Well found away to improve my gas mileage

[kgmkgm]

Isn't E85 subsidized by the government, so in the end you're paying for it anyway and having to pull over more frequently?

Also are there any reported ill effects from it re: wear / contamination? Don't know much about E85

 

[bjoehandley]

Go for it, and give it a month or two to see how you and the car like it. Right now they should be selling anywhere from E51-E70 for winter blend so the cars start easier in the cold weather. Definately use that YellowHose link, Speedway.com, and/or E85prices.com to try and find any and all E85 retailers in your area, Speedway has been great here for helping tje spread at $.80/gal less or better. Even if the spread is $.80 less than regular, it's still going to be around $1.00 less than premium. If the spread gets better against regular, it gets even better against premium, I think when the spread was $1.50, premium was nearly $2.00 more! Something that could get interesting up by you is that a new cellulosic ethanol plant has been build by a hardboard plant (makes decorative panels). They've started producing ethanol from the woodpulp byproduct from that hardboard plant and apparently have officially begun to ship out fuel. Between that and other cellulosic plants that are being or have been built and coming on line, this years corn crop, and low buck sugar supply to also produce it from, E85 prices could be really nice, even with gasoline and diesel coming down in price.

 

[bjoehandley]

Isn't E85 subsidized by the government, so in the end you're paying for it anyway and having to pull over more frequently?

Also are there any reported ill effects from it re: wear / contamination? Don't know much about E85

It isn't like it had been in a couple years, that went away a few months before I bought my 200 (of course ) Keep in mind that the oil industry also gets tax credits and such for finding, drilling, then in some cases producing the final products. While the mileage is worse, once E85 reaches $.80/gal less than the gas you're already using, you "break even". With the $1.00+ spreads I've been seeing this summer, that has worked in my favor financially

Wear, shouldn't see as much since the engine stays cleaner with the reduction in carbon vs gasoline (20k miles and my tailpipes are still as clean as the day I bought it!), fuel system won't goo up, and since it attracts water, it will pull any that is contaminating the fuel system into the fuel, preventing the fuel lines from freezing (HEET is 99% ethanol) and will expell during the combustion process. Oil contamination wouldn't be much of an issue with injected engines unlike a carbed one (which would still cause a problem), although if you start running in an older engine on higher levels of ethanol, it can start cleaning out the top half of the engine as well as the whole fuel system (might need to keep an eye on the fuel filter for the first couple months).

 

[kastein]

I have been getting 18-20 in my XJ even on winter gas, but I have to say, I hear really good things about those Pentastar V6s. The JK guys love em, though anything is an improvement over the minivan motor I guess?

Is a manual transmission 200 available? Buying another vehicle, even a used one, to improve my gas mileage doesn't make financial sense to me unless it gets at least 30mpg, but I'm curious.

 

[bjoehandley]

For my typical driving, 14mpg was about average with my XJ, but it's also now 15 years old and will eventually will need to be replaced since this area is tough on sheetmetal between road salt and idiots.

Those Pentastars are strong running motors, backed by the 6-speed auto, these cars will light up the front tires without hesitation.........even at 20mph on dry pavement! The 200's and Avenger's are good for 14's innthe quarter mile. The trans was a bit slow at times and the drive by wire could be aggrevating, but they've been doing a couple reflashes that have brought it to life. No manuals are available, I'm not even sure when you could get a stick shift in the mid size line from Chrysler last. I want to say it was possible with the Stratus/Ciruus/Breeze, but I want to say those were the last.

So far highway mileage has been 23mpg on E85 (did get 25 on the way home from Road America this year) and just shy of 30 while coming home from Branson while running 93 octane premium.