Friday, December 11, 2009

The Drunken Swede goes on hiatus

Well, the Druken Swede (http://drunkenswede.blogspot.com/2009/12/e85-experiment-going-on-hiatus.html) is going to stop posting about using intermediate blends of ethanol. I'm going to miss his posts and little rants from the Northwest corner of Indiana. I use to live 30 miles west of Chicago and have traveled thru this region many times on my trips to and from Wisconsin. His post states a non-flex fuel vehicle can handle around 40% ethanol. Well, my reading and understanding is this will vary. I have read of non-flex fuel vehicles running on E70 while others may start showing the check engine light on E25. Your long term fuel trim values play a major role in this issue. For my vehicle, I am aware of two individuals who have driven on E50 without throwing a check engine light. I personally have had my LTF trim values up to 18.4 via the scanguage II hardware reading. This is pushing E40. I normally attempt to run between E20-30 depending upon the price spread. It looks like I will be heading for the E85 pump on Saturday and will report back here later.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. JoeypeteDecember 12, 2009 at 7:31 AM

    I use a converter kit so I've been able to put in 100% E85 in my '09 Focus. In my '06 I got up to about 40% before the CEL went off. Both engines are the 2.0 Duratec. What year is your Escape?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nordic skierDecember 12, 2009 at 5:10 PM

    I have a 2005 Escape Hybrid.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nordic skierDecember 12, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    I forgot to add, I have a 2.3L engine. The 2009 Escape models moved into a 2.5L engine. It won't be long before the 1.6L or 2.0L EccoBoost engine arrives for the Escape vehicles. These will have turbocharging which will improve the ability to utilize ethanol efficiently. I'm not sure if this engine will be found on the hybrid models. It is likely the 2012 model year these changes will arrive.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)