Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Tank #4

Gallons E85: 4.020
Price E85: $1.409

Gallons 87: 8.866
price 87: $1.509

tank ethanol %: 26.6
tank octane: 90.89

Savings per tank compared with premium @ 1.909: $5.56

NO CEL SO FAR!

Car is driving great.  Drivability on E25 is excellent.

CEL cleared itself

The check engine light turned off itself about 50 miles after it came on, same tank of fuel.  It must have been an anomaly.

Just to be sure, when the tank was empty, I put in 5 gallons of 87 and ran that to empty.

My observation on running on straight 87 octane gasoline (10% ethanol) is that the engine runs about the same, but I did notice some knocking under hard acceleration.  It is not something you notice on ~90 octane ~E25.  The car accelerates very smoothly and quietly on E25.

I have the scanguage II, I'm looking at ignition timing, and I did not notice any change in timing from E25 to E10 and back.  The ECU should be changing timing in order to deal with the lower octane rating of E10, but it is not noticeable at the frequency that the scangauge monitors ignition timing.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

CEL comes on, P2195, O2 lean

DISASTER!

Halfway through tank #3, I got the Check Engine Light.  My Scanguage II says it's P2195, which is for one of the O2 sensors, lean condition.

I tried to clear it, but my scanguage wouldn't clear it.

I'll run through the rest of this tank and fill up with 87 octane to see if it clears.  If it does, it would seem that this car is much more sensitive to E85 than my Saab was (which wouldn't get the code until 40% ethanol).

Or... this is just a car with 153k miles and the O2 sensor went.

I'll keep you posted.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Tank #3

I just about ran out of gas yesterday nowhere near Meiher, had to put in $5 of 87 octane from another station, and drove about 50 miles before filling up today, which makes the calculations difficult.  Not sure exactly how much was left in the tank, nor what it's ethanol% really was.  Just going to assume that it all was there this morning, and calculate accordingly (adding 3.73413 gallons of 87 octane to my calcs)

Gallons E85: 4.014
Price E85: $1.189

Gallons 87: 11.88218
price 87: $1.289

tank ethanol %: 24.11
tank octane: 90.288

Savings: $7.15

The car is running great, no issues so far.

I got my Scangauge hooked up, looking at ignition timing, to get a feel for what it runs with an ethanol mix.  At some point I'll have to run straight 97 octane gas, and maybe premium, for comparison.