Wait, so is E85 really 100+ octane? I am pretty lost with the fuel discussion going on here, but how would this compare to 93 octane gasoline if it requires more E85 for the same amount of energy? I'm just wondering if there could be an application for this in a FI motor where you can crank the boost and take advantage of higher octane fuel. Just a thought.

 

absolutely not. our cars can't use E85 in any way, shape, or form. no matter what turbo, sc, or whatever you put on your car. you'll destroy or damage your engine if you do.

 

^ That puts things clearly into perspective. Thanks.

 

Not to get into a government policy debate, but there are real questions about the purported enrgy freedom of E85. When the ethanol is produced from corn, then the chemical fertilizers used in large scale corn growing require massive amounts of petroleum to produce. Therefore, E85 becomes a very energy inefficient product when looking at the total energy picture. Sure it is good politics if you are from Iowa, but it is not really very sound national energy policy.

My $0.02 -- have at it!

 

Yep! Specifically, since it is an alcohol (ie, a hydrocarbon like methane, propane and octane but has an extra oxygen atom in there between one of the hydrogens and its carbon) it's corrosive. Meaning that if you put something into your car that's 85% ethanol, it'll eat away at your fuel tank, fuel lines, injectors and the like. Flexfuel cars have specially lined tanks, teflon lined lines, etc. Chrysler says to use synthetic oil only in their flexfuel cars, because of possibility of the alcohol contaminating the patroleum oil.

 

[QUOTE]Wait, so is E85 really 100+ octane? I am pretty lost with the fuel discussion going on here, but how would this compare to 93 octane gasoline if it requires more E85 for the same amount of energy? I'm just wondering if there could be an application for this in a FI motor where you can crank the boost and take advantage of higher octane fuel. Just a thought.

 

Proponents probably would say that the cost is worth it - to lower our reliance on foreign oil, y'know? So instead of making the OPEC fat cats richer, we'll make American fat cats richer.

 

It's actually the farmers getting richer since they get subsidies for producing the ethanol, such as cheap fuel.

 

So how do the subsidies really work? Is the money going to the farmers? The people who take the corn and produce the ethanol? The people transporting the ethanol? The people selling the ethanol? Are the subsidies enough to enrich the people getting them? Or just enough to offset the cost?

 

Subsidy - Artificially lower the price to produce a product, which in turn artificially encourages the consumption of that product.

Subsidies explained...