E85 ???

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

I have been hearing quite a bit about this new "alternative fuel" E85. It's an 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline mixture. Apparently, some cars are already being made called flexible fuel vehicles (FFV's). The price of a gallon of this E85 is made to compete with regular 87 octane gasoline. The E85 fuel is over 100 octane! On the website for it, they say that E85 has significantly more oxygen in the fuel, and therefore is capable of increasing horsepower by as much as 5%. They said that if a car that was not an FFV used the fuel, the computer would be confused by the increased amount of oxygen in the fuel, and it would throw a "check engine" light, and the car could notice as much as a 20% decrease in fuel economy if driven aggressively. Other than that, they didn't elaborate on many adverse effects. It reminded me of what happens if you run wihtout cats and don't use the O2 sims to trick the computer. If I can get 100+ octane for the price of 87, have cleaner emissions, more horsepower, and all I have to pay for it is a dummy light and a little less fuel economy... well then my twisted mind is certainly considering it. Anybody care to comment on this before I do something crazy?

[sparky]

wee wee

I have heard that you can seriously **** up you car by doin that. I don't honestly know, but I DO know that I wouldn' try it. Let some other poor looser try it first!

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

That's kinda what I thought... I was just entertaining the idea with a big "what if" smirk on my face.

[Joe 1320]

If you really want to experiment, you can home brew your own 100 octane. Xylene is the principle octane boosting ingredient in high octane fuel. It is available at paint supply stores in gallon containers. When mixed at the rate of 25% Xylene to 75% pump premium, with one ounce of marvel mystery oil per gallon of Xylene added, will give you a real world 100 octane. Do not go over 25% as the drivability begins to degrade, but up to that it is a stellar home brew 100 octane. It will not harm 02 sensors, is an excellent fuel system cleaner and can be readily mixed.