E-85 Question

[extra-medium]

I am new to using ethanol, and after picking up my 2002 Mountaineer, I found out it can run E-85. When I fill up with gas is runs great, sounds fine, and there are no problems. When I fill it with E-85 it feels like there is a little extra power, but has the typical reduced gas mileage. I have also noticed that it sounds like my power steering pump whines with E-85, but not with regular gas. Any suggestions or thoughts of what it could be?

 

[colintrax]

Not sure why the power steering pump would whine. Personally, I'd say stay away from e-85. Stay away from ethanol if at all possible, even though your explorer can run it doesn't mean you should.
Crap aint no good

And you should have lost power, not gained it.

 

[extra-medium]

I am not sure if it is the power steering pump that is whining, but it has a similar sound. The octane rating of E-85 is over 100 which wouldn't give it a whole lot of boost in power, but it has a slightly better response. The gas mileage sure does go down though since it isn't as efficient. I only filled up on it the other day since it was almost 25 cents cheaper per gallon.

 

[colintrax]

Higher octane is not good unless you're running high compression. Which I doubt you are

 

[imp]

Higher Octane

Higher octane is not good unless you're running high compression. Which I doubt you are

Can you tell us why higher octanne is not good?

imp

 

[Huskerbob]

High octane and E85

Can you tell us why higher octanne is not good?

imp

High octane gas makes no difference, it's just a waste. Hey, but if E85 is .25cheaper a gallon than regular go for it as long as the decrease in mileage isn't greater that the savings.

Octane makes no difference in modern engines because they all have knock sensors that adjust for variations in octane. Unless you have a high compression engine I wouldn't worry about it

It has nothing to do with your power steering noise.

 

[colintrax]

Can you tell us why higher octanne is not good?

imp

Octane is just simply a detonation preventive. So it keeps the gas from igniting before the spark plug actually fires. IE knock.
High compression engines need more octane because compression will ignite the gas, no such thing as a stock explorer with high compression. My dirt bike has a 13:1 compression ratio, explorers are in the 8:1 or 9:1 range