Hey, it’s my lucky day!
Check Engine light – off!
Garage door opener – working!
Time to buy a lottery ticket 
Nope. Shoulda bought one earlier. Now all your luck is used up.
your car will run ok! all cars after 1998 were designed for ethanol.
ethanol runs cooler, cleaner, FAR less toxic.
others fail to tell you that “gasoline” holds water bigtime and corrodes bigtime, and creates bigtime junk deposits throughout your engine. ethanol doesnt.
sites exist with REAL e85 users experiences with real cars, not a bunch of heresay pundits , not a bunch of theory, not a bunch of propoganda from bigoil.
She might have found your advice more handy 5 years ago when she had the accidental fueling. Check the dates.
I don’t recall any fearmongers in this thread. Everyone said it was fine.
So, propaganda from bigethanol instead? Where were you guys five years ago?
The only fearmongers I hear are the ones running from the zombies.
Five years and no one can answer my question?
I’ve heard (anecdotally) from small-engine equipment vendors/shops that small engine fuel systems can’t handle ethanol very well. Newer engines might be better, but I’ve seen on old outboards and lawnmower engines that even regular use of E10 can accelerate the wear on the needle valve causing over-rich operation and/or flooding.
no. E85/flex fuel capability is far more than just material compatibility. it’s PCM calibration (a non-flex-fuel car can’t use E85 or else it’ll put the check engine light on 'cos it’s detecting a persistent lean condition) and port/combustion chamber design. You can’t just dump E85 into any old car and expect it to work fine.
"05-19-2006 01:09 PM #1 Hokiefyd
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Using E85 in a non-flex fuel vehicle
This was an email to the NEVC (National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition):
Filler Er Up with E85!
Hello,
For the past 5 to 8 years, regardless of what kind of vehicle I am driving, I almost always fill up with E85. None of these vehicles were or are E85 equipped. I always start out with E10 and gradually add E85 into each tank, until I am all E85. Presently, I am running E85 in my 1992 Ford F 150 Pick Up Truck, 100,000 miles, 5.8 V8, and my non-E85 equipped, 2006 Dodge Gr. Caravan SXT, 10,000 miles, 3.8 V6.
I have heard all the stories, like your gas tank will rust through, your carbonator may blow up, blah, blah, blah.
I had a 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan, 3.3 V6, and I ran E85 from 50,000 miles to 138,000 miles, at which time I sold the van, only because it was getting rusty, and we needed a larger vehicle.
I would fill up with E85 even more often but there are only two or three stations in Lincoln, Nebraska that provide E85, making it a trip across town.
I thought I would pass this along. I have not had trouble, ever, with any vehicle and E85, (equipped for E85 or not equipped for E85).
Recently, I have switched to 100% synthetic motor oil, so basically, my cars are almost foreign oil free.
Thank you for all you do. Regards,
Andy Stebbing
Lincoln , NE
NEVC note: The NEVC does not endorse fueling a non-FFV with E85.
'11 Toyota Camry | 2.5/6AT | Sandy Beach
'07 Chrysler T&C | 3.8/4AT | Cognac Crystal
'05 Acura MDX | 3.5/5AT | Billet Silver
'97 Dodge Dakota | 5.2/4AT | Emerald Green"
Actually, that’s pretty much the definition of hearsay.
In any event, you will find that people on these boards are much more interested in empirical data than “communicated real world” like “I put E85 in my van and it hasn’t blown up yet, so there!” Bonus points for having a van with a “carbonator”, though.
that is an anecdote. This guy has NO IDEA what is going on with his cars other than there aren’t any warning lights on. His anecdotes are worthless.
empirical…real world…exactly!
empirical = " Relying on or derived from observation or experiment:"
so dont listen to a bunch of “theoretically, this willl happen”, nor “i’m an expert, so trust me”.
just google “Using-E85-in-a-non-flex-fuel-vehicle” also can substitute “ffv”
judge for yourself…dont automatically “trust” anybody (including me)
here’s more empirical data in nice video:
here’s a list of people who have shared their successful experiences with “e-85 in non-ffvs” .
i would add, “me too”.
cooler, cleaner, FAR less toxic. BAM! add this: drive only when necessary, combine trips. that way fewer people will DIE and get paralyzed. Cars kill over 1 million humans per year, and more animals.
its amazing how the exhaust doesnt smell nasty since using e-85. no chance of CO poisoning. Thats cuz ethanol results in far less toxic exhaust!
captainhurt’s obviously pro-ethanol stance aside, there are plenty of reasons not to use E-85.
First of all, a gallon of ethanol contains only 76,100 BTU of energy, compared to 114,100 BTU for a gallon of gasoline. So while E-85 costs a lot less, you get a lot less energy out of it. If I did my math right, that works out to 81800 BTU/gal for E-85. In other words, E-85 only has 72% as much energy in it as gasoline. Assuming that your engine can burn either fuel equally efficiently, you can expect your mileage to drop 28% just by switching from gasoline to E-85 (probably closer to 25% in areas that already have some ethanol in gasoline).
So E-85 is going to make your MPG drop significantly and will also significantly reduce the range of your vehicle, requiring you to fill up more often. But, E-85 is also cheaper than gasoline. The important question though is whether the reduced cost of E-85 is greater than the reduced MPG of E-85, because if you can get E-85 cheap enough then your cost per mile is actually better even though the energy content per gallon is worse.
So, let’s look at prices. Using some numbers from google, in my area they seem to be selling gasoline for $3.69 per gallon. The break even point at which E-85 costs exactly the same per mile as gasoline would therefore be about 75% of that, or $2.76 per gallon. However, they are selling E-85 at $3.38 per gallon. That means that even though the cost per gallon is cheaper, you’ll spend more money per mile using E-85. Thanks, but I don’t really want to spend more on fuel to go the same distance. That’s just foolish.
Every time I personally have done this calculation it has worked out the same. The cost per mile is always worse for E-85. I’ve only done it a few times though and only for my area, so YMMV. I haven’t checked prices nationwide. There may be areas where E-85 is economical. For your area, take the cost per gallon of gasoline and multiply it by 0.75. If the cost of E-85 is less than that, then go ahead and switch. Otherwise, don’t. You are wasting money.
The second issue is long term damage to your vehicle. In the short term, doing something like the OP did five years ago isn’t going to do any appreciable harm. In the long term though, using that high of an alcohol content in vehicles that aren’t designed for it causes corrosion problems all throughout the fuel system. Some of this depends on your exact vehicle,but alcohol corrodes certain types of rubbers and other materials that are not affected by gasoline. If your car’s manufacturer says that the car can safely run E-85, then there’s no problem. If not, then using E-85 could cause damage to your vehicle.
I can’t find a cite one way or the other for captainhurt’s assertion that all cars after 1999 are designed for ethanol, but I don’t believe that it is true. All reasonably modern cars should be able to handle lower concentrations of ethanol such as the E10 and E15 that are common these days, but that doesn’t mean that they can handle higher concentrations above say E50 or so.
Even if your car’s engine won’t be damaged by E-85, the cost alone makes it a poor choice. Fuel vendors seem to be taking advantage of the lower cost per gallon and the inability of the average consumer to do basic math and figure out the cost per mile, which is what really matters.
I’ve heard the same thing, but again it’s just anecdotal. I don’t have any hard data.
I have also heard that blended fuels aren’t as stable in the long term, so for something that sits for a long time (like a lawnmower in the off-season) you can have serious problems with fuel degradation. In my area (southeastern PA) I don’t bother to drain my lawnmower at the end of the season, although I don’t leave it full either. With maybe a quarter tank of stale E10 gasoline and three quarters of fresh the mower always starts. I haven’t had any problems with corrosion in my lawnmowers or snow blower either. YMMV.
now guys (that includes those with hi-sounding titles in their id designed to impress 
) to make a fair FEAR assessment: now that several id’s post statements of dire consequences and fear…let’s devote some time to the KNOWN problems with using “gasoline” in automobiles…and extend those to hundreds of millions of cars i mean aside from the buried gas tanks and oil spills and deadly smog. Anybody? Bueller? 
Frankly i have no interest whatsoever in 100 yr old standard “engines” (ICE). Electric motors are far more efficient, never break down, and dont require all the auto’s toxic “FLUIDS”, pumps and other toxic crap that LEAK everywhere. best of all electric vehicles are FAR SIMPLER STRUCTURE/DESIGN. that should give folks a start.
here’s some links for those interested in e-85:
http://forum.chryslerminivan.net/sho...x-fuel-vehiclehttp://nonffvrunninge85.blogspot.com/
captainhurt, welcome to the Straight Dope. As was noted above, your posts on this topic revived a nearly five-year-old thread, so you are responding to a discussion that happened that long ago.
We’d like to welcome you as a new member, but if you’ve signed up here as a result of a search on this topic in order to further an agenda, you’ll find that we don’t welcome spammers. Please back off on the attitude and we’ll all get along a lot better. (FYI: engineer_comp_geek has been here, using his name here since 2001, and you might do well to be less dismissive of his expertise.)
Ellen Cherry, moderator
Straight Dope Message Board
Re: small engines, i have first hand experience with the damage ethanol does to the o rings and other rubber parts of motorcycle engines. Goldwings, GS750, Honda scooters, all had significant degradation until I put in Viton rings and seals. I’d gladly pay for 100 gasoline but I have to drive to Indiana to get it.
None of what you say seems to match my experience. I fuel my snowblower and lawnmower (a really old model), a 1985 Toyota and a 1985 Yamaha scooter, all with the only fuel I can get locally, supposedly 15% Ethanol. Haven’t had any problems that I could blame on it, and my “check engine” light doesn’t come on.