E85

You do realize the prius was not designed to run on E85, and probably will make the car run very sluggish...

Anywho, nice rims!

 

And E85 is about 20% less efficient than gasoline, so your MPG will suffer.

And here are some figures I derived from reading a few sources:

One acre of corn can produce about 325 gallons of ethanol.

Because ethanol is not as "hot" as gasoline, that is equivalent to about 215 gallons of gasoline.

So that means that an acre of corn would fill the tanks of about a dozen cars. Once. Then you have to wait months for more corn.

It seems totally stupid to me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ Jul 9 2006, 11:02 PM) [snapback]283633[/snapback]</div>

While you do make a point I hasten to remind everyone that our lack of a focused energy policy to reduce our addiction to oil is even more stupid. Brazil has engaged ethanol. But Brazil can afford to because it has so fewer vehicles to fuel than we do and so much more untapped land to plant corn in. So for them it makes sense. For us I totally agree, we simply do not have the amount of land to produce the needed ethanol even if it is less efficient. We just need to collectively agree to stop using big honking vehicles for normal transportation and convert over to the Hybrids we currently love, along with the plug-ins and better batteries of tomorrow. While that sounds so self serving, it is a working solution. Now if we could just get more of em built. Lets hope the forecasts are correct.

I hope that Prius doesn't complain too much about that E85 you used, Cheap!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jul 10 2006, 12:33 AM) [snapback]283660[/snapback]</div>

Is it really that serious? I didnt think it would cause any permanent damage...

 

Well, E85 has actually less energy than regular E10 does. Gasoline actually stores a lot of energy per gallon. Ethanol does not, however. Aka, you'll use more ethanol to go the same distance as gasoline (lower mpg).

 

One of the risks of E85 is that it may damage some pipes in the fuel system. An E85 modified engine usually has special pipes. But I don't know how fast this effect comes in...

 

Don't take chances with your new baby!!!

Siphon out as much as you can and fill it with regular unleaded, NOW!!! If you are degrading the bladder in your tank or your seals/lines/etc., you will be hit with a very expensive repair bill down the line.

TAKE ACTION NOW!!!!

 

i dont think the engine take any damage (note THINK),, rather fuelpump gaskets and so on??? or that You get a non optimal use of the E85

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/afv/models.html if You dont find your prius in the documents , then its not E85 compliant...... why not ask toyota about what to be changed on a prius the make it usable for E85



FFVs (Flexible Fuel Vehicles ) is the standard it has to follow .. many cars are FFVs.. mainly its that chip that controls the injection has a program for running and adjust to E85...


http://www.greenenergynetwork.com/media/st...s/prius-e85.PDF read this for the prius (pri I) intresting reading,,,, and i suspect it might be the simmilar results for genII


Cheers

Andreas

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Jul 9 2006, 10:44 PM) [snapback]283628[/snapback]</div>

No, the Prius is not E-85 compatible and reading the car's owners manual is time well spent.

E-85 compatible vehicles have a notation on the fuel door indicating that. To use E-85 and vehicle must have a specially engineered fuel system which includes, as I understand it, a stainless steel fuel tank, special fuel delivery components which will with stand the corrosive nature of ethanol.

Here's a web page about some tests run by Bruce Jones at Minnesota State University at Mankato which may shed some light on your delema. Even though the car is not designed for E-85, they did run increasing amounts of ethanol in an '04 and found little change in the operation of the car except that it had more power, but lower fuel economy.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/states/news_det...fm/news_id=8577

Check it out and give them a call. I don't think you've hurt anything, but it's not a good idea to use E-85 long term in the Prius.

 

Why get upset. You have a good excuse to take a nice drive and just burn the fuel up, since it runs ok.

The damage will occur based on time in the tank. So just drive and refill. One day shouldn't hurt that much if our cars can handle the 10% ethanol full time now.

Now if you get warning lights then I'd try to siphon out some and refill now. Then use up the E10 in small amounts with each tank later, keeping the percent near the rated 10%. You'd have to find out what % your gas already has.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kev1000000 @ Jul 10 2006, 12:39 AM) [snapback]283663[/snapback]</div>

It could be... E85 cars have special seals and gaskets, because E85 is more corrosive than regular gasoline.

On the upside, a few tanks of E85 may destroy the bladder.

It's almost a risk worth taking.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Jul 10 2006, 09:43 AM) [snapback]283775[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, get that garbage out of your car. E85 contains really high levels of water, which make it corrosive as hell. One tank isn't going to kill you, but just the thought of that garbage in my car would make me shutter.

As for Brazil and there Ethanol... I understand the argument, but when it comes to slashing and burning rain forest in favor of low yielding corn fields, I've got a problem with that.

Ethanol the savior of GM, is hype.

 

Cheap, please keep PC apprised of any possibly related problems you
see down the road, even if you've had the E85 out of there for some
time. See, this is one of the thing that EVERYONE would love to know
and that Toyota is refusing to give out any information on, that
being: how resistant to ethanol are all the fuel-system components??
If the cellulosic thing ever becomes viable, it *would* be nice to
be able to do a minimal conversion to make an EXISTING Prius FFV --
if all the components can deal with the chemistry, then all it would
take is a fuel type sensor and a reflash of the engine ECU. [And for
people to get used to lower MPG and quit bitchin' about it]
.
_H*