Anyone know exactly how much ethanol that the Prius can burn without messing things up. It appears that the state of IL is going to start really pushing that stuff.
Well, from what I've seen at john1701a's website, it'll do E10 (10%) without any trouble. And according to this website, http://www.creedproject.org/stream_v7n2.pdf , it'll run on E85 (85% ethanol), BUT they don't know about the long term effects on the engine. And the check engine light was on during the testing.
my area of WA state has used E10 for over 15 years now. i still get EPA in the summer time so your car will be fine with that.
THanks for the post on the E85 fuel, it appears there are some issues with it and the Prius. Currently the state of IL allows 10% ethanol in the fuel and neither of my Prii appear to be affected with that blend. I know there are some car and small trucks (ford I believe) that have that little green leaf on the outside of their cars that signifies that they can burn E85 fuel. I was just wondering if the Prius was a problem . . . it appears it can't with out some modifications.
Good article. I think if Toyota applied a bit of their R&D, they could easily develop fuel/ignition and Mode maps to compensate for E85. Since both the short-term trim and long-term trim appeared to indicate too lean, that's why the cold start emissions were more: the computer was enriching too much. Overall, without modification, E85 vehicles can be hard to start especially 0 F or colder. You usually have to "overfuel" on startup to minimize or eliminate this problem. I believe a compensated PCM map, utilizing a sensor input from the tank to detect n-heptane, could easily trigger a transistion from the stock map to the E85 map. More info at: http://www.westbioenergy.org/reports/55032.../55032final.htm
