This is what I have always read. Now I hope we can get a report from someone that has towed using it.
dodge_guy
Explorer II
Dec 22, 2013
Less fuel mileage and less power!

Stick with the watered down e15 gas!!!