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Thread: E85 fuel in a mirage

  1. #11
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    Interesting that you would bump this thread now.

    A local gas station opened up about 6 months ago and started selling 100% gasoline. I haven't seen "real" gas for over 10 years! All gasoline in this area is E10 (10% alcohol/90% gasoline).

    For the last few tanks I have been running 100% gasoline in my Mirage as a test to see if I notice any MPG difference. So far it looks like 100% gasoline is good for close to a 5% increase in fuel economy over E10. The testing continues and I will write something up once I have enough data. If this is the case, the MPG hit you would take by running E85 in a Mirage would be significant.


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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  2. #12
    Moderator Eggman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    For the last few tanks I have been running 100% gasoline in my Mirage as a test to see if I notice any MPG difference. So far it looks like 100% gasoline is good for close to a 5% increase in fuel economy over E10. The testing continues and I will write something up once I have enough data. If this is the case, the MPG hit you would take by running E85 in a Mirage would be significant.
    Hey Top_Fuel do you suppose ambient temperatures are affecting this too? Just curious since I don't know when you started your experiment.

    I know it can be tough to control variables.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 49.6 mpg (US) ... 21.1 km/L ... 4.7 L/100 km ... 59.5 mpg (Imp)


  3. #13
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eggman View Post
    ...do you suppose ambient temperatures are affecting this too?
    My testing conditions have been pretty consistent so far...including before E10 and after. Fortunately we've had a pretty stable spring as far as temperatures go. I still want to do more testing, but my car is getting its best mileage ever since I started running 100% gasoline.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by alex16 View Post
    Just would like to run something that isn't gasoline.
    Then go buy an old mechanical diesel and convert it to run on cooking oil. Or just leave it and burn diesel lol
    Mirage videos:

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member timw4mail's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    Interesting that you would bump this thread now.

    A local gas station opened up about 6 months ago and started selling 100% gasoline. I haven't seen "real" gas for over 10 years! All gasoline in this area is E10 (10% alcohol/90% gasoline).

    For the last few tanks I have been running 100% gasoline in my Mirage as a test to see if I notice any MPG difference. So far it looks like 100% gasoline is good for close to a 5% increase in fuel economy over E10. The testing continues and I will write something up once I have enough data. If this is the case, the MPG hit you would take by running E85 in a Mirage would be significant.
    Makes sense, since ethanol has less energy than gasoline.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2018 Mirage SE 1.2 automatic: 33.6 mpg (US) ... 14.3 km/L ... 7.0 L/100 km ... 40.4 mpg (Imp)


  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by ahausheer View Post
    Sorry to bump an old thread.

    Alex, did you ever run a full tank of E85?
    I was just looking into this and wanted to see what Mirage owners have tested with. I rented a RAM 1500 over the weekend and discovered when I went to fill it up the first time it was a FlexFuel truck. I ran three tanks worth of regular unleaded through it before I was at a station that had e85. Didn't keep it long enough to notice any difference, but I imagine it auto monitors everything and adjusts as necessary to support both fuel types.

    From what I have read thus far is that e85 is actually higher octane than premium, but will run much leaner in a vehicle not setup for it. I've seen where people claim it is far safer on your engine components than methanol, and leave the engine nice and clean.

    Guys at the dragstrip are using it in their cars for the higher octane, but have to adjust the tune so it burns much richer, which uses more fuel.

    So, in order for it to run properly in your daily driver, you will need to tune it to run a bit richer, so the real question is, is there any benefit to running a richer mixture of a fuel that costs about 20% less than unleaded, but gets about 20% less fuel economy?

    I'm still researching and would like to give it a go, but want to be able to monitor the performance, but right now I don't have anything hooked up to see what's going on.

  7. #17
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    I ran a full tank of approximately E35 and saw a max injector duty cycle of around 65% at wide open throttle near redline and O2 data showed the engine never went dangerously lean. My long and short fuel trim numbers, however, seemed to max out and stopped increasing as the ecu was still relearning/resetting the fuel maps which made me nervous, but again, watching the 02 data things seemed safe at all times in open and closed loop. I have read you don't want to go over a duty cycle of 80% as that's where injectors start to loose control over how much fuel they are dispersing vs what the ecu is commanding. So long story short I believe our injectors and stock ecu can handle E35 but that might be close to the limit and don't hold me accountable to that.

    On a side note our vehicle is rated per the manufacturers official repair manual to be able to use E20 and there must be some headway above that in a healthy and properly functioning car.

    If you run full E85 stock I suspect you will either go lean and destroy the engine or it will go into limp home mode if you're lucky. Anyone want to push the envelope?

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    After doing quite a bit more reading on E85, I will never run that stuff in my car, nor have any desire to.

    What a total waste of resources and effort to bring it to where it is today. If you look in the news recently, many plants are shutting down, blaming the EPA or whatever else. The fact is, it just isn't a viable fuel source for fuel economy or the market.

    It's good for one thing...octane increase in racing. All other applications is such a waste. I'm totally pissed at our government and those ever pushing for this, as it just ends up costing more to produce and use.

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  10. #19
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    So I accidently put E85 in my Mirage a few months ago from an almost empty tank. I almost instantly got a lean code and the car felt even more sluggish. Once I figured out what I did I kept my foot out of it and ran the tank down to 3/4, then put 0% ethanol in it...check engine light went out and all was well.

    I will sometimes run E15 if it's notably cheaper. I get the same fuel economy and it seems maybe slightly peppier, but it might be in my head. It's at least the same.

  11. #20
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    I'm still testing but I can say with a fair level of confidence that my Mirage is getting about 4% better fuel mileage on 100% gasoline as opposed to gasoline with 10% ethanol (which is what 99.9% of gas stations carry in Ohio).

    That may not sound like a big deal, but when you're getting 50mpg that's an extra 2mpg. Unfortunately it's not really a fuel that pays for itself in extra efficiency. It's the same price (or slightly higher) than 93 octane premium. I'll do a full write-up later in the fall on my testing.

    Here is 100% gasoline at the station where I buy it. They started carrying it several months ago. I haven't seen "real" gasoline (outside of a boat dock) for years.

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        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


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