E15?

[BAT]

Yup - I've been running it for months. Every since the newer Casey's stations started selling it. 10 cents cheaper, and my truck does great on it. My MPG hasn't dropped even a tiny bit (university studies show no differences between 10 and 15% in mpg, it's when you get 20 and over you look for differences)

People know my truck has been trouble free, rattle free, mis-fire free and for the tires and weight I've added, I do decent mpg. I'm hitting between 19.5 and 20.3 right now, mixed driving. And that's with U88 (*E15 if you prefer)

Repeating myself -
I've been dealing with cars and trucks and small engines, lawn and garden equipment for decades, I have seen no damage that wasn't owner-caused (leaving fuel in a carburetor or other parts for several months) My newer chain saw and trimmer and generator I do run straight fuel because they say ethanol will void the warranty but geesh, have you see the microscopic passages in those aluminum parts? Let 'em sit for 10 months and you trash them even with pure gas.

Oh man that reminds me I need to pull my generator out and run it for a bit. Storm season coming so need to have it up and working

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[ShadowsPapa]

Oh man that reminds me I need to pull my generator out and run it for a bit. Storm season coming so need to have it up and working

Good man - make sure the fuel is clean, and exercise it a bit, warm it up.
Storm season started a month ago for us with that huge tornado that knocked out many hundreds of poles and lines and left people homeless. Nasty weather predicted for us again later today.
Luckily, that tornado did take place in colder weather with the low soil temperatures under 50. A meteorologist storm chaser friend said had the soil been warmed up and the air warmer, we'd have been looking at many dozens more of house ripped out and trees uprooted instead of just topped off in the middle.

 

[Sazabi19]

Commonly called U88 - it's absolutely fine. It's defined in Iowa as having "between 12 and 15% ethanol"
And Jeep says up to 15 is fine.
I run it any time I can and it's fine.



Most stations don't have U88 or "E 15" Most have 10%, and here that's defined as having "up to 10% ethanol". 15% is known by U88, which is "unleaded 88 octane" and they get the 88 by going up to 15% ethanol.
15% (which is normally a bit under that here) is U88 - 88 octane, called U88 when called by the proper defined name. It's blue pumps, yes.

Mine actually does quite well on U88 (15%) and is 10 cents cheaper here, so that's what I've been using for the last several months.

E85 is up to 85% but almost always less in studies here.
The different terms people apply gets things really confused and messed up.
I told my wife we could and should use U88 and so she sees an E85 and says "this is fine, right" and I say no it's not fine - no green, no yellow pumps.
Only red or blue.

Yes, it's 10%, thanks for the correction.

 

[MPMB]

Timely post, considering E15 is being pushed from D.C. to lessen the gas prices for Americans.

 

[BAT]

Good man - make sure the fuel is clean, and exercise it a bit, warm it up.
Storm season started a month ago for us with that huge tornado that knocked out many hundreds of poles and lines and left people homeless. Nasty weather predicted for us again later today.
Luckily, that tornado did take place in colder weather with the low soil temperatures under 50. A meteorologist storm chaser friend said had the soil been warmed up and the air warmer, we'd have been looking at many dozens more of house ripped out and trees uprooted instead of just topped off in the middle.

Its a crap shoot on the coast and hurricanes but I just like to have my generator ready to do. We've been lucky lately at the expense of my home town Grand Isle and State of Louisiana.

 

[Klutch]

If it really does help to bring down gas prices, that's cool. The only reason I wouldn't run E15 in my JT is I might not want to visit the gas station any more than I do now. I have a 1970 Mustang. I won't be running E15 in that only because that car tends to have fuel issues when the weather gets hot and more ethanol would make that problem worse.

 

[FrankFrqnkFrank]

I’m not too exercised about the vehicle effects of E15.

I’ll just stay silent about E15’s efficacy on gas prices…

if you want to find stations that sell more pure gas, use this link:

https://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IN

 

[ALVagabond]

Just put gummy bears in your gas tank.

 

[NachoRuby]

If it really does help to bring down gas prices, that's cool. The only reason I wouldn't run E15 in my JT is I might not want to visit the gas station any more than I do now. I have a 1970 Mustang. I won't be running E15 in that only because that car tends to have fuel issues when the weather gets hot and more ethanol would make that problem worse.

The pumps that sell it say to use in only 2003 or newer vehicles, at least around here. I won't use it in my old car either. But it's fair game in the JT. Way cheaper. It's all we use in the JK and the JT. It's $.30 less per gallon here. We've been running it for years in modern cars.

 

[SKUSWILLY’s]

Am I correct in believing E15 is NOT recommended for my JT?

Thanks everyone... with the news this will be more available I just wanted to ask people in the know.

 

[FrankFrqnkFrank]

Looks like most of us won’t see any E15. According to today’s WSJ, E15 has negative effects on infrastructure that is not specifically built for it. “Only about 2,300 of the nation’s 150,000 gas stations are outfitted to sell E15, and most are in the Midwest. Hence the Environmental Protection Agency keeps revising down its renewable fuel standard to avoid crashing into this so-called blend wall.”

 

[NachoRuby]

Looks like most of us won’t see any E15. According to today’s WSJ, E15 has negative effects on infrastructure that is not specifically built for it. “Only about 2,300 of the nation’s 150,000 gas stations are outfitted to sell E15, and most are in the Midwest. Hence the Environmental Protection Agency keeps revising down its renewable fuel standard to avoid crashing into this so-called blend wall.”

E15 (and e85) stations are all over Pennsylvania. Most of our Sheetz gas stations have both. It's in blue pumps. I've been running it for years. Even if it's just in select regions, it would still have an effect on overall demand.

 

[BaliMawr]

Am I correct in believing E15 is NOT recommended for my JT?

I'm assuming that you're not thrilled with this development, either? False economy, as it reduces energy output. Ugh. Definitely form over function, as I understand it.

 

[Lost1wing]

E15 is border line okay to use in our Jeeps. Does not sound like a good idea to risk engine damage for a few pennies, only to spend a few dollars in repair bills. I don't think e15 has been put through enough testing to say that it is safe to use. I bet the mileage goes down negating the savings at the pump. E10 ate up a lot of plastic and rubber back when it started. We will see how e15 works out, WE are the test.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Borderline ok? Naw, it's fine. We've had a similar discussion in the Eagle areas of the web - no damage, no problem. These 3.6 were actually redesigned in about 2015 with the idea of them being flex fuel among other things.
Modern materials hold up fine.
I've been running it for - well, can't remember, but for months for sure.
NO drop in mpg over the other stuff - maybe because that extra octane point allows the ECU to tweak things a bit more.
I've said this before - but university studies have shown no appreciable difference compared to 10% as far as mpg. That extra 5% remember is 5% of a whole, so when you say "a gallon of ethanol has xxx lower BTUs, well, you have to do the math as it's only changing by 5%, not the whole gallon numbers. And since the computer controls can compensate for the octane and temperature burn difference, you really don't see a difference in the grand scheme. You change mpg more in what you put in and on your truck or how you drive.

Money on repair bills? What repair bills? There won't be any repair bills. The materials in these things is basically the same stuff used in flex fuel vehicles. The materials can handle it easily.

You basically get the same mpg as 10% and it actually burns cleaner, so there's a bit less chance for build-up in the engine. Those clear cylinder demo engines run on alcohol because it burns cleanly and completely.



There are about 75,000 BTU in a gallon of ethanol; it takes about 35,000 BTU to grow the corn and produce the ethanol; you can get about 500 gallons of ethanol from an acre of corn; and thus the net energy gain is about 20 million BTU per acre.
Put another way -
An acre of corn producing 175 bushels will generate about 500 gallons of ethanol. That ethanol has 37.5 million BTU of energy but required 17.5 million BTU to produce, for a GAIN - a grand total of 20 million BTU of net energy.
Iowa's average yield in 2020 was 177 bushels/acre
Last year it topped 200 - so the net gain of energy is even larger.

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