Conversion to E85 not easy or cheap

Q : I have a 1998 GMC pickup. Do you know what I would have to do to convert it to use ethanol? - L.W., Villa Park A : Unless you own a fleet of trucks that spend a lot of time on the road, such a conversion is ...

[corny]

GM 's sudden stewardship of the environment is simply a way to continue to make gas guzzlers thanks to E85 an extremely inefficient fuel. The CAFE standards call for all car companies to achieve an average MPG for all vehicles. I believe the most recent number is 27 MPG. Well if you make the biggest money off of 10 miles per gallon SUV's you would hate to say good bye to them wouldn't you?
The CAFE standards has a loophole, that being that an E85 vehicle operating on E85 miles per gallon are ONLY figured against the actual amount of gasoline in the blend (15%) if you divide 100% fuel by 15% gasoline you get the multiplier to the mpg (666) therefore a gas guzzling 10 MPG SUV is given credit for 66.6 MPG. If you sell one SUV like this you can have 5 vehicles only achieving 20 MPG and this gas guzzling SUV and you average more than 27 MPG overall while not one of their vehicles really met the standard.
GM is not the only one taking advantage of this free ride Ford and Chrysler are too. The big three are heading down the toilet and this is just their hands clinging to the rim.

[mileage blogger]

This might not be something to increase your mileage but it will certainly put some money back in your pocket if you have a business. IRS just increased the mileage deduction rate from 50.5 to 58.5 cents for every mile. There is an exciting business tool that captures your mileage automatically (hands free) and sends this information through wireless networks to http://www.MileageLogger.com . I think is a great tool to get your money back when is time to do your taxes.

[Dave Justice]

Gee Bob. How did Brazil convert all of their cars to ethanol??? They used inexpensive conversion kits. I converted 6 of my vehicles. Some websites where you can find the kits are www.change2E85.com or www.driveflexfuel.com .

[Dan Lorenzo]

I have just traveled 2,200 miles from Los Angeles to Georgia. I will soon complete my cross country trip ending in South Carolina.
My trip was to document the effects of Ethanol in a non Flex fuel vehicle. My team consists of 3 Year Destiny Bateman Her Mother Catherine Bateman and my Self Dan Lorenzo. I am also a master technician for GM and ASE . I Have engineered or assisted in the development of most e85 kits found on the market.
I also have with me an intake manifold as a display that is from a 1988 ford mustang. This intake manifold has a stainless steel fuel rail and Vitton rubber fuel lines. The intake manifold I have is for display purposes only and was not modified.
I have documented second by second data in real time and have actually seen a transparency in fuel mileage. My average cruise speed was 72 miles per hour, as documented in the data collected. I was a little surprised to see this so I then removed the e85 kit and tested gasoline only. I was again surprised to see no change in fuel mileage. I have many years in the e85 conversion industry and have seen a 10 - 20 % fuel mileage loss but I have never tested at speeds of 70 miles per hour for such a long duration. I have video recorded the whole trip and logged all data I will be releasing this on my website http://www.mye85kit.com and http://www.whitelightning.net all technicians will be amazed at my data as well as be able to understand the long and short term fuel trims and other variable recorded.
The vehicle we are using for this trip is a 2003 Kia Optima 4 cylinder engine.
It would please me greatly to make this trip again and log the data.
Since the early 1970's car manufactures have removed the galvanic steels and natural rubbers from fuel systems and I personally gaurantee any fuel injected vehicle built after 1976 from corrossion due to the use of ethanol that uses our e85 kit. We also have a 2 million dollar product liability insurance policy that also covers our users. So if your car is worth less that 2 million dollars then we got you covered.
Thank you
Dan Lorenzo
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me

[KDNelson]

I am a diesel and heavy equitment tech from colorado and i think this is a fantastic topic my only worry is it not being true or being a gimmic i have been doing research for the past couple weeks and found a lot of info going both ways if it this is all for real we will be on track to oil indepedentcy i am curently thinking about coverting my 2001 dodge dakota Thank you

[pecker]

yea baby, i love turning my food into gas but it leaves my belly a little empty. Heck let us turn those black anges cows into gas too.

[Test Run]

I don't know a lot about ethanol in general but I do know that we do not use food grade corn for ethanol but we use animal feed. In the end of the process we do not use up the corn but create better animal feed.

Dave, Thanks for the great sites they do help me understand a lot more about the conversion kits and after studying the sites I am tempted on converting my vehicle as well. I really like the station locater on www.driveflexfuel.com

Dan, Nice try promoting your own kits on a post we all know you are just trying to sell your product. After reading all the information it is funny that you list a inferior product to those listed above you.

[Tory II]

The opposition to E85 ethanol is from environmentalists who oppose the internal combustion engine.

Chevy claims E85 is as efficient as gasoline, environmentalists say it's a lie.

Currently the price spread at the pump is over $.70 ... At one Shell station I saw E85 selling at $2.65/gallon.

With a FlexFuel vehicle the owner has an infinite number of options. If your fuel tank currently is half full with E85, you could fill up with E10 (90% gasoline) and have about 88% gasoline. The owner is free to vary this mixture. If you hate E85 you are free to buy only gasoline; if you love it you are free to buy all E85. If undecided you can alternate buying either choice.

If E85 becomes widely available, I guarantee people will buy the cheaper of the two choices.

For the current period of high energy costs I would blame both Bush and the environmentalists. Blame Bush for needless war spending, and blame the greenies for laws that prohibit domestic oil drilling and nuclear power plant construction. But this time, you have a choice: you can oppose war and ignore the greenies and Bush. Or you can fall for both of their lies. If you do then blame yourselves for high energy costs, again.

[Bob]

corny wrote:

GM 's sudden stewardship of the environment is simply a way to continue to make gas guzzlers thanks to E85 an extremely inefficient fuel. The CAFE standards call for all car companies to achieve an average MPG for all vehicles. I believe the most recent number is 27 MPG. Well if you make the biggest money off of 10 miles per gallon SUV's you would hate to say good bye to them wouldn't you?
The CAFE standards has a loophole, that being that an E85 vehicle operating on E85 miles per gallon are ONLY figured against the actual amount of gasoline in the blend (15%) if you divide 100% fuel by 15% gasoline you get the multiplier to the mpg (666) therefore a gas guzzling 10 MPG SUV is given credit for 66.6 MPG. If you sell one SUV like this you can have 5 vehicles only achieving 20 MPG and this gas guzzling SUV and you average more than 27 MPG overall while not one of their vehicles really met the standard.
GM is not the only one taking advantage of this free ride Ford and Chrysler are too. The big three are heading down the toilet and this is just their hands clinging to the rim.

Thanks for the information, Corny. Thinking back on what the "big" .333 have done to this country for the last few decades, I feel going down the toilet is much too good a fate for them and they will probably end up plugging it up!