Long Term Effects of E85 on "Rubber" Bladder

Thanks for that link!


iPhone ?

 

Hello again. I have some updates, although not terribly exciting! The car is running well.

As per the E85 kit installation manual, the first tank I ran was 50/50 E85/Gas. Instead of my normal 500 miles per tank, I got 400 (to be expected due to the lower energy content.

I’ve run 100% E85 for 150 miles. So far, no ill effects, and no noticeable difference in performance. Drives like a Prius!

Attached is the first engine oil analysis. The oil had 2100 miles on it, and had only seen E10 gas, no ethanol at this point.

Once I change the oil again, I will run E85 for 4500 miles or so, and perform another analysis.

08 PRIUS-170214 by cellculturist posted Feb 28, 2017 at 9:48 AM

 

Some updates. I just went through my first tank of E85. Car runs great. MFD is still reading 50+ MPG although manual calcs say 40MPG. If I can maintain 40MPG, I'll be quite happy.

FYI, I'll be driving a slight amount less this year, as my employer started paying for my Uber trips. As cheap as it is to run an E85 Prius, getting a free ride in someone else's car is even cheaper.

Something to note, that perhaps more of you have noticed with your Prii as well. Ever since I bought the car, even brand new, the ICE would produce a tiny hiccup, almost like a miss, about one or two seconds after it turned on. Just one. Then all would be normal. It would be hard to tell if you weren't listening for it. Someone not "in tune" with the car would have a tough time hearing it if I pointed it out to them.

Since using E85, I still have the miss, although it is now more pronounced. Engine can be warm or cold, doesn't matter. As soon as its powered on for the very first time in that IG-ON "cycle", it misses once. After that its normal. Again, I've always had this, but using E85 makes it much more noticeable.

I am not using Torque. I have a ScanGauge though. I'm not sure if it reads AFR. If I got an OBD splitter, could I run my ScanGauge and an OBD-bluetooth adapter for Torque on my phone? My gut tells me the car would not know what do.

I don't think it adds a pulse. I believe it makes the pulses longer.

Have lost no power at all.

Pants dyno feels exactly the same. I know the Prius very well and notice no difference at all. Low and high RPMs feel the same as straight gas.

I've thought about this a lot! I'll need to make something before next winter. It's warming up now, but it got into the 40's just a couple weeks ago. (Although not cold for most, it's Ice Age temps for us SoCal weenies). Warm up time is definitely increased during cold nights here, since I perform a lot of night highway driving. However, I have noticed no difference in warm up time using E85. Like states earlier, I can't tell the difference, other than in fuel mileage.

Yes, I love it.

That's awesome! I would love to find that.

 

Another update for everyone!

Since switching to E85, I've driven about 4500 miles. Averaging 40.2 MPG makes me quite happy. The car runs great, indistinguishable from E10, except for that more pronounced hiccup I had mentioned before.

Additionally, I've performed my first oil change since running E85. The oil smelled very different than any other oil I've encountered. Could definitely smell the E85 leaving its mark in the oil. Sweet & sour. Of course, I sent the oil out for analysis. Results attached.

Analysis results are great, no different than the E10 analysis, other than some more sodium, which I can't explain at the moment. We'll see how the next one goes.

This "experiment" was not to see how my engine wears. It was to see whether or not the bladder will hold up. However, it's nice to see the engine is fine. Seeing that the car is running very well, I take it the bladder is okay for now.

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How does this engine work? Other than burning air and hydrocarbons?

08 PRIUS-170507 by cellculturist posted May 23, 2017 at 9:59 PM

 

Just sent an oil sample from my latest oil run. Will post results upon receiving them. Car is running great, with a 40.9MPG average.

They do if asked to. I'll have them check TAN this time around, as I was not aware of TAN. Seeing that TBN is still quite high, my guess is TAN should be nice and low. We shall see.

Today's E85 is 51-83% ethanol, blended depending on temperature. The stickers on the pumps here say minimum 70% ethanol. Seeing that ambient temps have been 80-100˚F in my current location, my guess is the stickers are accurate.

As per original post, these are actual tanks. The MFD is wildly incorrect since starting E85 use.

As per original post, I average 53MPG on E10. I can hypermile to some degree.

It's what worries me too, but so far all seems well.

 

Using E0 gas as baseline, E10 has 98% the energy density by volume, and E85 has 72% of the energy density. Hence, a mileage drop of 26%-28% is expected. Seeing that it's only dropped 23%, I am happy.

Note that E85 has been $2.39 a gallon here lately, and my E10 has been around $3.10, which is a 23% reduction in price. Matches my mileage difference exactly.

 

Here's the latest report from Blackstone, with both TAN and TBN readings. Everything keeps looking great.

08 PRIUS-170806 by cellculturist posted Sep 7, 2017 at 10:56 PM

edthefox5, what's a good range for TAN values?

I may skip the next oil sample, since all results indicate the ICE doesn't seem to care about the switch to E85. The main experiment here is to test the bladder. Only time will tell. So far so good.

 

I think you may have TAN/TBN swapped. Im pretty sure we want high TBN and low TAN, indicating oil with life remaining.

A TAN level of 2 would mean oil with very low use, right?