E85 Tahoe

[bigdog9191999]

the short and sweet on e85 from my experience and research.

on a basically stock daily driven commuter vehicle you may notice a touch more power, and about 30% decrease in mpg. end of story, if your cost isn't in the 40%+ cheaper then it most likely isn't worth the trouble running it.

now where it does make difference and is like liquid gold in in higher performance and boosted applications. esp where you would otherwise be forced to run premium instead of 87. you get race fuel like benefits on a fraction the cost. so it can be kinda like street legal widely available ( at least wider) race fuel. and it cost you a fraction of what race fuel runs and is still well worth it over standard premium esp for the added benefits.

boost makes heat period. the alcohol in e85 acts as a coolant as well as fuel. so to a point you can add more fuel to combat extra heat from extra timing or boost.


the experience I have comes most from supercharged 3800's like grand prix, regal, ect. and we can drop 7-8 pully sizes with nothing more than larger injectors and a tune with e85 gaining upward of 75-100 whp and 100 wtq. and for just a fuel swap and fuel flow mods that is pretty incredible. now you start adding cam, tb and other mods with a good tune you are talking pretty considerable gains over a standard premium fuel counterpart.

I did a cam, injectors, headers and several other supporting mods on my old car and touched about 280whp and 360wtq. and that was a considerable amount of work, the last on I had just injectors, e85 and a tune and both cars ran the same size pully and from experience I would guess 250-260whp and 325ish wtq. now the cam changes the power range but to be that close with that minimal amount of work, or to compound that and put e85 on the cammed car would have make even more difference.


I have a buddy with a dyno, I may have to see how willing he would be to make some pulls. and run it 3 separate configurations

100% stock ( stock pully is 3.8'')

pully, tune, injectors and a couple minor exhaust mods ( basically as much as I can on premium, which should be about about a 3.5 pully)

then swap fuel, and pully down some more ( will have enough injector from swapping previously, just now will be using more of their potential, and the fuel will allow more boost so smaller pully should be able to run about a 3.2)

and if real ambitus I have a set of higher ratio rockers ( 1.9 vs the stock 1.7) which should be good for another 2-3 pully sizes or down to a 2.9-3.0 ish.

 

[swathdiver]

Some fellas with E85 tunes get the same mileage as on gasoline since the engine makes more power, it has to work less. My truck gets better mileage with a 16-22% alcohol content compared with E10 or E0 gasoline and it runs on stock E85 tables.

 

[George B]

the short and sweet on e85 from my experience and research.

on a basically stock daily driven commuter vehicle you may notice a touch more power, and about 30% decrease in mpg. end of story, if your cost isn't in the 40%+ cheaper then it most likely isn't worth the trouble running it.

now where it does make difference and is like liquid gold in in higher performance and boosted applications. esp where you would otherwise be forced to run premium instead of 87. you get race fuel like benefits on a fraction the cost. so it can be kinda like street legal widely available ( at least wider) race fuel. and it cost you a fraction of what race fuel runs and is still well worth it over standard premium esp for the added benefits.

boost makes heat period. the alcohol in e85 acts as a coolant as well as fuel. so to a point you can add more fuel to combat extra heat from extra timing or boost.


the experience I have comes most from supercharged 3800's like grand prix, regal, ect. and we can drop 7-8 pully sizes with nothing more than larger injectors and a tune with e85 gaining upward of 75-100 whp and 100 wtq. and for just a fuel swap and fuel flow mods that is pretty incredible. now you start adding cam, tb and other mods with a good tune you are talking pretty considerable gains over a standard premium fuel counterpart.

I did a cam, injectors, headers and several other supporting mods on my old car and touched about 280whp and 360wtq. and that was a considerable amount of work, the last on I had just injectors, e85 and a tune and both cars ran the same size pully and from experience I would guess 250-260whp and 325ish wtq. now the cam changes the power range but to be that close with that minimal amount of work, or to compound that and put e85 on the cammed car would have make even more difference.


I have a buddy with a dyno, I may have to see how willing he would be to make some pulls. and run it 3 separate configurations

100% stock ( stock pully is 3.8'')

pully, tune, injectors and a couple minor exhaust mods ( basically as much as I can on premium, which should be about about a 3.5 pully)

then swap fuel, and pully down some more ( will have enough injector from swapping previously, just now will be using more of their potential, and the fuel will allow more boost so smaller pully should be able to run about a 3.2)

and if real ambitus I have a set of higher ratio rockers ( 1.9 vs the stock 1.7) which should be good for another 2-3 pully sizes or down to a 2.9-3.0 ish.

This is all nice and probably true but I can say with certainty that I like how much better my stock Burb runs on E85 enough to tolerate the loss in mileage.

 

[1BADI5]

E85......Mo Powah dot period with my tune. BUT when it's cold my truck does not remote start and take a few attempts to start up(on 100% E)

Now if I do 75% E and 25% 93.........****** golden. Yeah, reduced mgps......but it's better for the environment LOL. **** it, daily race truck. Send it fools, grab it and go.

My forged 6.2 will be done this summer and Procharged by fall. **** yo SRT8 and come on and play Trackhawks.......I have les weight to move and less drivetrain loss. Guess I will have to fork out 2k for Welds and some drag radials.......but I'll be the first to the office lmaop

 

[bigdog9191999]

This is all nice and probably true but I can say with certainty that I like how much better my stock Burb runs on E85 enough to tolerate the loss in mileage.

well as I said, for a stock daily vehicle with no mods it is usually not worth the effort. it isn't till your bumping well into mods that it really shines.


if regular gets back up to $4 and e85 stays $2.50 ish like it did last time I will probably run it in my hoe for daily. otherwise the loss just wasn't worth the extra fuel stops.

 

[George B]

well as I said, for a stock daily vehicle with no mods it is usually not worth the effort. it isn't till your bumping well into mods that it really shines.


if regular gets back up to $4 and e85 stays $2.50 ish like it did last time I will probably run it in my hoe for daily. otherwise the loss just wasn't worth the extra fuel stops.

I did some cost per mile comparisons and found exactly what you are saying. On a strictly cost per mile basis it is not worth it. That said the truck runs noticeably better on it. And not just in the "more horsepower" way. There are several other gains had by being able to run more timing advance all across the RPM range and in many part throttle conditions. I am convinced it's not just a placebo effect but that in reality the truck performs better. It might do almost as well on 89 octane E10 fuel but they are too proud of that around here too so the cost per mile is not much better than running E85. I guess everyone sees "worth it" differently.

 

[bigdog9191999]

yah, on a dd, I don't really factor in the performance or other gains, as this is not what I or others would be looking at, from a pure monetary cost standpoint, it is so close to a wash in mpg cost per tank that the math don't add up when you factor in the additional amount of stops required.

in the pure performance category number of stops is irrelevant to the gains had.


and it becomes more worth it when you look in terms of cost per grade of fuel, as the higher grades cost more to start, or when the price of all fuel gets crazy high then it usually is enough less to make it more worth it on a dd aspect.

 

[petethepug]

09 Escalade ESV AWD 6.2L
Lives in South SoCal so it 87 Reg, 91 Prem or e85.
Pricing is $4.39 ($3.99) $4.09 ($3.73) & $2.79 ($2.59). Fuel prices swing wildly in this 100 radius. Gas stations in affluent area can charge up to 60 cents more a gal!

I’ve listed full retail pricing, Costco’s prices in parentheses and lastly Chevron’s 20 cents off per gal for using supermarket reward points in parentheses. The largest savings from full retail 91 to discount e85 is $1.80 less a gal.

Milage went from an average of 10/11 mpg to 8/9 mpg. The e85 performance gain is what I would call adding a mild cam to a stock motor. I know it had more grunt running 93 when in TX so I would say the e85 is a blessing here in Cali. Filling up the tank on e85 is $70 vs $110 on 91.

The e85 doesn’t leave deposits on the internals and actually cuts through and cleans petroleum residue from the TB and other surfaces. The EPA calculator puts our any savings at approx $700 annually on our miles driven. I’ll take the e85 please as we’ve had no ill effects, only benefits.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[1BADI5]

E85 FTW...................MO POWAH!!!!!!!

 

[fasteddy]

Yeah E85...
Higher Octane
You can run more timing, with less detonation, you can make more power!
I don't run in my Tahoe though....too hard to find.
Run it in my BigHP cars though....E85 and E98 when I can find it....and its cheap. I love E98 and its so cheap.

E85......Mo Powah dot period with my tune. BUT when it's cold my truck does not remote start and take a few attempts to start up(on 100% E)

Now if I do 75% E and 25% 93.........****** golden. Yeah, reduced mgps......but it's better for the environment LOL. **** it, daily race truck. Send it fools, grab it and go.

My forged 6.2 will be done this summer and Procharged by fall. **** yo SRT8 and come on and play Trackhawks.......I have les weight to move and less drivetrain loss. Guess I will have to fork out 2k for Welds and some drag radials.......but I'll be the first to the office lmaop

Yeah? Forged LS3? Aluminum Block? Big Heads?
I thought you would go for the Iron...less block flex under heavy boost.
How much boost are you going to push? and Meth? or just E85?
What about the TRX? You going to be flip that off too?