Is it a major problem for my Buick - I only put ~ 10 gallons in?

I'm currently mixing it w/regular gas - It'll take about a week for me to "run" out the gas tank.

If I need to drain-off the mix instead, how do I?

Thanks,

John

 

Fill the tank with gasoline and drive it. This will dilute the E85. The ethanol may or may not do some damage to the rubber parts in your fuel system, but I doubt it. Regular gas now has 10% ethanol in it any how. Keep the tank full as you drive out the old fuel, the more you add the lower the concentration of E85. You may notice the car having slightly less power running on ethanol, and may be slightly cold natured untill it is diluted. IMHO it will not hurt it and if it were mine I would not do anything unless a problem occurs.

 

Wire, not all gas has ethenol. Also, ethanol is equivelent to about 113 octane gas, so no lack of power will be felt, but MPG will definetly be less.

 

Octane by itself does not build power. ethanol is not as volatile as gasoline, this is why you need the 15% gas to get it to vaporize, ethanol burns slower than gasoline so in an engine optimized to use gasoline each gallon will produce less power and consequently les mpg. Now in an engine tuned for ethanol the extra octane allows for a higher compression ratio and extra ignition timing increase hence more power. Also look at the gas pump next time you fill up you will see a sticker that says the gas may contain up to 10% ethanol by volume.

 

Majority of gas stations do not post ethanol content since it's not require by law, yet.

 

I am having some major issues with what seems to be with the gas, now not all the time but, the engine has no power, and when i press the gas it backfires...etc. i could go on explaining but it would be pointless. the question is this, could the problem I am having be ethanol in the gas, any amount? I own a JEEP1996 cherokee 6inline 4WD. is there anyothers that have maybe noticed that water is in the gas causing problems aroung the USA? and it being a more common problem and the news is just not reporting it?
and I for one think if there is ethanol in the gas, they should be required to post everywhere that it is, and how much is in the gas!




HAL

 

I doubt any ethanol mixture would do this Hal.

Here in Oklahoma, they made is law that stations must post if their gas contains ethanol. Only stations around me that are 100% gasoline are Sinclair, and Valero...and a few others.

Hal, is your check engine light on?

 

Yes it is, engine light is on.

i have recently cause of this, change the rotor/cap, and Spark plugs, seemed to have helped but not really really, have added also some gas additives, seems to have worked not but still getting some wired engine power issues.

 

Bring it by Autozone and get the check engine codes read for free. They may also help you determine what the issue is. Get that code and report back here.

 

I will be doing that asap, although i was really thinking of getting one of those things, [item that hooks to the ecm and gets the readout you are talking about,] myself since it has many uses, are there any of them that are worth buying but don't cost hundreds of dollars?
I would rather doing it myself as I am with PC's etc. I hate not knowing things so in most cases I either know whats wrong and fix it, but in a few cases of course you have to get someone that knows enough to fix for you.

thank you

 

I have a 93 LeSabre that i've been mixing 50/50 with E85 and regular gas and it runs fine. Been doing it over a month and no issues at all.


Jimco

 

I have one like this, Hal:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00020BM2S

Does a decent job of reading codes and realtime engine performance. Paid less than $100 for it.

 

What is the purpose of mixing fuel as you do? Your fuel system is designed for no more that 10% alcohol fuel and you risk damaging seals, injectors and corrosion of the fuel system. In addition to that your fuel mileage will suffer.

 

checked the ECM and it came out, number 1 and 2 cyl were missfiring, got a new gas filter and fixing to put it in, as per what was told to me at store. and perhaps run another test on it after a few miles, and perhaps run somemore fuel cleaner in it. he also said it might be SP wires, but gone do all this first then get it rechecked. ty for helping me, you guys here are great

but for right now still>>

hal

 

Far as I can see there is no such thing as 10% ethanol compatible seals, they are either ethanol compatible or not. They didnt make the VITON seals to be 10% compatible.

My dad has been using full E85 in his 99 Wrangler with only the performance loss and 2 mpg loss for 3 months now he ends up saving 25% $ and loosing 20% MPG so it saves him 5%. I have also talked to 2 others who have been using it for over a year now in their non E85 vehicle.

The purpose of mixing it with E85 (In my opinion) is to reduce our dependency on FOREIGN OIL. Even if it is 1/2 tank at a time. I am slowly weening my 07 Caliber onto a 50/50 mix of ethanol too for this exact reason.

 

Doesn't an ECM reset itself without the need for anything connected to it to reset, if you disconnect the battery for like a minute or so, or if not what happens when you do this if anything?



hal

 

HotinOKC
Group Moderator: and to anyothers that may want to know, went back to auto store and he informed me then, these codes came back, {transmission-P1762 and P1763} came back!
he also said that the 1 and 2 missing that showed the first time, did not show any cyl that were missing this time, also the engine light hasnt come back on as of yet.

but as you all know, sometimes the best indicator is the pedal, and the gas-pedal is indicating to me something else is going on, so i am still at this point>>>
and not quite yet>>>

hal