Thursday, April 10, 2008

Update

I'm getting close to the end of this tank. I've gone at least 300 miles on it, and no CEL. The information display is showing 24.5 mpg and is very steady.

Gas prices exploded Monday afternoon. Prices when from $3.25 to $3.55 that afternoon.

Meijer still has regular at $3.44 and E85 for $2.94.

I'd probably get gas tomorrow, if I didn't have the day off. May not be 'til Monday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How does that mileage compare to the same trips on RFG NL gas?

Are you finding the same as I that your turbo will spool up to the peg on E30 if you tromp it?

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Buzzcut said...

It's hard to say exactly what the mileage hit is. I would guess 1 to 2 mpg. But mileage is so sensitive to driving style, city vs. highway driving, weather, etc. So that's only a guess.

If anything, I thought that perhaps boost was down. I thought that maybe the ECU reacted to excess O2 readings by poping the wastegate early.

It is hard to say with that un-numbered boost gauge. I really need to invest in the scagageII and get proper readings.

Maybe next month.

Anonymous said...

I would ditto knowing the real boost- i was disappointed with my scan tool that GM/Saab limited the data that the ECU would report in common format(at least with my tool)- I cannot read live boost. I did note my car will peg the boost (running E20) on the dash boost gauge where it would not on 90 octane. I still have not had a run on E30 yet- you may be right if you are getting some enleanment that the ECU may indeed be dumping the wastegate.

Are you primarily <10 mile runs?
E85 runs so cold that in my FFV's it takes a bit longer to close loop and decidedly longer to reach full heat. This will reduce MPG on short trips. I has not experimented around to see if this is only in the high % ethanol range or if this effect is apparent at E30. If the vehicle is garaged at night it helps a lot.

Guys that have run E85 at almost or full strength E85 in OBD1 systems find that the cold burn and lean fueling of their unmodified engines do report commomly they need to warm about 1-2 minutes before driving away after the first cold start of the day.

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