Hey guys chrisfix/huggi here. Not sure if anyone caught the new chrisfix e85 conversion video . He did a long term test of an E85 flex fuel conversion. The kits run $599, install seems fairly straight forward.

There is certainly some money saving, but I was mostly looking at the lower engine temperature with E85 (approx 105 octane). Similar argument to why we should use premium in our V8s despite a relatively low compression ratio 9.35. My disco is at 173k miles, would like to eke out another 50-60k (my daughter wants it as her first car).

There is the usual argument of water in the lines, fuel pump failure, poor gas mileage commensurate with price per gallon saving (30% for both). The majority of long term reviews I read of people who have actually installed the kits are favorable - this one comes to mind (https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/e85...lx470.1088460/)

There are cheaper kits that don't have the fuel sensor ~$150 on ebay (I don't see these as beneficial)

Any thoughts? I may be the guinea pig

 

good lord.

30% hit on mpg? i'd be 161 miles per tank around town. no way i'm doing that to my Discovery.

i had a 2004 flex fuel Suburban and tried E85 once. the mileage hit was so bad it offset any cost savings there might have been.

if i want to support the corn farmers(and i do) i'll buy more bourbon(so i do).

 

Great idea for a turbo or twin turbo sporty car where you can really crank the boost to take advatage of the octane. I do not see the advantage for NA SUV.

 

Agreed. Only asking for trouble adding aftermarket complexity to an existing system, plus the down side of the alcohol attracting water and attacking the rubber parts in the fuel system.

 

E85 burns cooler than traditional gasoline. But at $600 for a kit, plus the install headache, I am not doing it. I would run E85 in my suburban when I tow water to the cabin if I could buy E85 locally. The extra octane and lower combustion temps would make a difference in that specific use case. But it would be one or two tanks of fuel a year, not a steady diet.

 

Sorry to bump an older topic, but as the search does not want to coop with three letter search, E85.

I installed the eflexfuel (the main company behind it is ~50km away from me) kit on my 2004 4.6 week or two ago and have driven some 200 liters of E85 through it now.
The consumption on 98 was ~17 liters per 100 km and on E85 it seems to be around ~23 liters per 100 km.
So, that being a huge +35% increase in liters, definately not cheaper, atleast around here where 98 is ~1.7 eur per liter and E85 is ~1.3 eur per liter, roughly ~30% diffirence at the moment.

Installing the kit was not too bad.
Remove the upper intake and what is needed to remove it.
Remove the ~10cm lenght of soft fuel hose behind the engine.
Re route the fuel hose closer to the abs unit and install the ethanol sensor there as there is absolutely NO safe spot for the sensor where the hose was.
If You have the coils relocated, maybe then but otherwise it's just too small of a hole, and the instructions tell not to locate the sensor near for example, ignition coils to avoid interference.
Install the injector loom piggybacks and route the cables to the other side of the engine than the sensor.
I installed the unit just on the bulkhead as there was some bolt hole to the cowl area behind the small hard pipelines.
The unit will power itself from the injector loom and a ground wire.
I have not installed yet the temp sensor for the startup enrichment for the ethanol yet, as I was in a hurry to get it running and inspected.
It's just a resistor or something on a wire inside a heatshrink tube so You canät just put it under a washer and a bolt as it will break on that.

As a small wrap up... I can't say from driving, am I driving or ethanol of 98, can't feel diffirence, only that I need to refuel a lot more often.

Moneywise, well... The kit cost 429 euros, our goverment supports E85 conversions with a 200 eur "refund".
So the end cost was 229 eur for the kit.
~10 eur for additional hose and misc items I needed in addition to the kit as I had to locate the sensor so far.
~15 eur plus shipping for a new upper intake gasket.
Spent two evenings installing it, mainly due to running out of hose and the shops were already closed and ~20km away from me with the car not drivable in the middle of modding.

Long term, will I be driving on E85 or 98E5?
Defiinately the latter just due to the huge liters per 100km consumption jump.
I'm not a tree huging hippie, I'm in this E85 just for seeking financial benefits and exploring new stuff.

 

Thanks for the real world test. Converting to mpg 13.8 with high octane (euro 98 / us 93) and 10.2 with E85