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Guys running E85...

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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 03:44 PM
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Default Guys running E85...

What sort of gas mileage are you seeing?

Just took a road trip from Houston to Waco and back (about 180 miles) and averaged 11.6 mpg going about 65 the whole way according to the dash display, which has been pretty accurate when compared to the pump mpg calc. When I bumped it up to 75, my instant mpg would hover around 8-9 mpg. Around town, I average about 10.

Charlie says my tune is spot on and spent a good hour on the highway trying to squeeze out a better mpg, but that's as good as it would get.

Even though E85 is cheaper than 93, it's still more expensive to run with the mpg drop as big as it is. And it sucks that my truck's travel range is about 250 miles going 65 mph

...but it does run MUCH stronger on E85
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 04:14 PM
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You will loose about 30% of your gas mileage going from regular gas to e85.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 04:20 PM
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You have to pay the price for more power, unfortunately.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 04:46 PM
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A few of my friends with Pontiac Grand Prix and MP90's (smaller Radix for v6's) maintained or improved their highway mpg going from 93 to E85 because on E85 they were able to lean it out more and run about 45* of timing in cruise. Wondering if anyone in here had the same luck.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 04:52 PM
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There is a lot of talk on EFIs forum about lean cruise style tuning. Up to 19:1 AFR and like you said mid 40s timing in full size vehicles
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 04:56 PM
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I forgot what my afr was on lean cruise, but Charlie has it at 43-44*, IIRC
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 05:10 PM
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I was talking with Snake Eater via PM a while back, he seems to really know his stuff and spent a lot of time experimenting with mileage tunes. Here is his PM
Originally Posted by Snake Eater
I got rid of the Yukon a couple years ago for a Dmax, but I do miss it. I have gotten 25mpg at a slower speed, but 24mpg was an average for rolling 70-75. I dont mind sharing the tune at all. I had a K&N intake, magnaflow exhaust, and gutted cats then as well. The 2 things that made the biggest leap in mpg was the lean cruise mode and increasing spark dwell for a longer hotter spark, which helped prevent detonation. If I remember correctly I uploaded the tune I had then to the HPT bin so anyone who wanted to could use it. It would be under user pwrtrips1. I tried a few times on I-10 to draft behind other big trucks and semis from Lafeyette, LA to Katy, TX and averaged 28mpg. My low fuel light would come on around 650 miles per tank.

With the lean cruise mode I aimed for 18.5:1, only at speeds over 60mph, and under 24% throttle. If I exceded those it would go out of lean cruise. My timing was around 32* cruising with some ping till I increased the dwell, then I was able to go all the way up to 41* with no KR or audible ping. My dwell if I recall correctly was set around 8.8ms. I immediatly knoticed better throttle responce.
I believe he was on regular pump gas though, didnt ask whether it was 87 or 93 though...
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 05:26 PM
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He had an 05 yukon xl 5.3 4x4 with 3.42 gears BTW
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by TX Tahoe Z71
What sort of gas mileage are you seeing?

Just took a road trip from Houston to Waco and back (about 180 miles) and averaged 11.6 mpg going about 65 the whole way according to the dash display, which has been pretty accurate when compared to the pump mpg calc. When I bumped it up to 75, my instant mpg would hover around 8-9 mpg. Around town, I average about 10.

Charlie says my tune is spot on and spent a good hour on the highway trying to squeeze out a better mpg, but that's as good as it would get.

Even though E85 is cheaper than 93, it's still more expensive to run with the mpg drop as big as it is. And it sucks that my truck's travel range is about 250 miles going 65 mph

...but it does run MUCH stronger on E85


My wife's Yukon takes a hit in mileage when we run E85 also. I'm throwing around the idea of running it too. What injectors are you running?
Do you check the alcohol content everytime you fill up? Right now E85 here is running 70% but I've heard it varies alot. I guess the stuff is more forgiving and have heard you can throw alot of timing at it without KR.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 06:03 PM
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Originally Posted by scooter k
My wife's Yukon takes a hit in mileage when we run E85 also. I'm throwing around the idea of running it too. What injectors are you running?
Do you check the alcohol content everytime you fill up? Right now E85 here is running 70% but I've heard it varies alot. I guess the stuff is more forgiving and have heard you can throw alot of timing at it without KR.
I am running 75# Ford Racing injectors, they were originally 42# and came stock on the Ford GT, but sent them to Fuel Injector Connection and they changed the spray pattern from a 24* spray for 4V to 6* or 8* for our 2V engine and opened them up to spray 75# at 51.3psi (flex fuel pressure).

When Charlie was tuning it, it was 75% and I got it at Kroger.
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