getting my truck to run ethanol.

[Thunder]

I am no fan of Ethanol. But it is totally unfair to blame ethanol production as the reason for high food/grain costs.
Could it be the fact that fuel costs for farming, harvesting, and transporting have almost tripled in the last few years??
Come on guys. Lets get to blaming Big Oil in on this subject too. Everything is their fault.

 

[Blue85]

Here's a neat discussion of the higher ethanol / gasoline blends..
http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/fuelquality/publications/review-vehicle-fleet/index.html


As I've said before, everyone gets excited about the higher octane of ethanol..big deal..unless you have a 12:1 motor, you can't take advantage of it anyway..octane isn't an indicator of a fuels energy content.

To me, the increase in NOx & VOC tailpipe emissions, the leaning out of the A/F mixture, and the fact alcohol has zero f**king lubricity disqualifies it as a viable technology in my book.

This paper is about increasing from 10% to 20% Ethanol WITHOUT ANY VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS, which is entirely different than converting a vehicle to run on E85 or E100. They don't see any benefit from the octane because they aren't increasing timing to take advantage of it.

And you are correct, if you want "flex fuel" capabilities, the compression ratio has to stay low. Lower MPG is an inescapable fact, but acceptable if the price of Ethanol is about 80% the price of gasoline.

Clearly there are some disadvantages to Ethanol, but calling it "not a viable technology" doesn't make sense given the millions of vehicles running on it.

 

[RootBreaker]

if all you want is better mileage.... buy a beater like your bro did..... or just keep driving his around...


anyhow... you could always go the cooking oil way... convert your truck to a diesel and get old cooking oil....

xtreme4x4 had one this weekend.....
87 sami
99 jeta turbo diesel
cooking oil conversion..
so it runs diesel until the cooking oil is ready.. then switches....


im debating it... if I could get a duramax engine I would do it......

 

[roadnotca]

WOW. Way bigtime confusion and/or dipolar opinion, which is exactly what the elite/media want.

 

[jonrpick]

Lower MPG is an inescapable fact, but acceptable if the price of Ethanol is about 80% the price of gasoline.

Then you'd just pay the same money for less power after you figured in the mileage hit. Not to mention the cost of conversion.

 

[jhellwig]

At the price of e85 verses gas even with the loss in mileage, e85 still costs less.

 

[jonrpick]

At the price of e85 verses gas even with the loss in mileage, e85 still costs less.

I can't comment on E85's price since I've never once seen it. Last time I checked it wasn't even available in Atlanta.

 

[4by4bygod]

Originally Posted by 4by4bygod
Here's a neat discussion of the higher ethanol / gasoline blends..
http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosp...eet/index.html


As I've said before, everyone gets excited about the higher octane of ethanol..big deal..unless you have a 12:1 motor, you can't take advantage of it anyway..octane isn't an indicator of a fuels energy content.

To me, the increase in NOx & VOC tailpipe emissions, the leaning out of the A/F mixture, and the fact alcohol has zero f**king lubricity disqualifies it as a viable technology in my book.

This paper is about increasing from 10% to 20% Ethanol WITHOUT ANY VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS, which is entirely different than converting a vehicle to run on E85 or E100. They don't see any benefit from the octane because they aren't increasing timing to take advantage of it.

And you are correct, if you want "flex fuel" capabilities, the compression ratio has to stay low. Lower MPG is an inescapable fact, but acceptable if the price of Ethanol is about 80% the price of gasoline.

Clearly there are some disadvantages to Ethanol, but calling it "not a viable technology" doesn't make sense given the millions of vehicles running on it.

I know what I posted up - the point was to learn about the fuel itself, discuss ethanol tailpipe emissons, how it acts under combustion,( I thought the part about how ethanol leans out A/F mixtures might be pertinent to someone ) and for those who don't know, what it does to vehicles not prepared for it..

My reasons for saying ethanol isn't viable are these -

if you want to reduce emissions, ethanol makes the bad ones worse - organic particulate emissions ( VOC's) and smog ( NOx )are more of a real health issue than the greenhouse gasses..

You can't run it through a pipeline, so transporting it leaves a big carbon footprint too.

If the public cares about how long a vehicle lasts, they ought to be made aware that alcohol fuels drastically diminish the ability of fuel and oil to lubricate properly..

All of this stuff happens whether your truck has stainless fuel lines and viton seals or not.

and to say the fuel economy hit is acceptable because the fuel is cheap is a red herring - it's only cheap because of the subsidies - you're paying more for food because of ethanol mandates..it's a shell game, plain and simple..the money is still coming out of your wallet.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Around here ethanol isn't very much cheaper than standard 87 octane. Not even ten cents. If it were 80% of the cost of 87 I think it'd be lots more popular than it is.

 

[jhellwig]

What ethanol are you talking? e10 or e85?

 

[Blue85]

Yeah, I agree with most of that. And long term we can't get buy with subsidized fuel. Somebody just needs to figure out how to manufacture it at a low cost from "non-food" plant materials.

There should be some long-term mileage studies from Brazil.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

There's only one pump in all of Northern Michigan. The nearest otherwise is Big Rapids. The Meijer in Traverse City was selling E85 for not terribly much less than 87 octane last I looked.