E85 gas is suitable for use in any vehicle designated as a flex-fuel vehicle by the manufacturer. Cars.com reports that flex-fuel vehicles are capable of running on both ethanol-gasoline blends and regular gasoline.
Having a yellow gas cap is a good indication that the car can use flex fuel. If the vehicle has a capless fuel filler, a yellow ring around the hole where the nozzle gets inserted signals E85 works for the vehicle. Using any octane level of gasoline in a flex-fuel vehicle is acceptable.
If you don't have a flex fuel vehicle, putting E85 in it isn't recommended. “Using high-content ethanol (E85) in an engine not designed for it can also void the manufacturer's warranty,” AAA wrote in 2019.
Technically, most any vehicle can be made to run on E85, which is 85 percent alcohol, and 15 percent gasoline. The small percentage of gasoline does two things: it helps the engine start when it's cold, and it prevents people from drinking the pure alcohol (and no, I'm not making that up).
You'll see big savings on fuel. E85 can lower your vehicle's MPG by up to 25%, but many vehicles only lose 15% to 20% in fuel mileage. Even if you see a 25% drop in your vehicle's mileage, you'll still save money anyway.
Rather than a straight linear curve, the benefit of ethanol is that the first 10 to 30 percent blend of ethanol with a pump gasoline like 91 will radically increase the octane rating of the fuel. So creating an E30 fuel by blending 91 octane pump gas with E85 would generate a fuel with an octane rating of 94 AKI.
What is E85? E85 is an alternative alcohol based fuel source made from a blend of 85% Ethanol and 15% Petrol (or other hydrocarbons). In Australia, the standard for E85 blend is 70 – 80% Ethanol and 15-30% Petrol.
E85 fuel has a faster ignition time and flame propagation when compared to gasoline. This leads to higher cylinder pressure, as well as increased engine torque and power, gaining up to 20%.
Ethanol has a corrosive action on fuel-system components, magnesium, aluminium and rubber. Running E85 on older model engines without tuning and replacing some components will ruin the engine in short time. Replacing fuel hoses, fuel pumps, gaskets, seals, fuel filters, fuel injectors, throttle bodies, etc.
E85 can only be used in our Tundra and Sequoia FFV (Flex Fuel Vehicles). Using E85 fuel in vehicles not designed for it can cause damage to the engine or emission system.
While E85 is typically cheaper per gallon than gasoline it might be more expensive per mile. Since ethanol contains less energy per volume than gasoline, FFVs will generally get 15%-27% fewer miles per gallon when fueled with E85, depending on the car and the driver's driving habits.
E85 Cools Your Engine Better Than Regular Gasoline
Ethanol burns cooler than regular gasoline. It requires lower combustion temperatures. Also, it creates a thermodynamic cooling effect that regular gasoline doesn't offer. This is quite beneficial because E85 helps keep the engine cool.
All E85 currently being sold in Australia is unregulated, including both the ethanol and the petrol components.
E85 has an octane rating higher than that of regular gasoline's typical rating of 87, or premium gasoline's 91-93. This allows it to be used in higher-compression engines, which tend to produce more power per unit of displacement than their gasoline counterparts.
So, for there to be a financial benefit -- or at least cost parity -- the cost of E85 needs to be approximately half (or slightly more than half) the price of regular petrol. However, at the moment, E85 costs about 90 cents per litre at a time when regular unleaded has been between $1.20 and $1.30 per litre.
This fuel's chemical make-up is derived mostly from biomass materials such as corn. If you accidentally put E85 fuel in a car built for regular petroleum-based gasoline, chances are your check engine light will come on. And while that's never a good feeling, a one-time mistake shouldn't cause engine damage.
Simply put, if you mix 5 gallons of 91 octane pump gas with 5 gallons of E85, you get 10 gallons of a 96-octane fuel that's very close to E50, or 50-percent ethanol and 50-percent gasoline.
It is also a cleaner fuel with lesser harmful emissions. On the downside, E85 burns faster and produces lesser energy than gasoline. Because denatured ethanol contains around 30% less energy per gallon than regular gas. Reportedly, Indy 500 drivers often use E85 for their race cars because of its high octane.
E85 flex fuel not only powers your engine but also cleans your engine, fuel lines, and fuel injectors. That's because E85 contains a high amount of ethanol, up to 83%. Ethanol is an excellent cleaner. It clears the engine, fuel lines, and fuel injectors of deposits.
The drop in fuel economy is because ethanol has lower energy content per gallon than gasoline. E85 also burns faster than regular gasoline because it vaporizes faster. So your engine may eat through E85 faster than regular gasoline.
Yes, standard gasoline can be used in flex-fuel vehicles.
The engine inside FFVs is designed to run on gasoline as well as other fuels. This generally means gas blended with ethanol and methanol. No matter what fuel you put into your FFV, it's stored in the same tank.
“So, every gallon of ethanol that gets blended comes with an RFS credit that is today worth about $1.50 a gallon," he says. "Some marketers and blenders are passing along some or much of the value of those RIN credits to consumers in the form of these lower prices. So that's why we're seeing E85. priced well below E10.