VFR and E85: Will a stock vfr run on 85% ethanol?

Been reading about the E85. Will a vfr run this stock?

 

Toe said it will run but only for minute

 

From what I read, I would be careful with ethanol related fuel. It may dry out your seals and internal parts something similar to what pure ethyene glycol does to a radiator.

 

Not proppaly it won't.

Honda manual on my bike says don't use fuel with more than 10% ethanol, and never use methanol.

Leave it to congress, Wall street, international politics and agrolobbiests to ruin our traditional motor fuel next.

In future maybe we'll need home-brewers of 110 octane in small laboratory batches for the few who won't conform and want to ride fast sometimes on older bikes.

 

Yes it will run, my vfr suffered a tank by mistake and survived, but you will be needing some fuel hose replacements and possibly some other rubber parts like the rubber throttle body mounts and injectors(lucky mine surrvived $130cnd/ea). Im not sure if my evap system still works because of that. That said, gas engines (carb jobs are better known for this) will burn just about anything, provided it can be vapourized and the ignition point can be reached (read very hot spark). Is it good for your bike? no not really and should be avoided at all costs. Leave E85 to the prius drivers and your cheap lawn mower.

 

Actually Zen, there's quite a few vehicles here that are "flex fuel", including some larger 8 cylinder models. Gives you the option of running the E85 without having to do anything. My buddy has a Chevy Avalanche that accepts either E85 or the standard E10. He's used the E85 once - when he had to take the vehicle in for state emissions testing. Its burns pretty clean, so you're almost guaranteed to pass!

As Squirrelman said, the E mix (whether E10 or whatever), is absolutely all the work of the government. I personally hate the stuff, and unless an engine is equipped to handle it, you can expect problems. The older the motor, the more significant the affects are.

There's tons of info in the marine industry on the affects of ethanol - not some bullshit study put out by Exxon or Shell. I have a boat and I'm about as picky and meticulous as you can get, but that doesn't amount to shit until you've changed all of the old fuel lines, fittings, clamps, carbs and gaskets, etc., all of which are eventually ruined, even from just running E10. If we go to E15, I really don't know if my outboard will run on it. To give an idea, if the law does pass allowing for E15, there's actually a sub-law (or whatever) that will allow marinas which are physically located on the water, and that sell fuel, to still be able to sell the E10. Really??? Could that be because congress is aware its going to fuck engines up?

Fuck ethanol. I would avoid it at all costs. But that's just me.

 

No, good sir. It's not just you.

Fuck ethanol.

 

I am very much aware of how many engine types can run "flex fuel" and what it actually is. I have read many studies on ethanol, the marine industry reports and studies are good, but limited to their application. Same with the studies from UCLA and MIT. I have even done my own testing with ethanol and other alcohols in engines, the common falacy is that it must be a carb engine, not true, efi works well enough on stock e10 and e85 maps, however a remap for the different(pure) fuel is required to get the full power and potential. The main problem is pure alcohols eat/deteriorate rubbers (though not all rubbers).

In Canada during the winter our fuel contains Methanol to ensure the condensation in our fuel tanks doesnt cause us to many issues, we even add Methylhydrate(a methanol compound) to our fuel in the summer when we get bad batches of fuel. Your fuel stabilizers contain Methanol as it keeps the alkalydes in fuels in suspension. The owners manual give guide lines, but thats what they are, guide lines, If you wanted to run straight methanol, your engine would dutifuly turn the nice clear liquid into water, heat, carbon dioxides and the odd nirtous oxate. the only question is what is not methanol friendly in your fuel system?

I answered the OP's question: Been reading about the E85. Will a vfr run this stock?

I answered thus: "Yes it will run, but you will be needing some fuel hose replacements and possibly some other rubber parts..." and "That said, gas engines (carb jobs are better known for this) will burn just about anything, provided it can be vapourized and the ignition point can be reached (read very hot spark)." and since our bikes are not E85 compatable by means of our fuel map is not optimised for it my last statement is valid and true.

If the OP has a carb job then changing the fuel lines and worrying about the rest later will work fine.

though I have said it differently and without bias, we are actually agreeing. I just did not go into the fact that there are about 5million and counting vehicals in the world right now that could by the press of a button change to E85, alas our beloved vfr800 is just not one. If you have a beef with the goverment and alternative fuels please remember our arab friends that are currently getting close to $100USD/barrel of crude and that 1 barrel makes approximatley 50 barrels of gasoline, 10 barrels of desiel, 5 barrels of lubricants and close to 60 barrels of solevents, the waste is recovered for plastics and anything left over is burnt to make the heat for the system to work. Now please re read my post before you assume that canadians are ill educated.

 

Well said, sir. Still...

Fuck ethanol.

 

OK, but more alkeyhaul means worse fuel mileage, eh ? So it's another way of raising prices, eh ?

 

it doesnt mean worse mileage if the ecu has a map for that fuel then it means you have options, but a system like whats on our bikes? going straight alcohol means you will not go as far because the fuel map is wrong. even carbs need to be adjusted to get the most power at the least fuel consumption for each fuel they burn, hell they need yearly adjustment as it is!

Remember its an option, especially if using a HAL-Tech ecu with custom maps

 

Zen - just for clarification, my statement about "quite a few vehicles" use E85 was more directed at your statement of leaving it to the Prius drivers. I initially thought you felt it was only for little "puny" engines. My apologies if you felt I was attacking the your knowledge of E85 - you obviously have done your home work as well.

We are definitely in agreement on this subject.

 

Not to mention our Canadian friends getting close to $100 a barrel, our Canadian friends being the largest importer of oil to the US.

 

I'm an engineer with GM, so I have some good info on this question:

In addition to material incompatibility issues, E85 requires a very different air to fuel ratio than gasoline, meaning a very different injector map/carb set-up. It also requires a very different ignition timing map. Flex fuel cars use a sensor to determine the proportion of ethanol in the fuel, and the ECU determines fuel and spark settings accordingly.

In short, DO NOT run a non-flex fuel vehicle on E85: it isn't designed to use it!

PS: E85 has a lower energy density than gasoline. You WILL NOT go as far on a gallon of E85 as you would on gasoline. However, due to the evaporation of the ethanol and higher octane rating, it's possible to tune the engine to get more power output from E85 than gasoline, but you'll use more fuel in doing it.