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Going Flex Fuel

3K views 39 replies 14 participants last post by  Wolfman01 
#1 ·
Tuesday evening, I decided to take the plunge, and jump into a flex fuel car. I pulled the trigger on an 08 Impala 2LT, as it has the 3.9 engine with the AFM. So far, I am very happy with the vehicle. Coming out of an Aveo, the car of course feels like a full on luxury car. Thanks to Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine, TX., there is now a place for me to purchase E85. After this tank of gas is used up, the car will go on a steady diet of the stuff for my daily commute. With the oil companies, speculators, AND opec all promising to bring us $200 oil, which will bring us their much desired $8 gas, I decided that for me, enough is enough. Here is my new "ride." :D

















 
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#2 ·
Very nice! I ended up really liking the '08 1LT I had for a week in Eastern Tennessee. I put a few tanks of E85 in it and really liked the idea of using 85% less gasoline.

Keep us updated on the fuel economy.
 
#6 ·
Very nice! I ended up really liking the '08 1LT I had for a week in Eastern Tennessee. I put a few tanks of E85 in it and really liked the idea of using 85% less gasoline.

Keep us updated on the fuel economy.
Will do. I'm using this tank of regular gasoline (since the dealer filled it up with this anyway) to benchmark what I can get out of the car. The dealer will be filling it up with the first tank of E85 as well, when this one is used up. :cool:
 
#7 ·
Hehe, gotta "cut costs" where they can i guess. I don't mind that, so long as it doesn't affect the quality of a car. With as nearly silent as this engine is, they can use "old tech" mounts if they want. It does look like those top ones are set up to absorb the NVH of the engine in three cylinder mode.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, pretty much all highway with just a couple of traffic lights thrown in to keep things interesting. I also keep to 55 mph, and had the A/C off.

Stiff headwinds for driving back into the metromess yesterday and today, as well as the need to run the A/C have pushed the number down to 29.7 mpg. Maybe I'll recover some of it on the way home.
 
#14 ·
Yes it is. Since OPEC and the speculators want to get greedy, I'll simply do my best to stay on the sidelines of their promised $200 oil as much as possible.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Hate to say it, but I think the ETOH gig is more a reflection of ADM & others bribing various congresshominids than any real effort by our enlightened leadership to solve the problem.

A real solution is to encourage drilling in the ground in the USA and offshore, accompanied by more refinery capacity.

Another real solution is highway construction*, to open up constrictions in the traffic flow and keep things moving rather than the stop-go-stop-go many of us experinece in too many places.



*For example, where I live there is a main highway going north from the interstate. There are probably a dozen five-way stoplights from the interstate to where you're out in the country and things open up.
If the state/county/cities would build overpasses at all those stoplights, N-S traffic would flow, E-W traffic would flow, and hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent sitting at stoplights every week would instead be spent actively moving to one's destination.


Result=Less wasted, nonproductive time on the road, less time spent idling at a light getting 0.0 MPG, less deceleration wear on brakes and tires, less acceleration wear on engines and transmissions and tires = significantly less fuel burned.

High initial cost? YES.
Cost when in 10 years oil is a real $300/ barrel? Chickenfeed. And I don't mean corn.

Our "leadership" is either 1.)stupid; 2.)not interested in real results because the "lobbyists" (aka bribe agents) have a better idea; or 3.)working actively against an energy-independent USA for whatever reasons they may have individually and collectively.

I hope you enjoy your new Impala. I've occasionally gotten in excess of 32MPG at high speeds with the air going with an 04 3.4.

I do not believe the food-for-fuel program will result in any real solution other than further enriching the already-unbelievably-wealthy class of self-appointed royalty that has emerged in our [:confused:] republic.
 
#18 ·
Hate to say it, but I think the ETOH gig is more a reflection of ADM & others bribing various congresshominids than any real effort by our enlightened leadership to solve the problem.

A real solution is to encourage drilling in the ground in the USA and offshore, accompanied by more refinery capacity.

Another real solution is highway construction*, to open up constrictions in the traffic flow and keep things moving rather than the stop-go-stop-go many of us experinece in too many places.



*For example, where I live there is a main highway going north from the interstate. There are probably a dozen five-way stoplights from the interstate to where you're out in the country and things open up.
If the state/county/cities would build overpasses at all those stoplights, N-S traffic would flow, E-W traffic would flow, and hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent sitting at stoplights every week would instead be spent actively moving to one's destination.


Result=Less wasted, nonproductive time on the road, less time spent idling at a light getting 0.0 MPG, less deceleration wear on brakes and tires, less acceleration wear on engines and transmissions and tires = significantly less fuel burned.

High initial cost? YES.
Cost when in 10 years oil is a real $300/ barrel? Chickenfeed. And I don't mean corn.

Our "leadership" is either 1.)stupid; 2.)not interested in real results because the "lobbyists" (aka bribe agents) have a better idea; or 3.)working actively against an energy-independent USA for whatever reasons they may have individually and collectively.

I hope you enjoy your new Impala. I've occasionally gotten in excess of 32MPG at high speeds with the air going with an 04 3.4.

I do not believe the food-for-fuel program will result in any real solution other than further enriching the already-unbelievably-wealthy class of self-appointed royalty that has emerged in our [:confused:] republic.
Corn is not going to be sustainable. We all know it, and even the Ethanol industry knows it. This is why there is so much attention being focused on cellulosic. I'll be glad to see corn derived ethanol be replaced by cellulosic ethanol. Corn is in use now, simply becuase that is what has been used for the last couple of decades. While I don't agree that corn is playing any significant part in the true price of food and feed stock, energy yield versus energy input, and simply getting it off the anti change crowds table both underscore the very real need to look beyond.

You can drill all you want. Like it or not, we are now 6.5 Billion on this planet, with more born every day, and all demanding energy. With India and China's economies expanding exponentially, all you'll see is that new oil be lapped up as fast as you can get it onto the market. Something renewable and sustainable needs to be brought to the table, and ready to go full scale BEFORE we end up in a true crisis that has us living in a Mad Max type of world.

Half of our oil goes into fuel. Replacing that fuel with renewables across the board would make for a tremendous step forward. We're only just getting started now.
 
#17 ·
Congratulations Wolfman on your new GM purchase...

It's always refreshing to hear of GM purchases on GMI...

My father bought a 2008 Impala LT with the 3.5 flex fuel...he just had his 1st oil change @ 2900 miles...he hasn't tried e85 yet...

I believe GM recommends to start using it after the 1st oil service, and when you do go to use it...make sure your tank is as empty as possible...then use it at least for several fill ups...
 
#24 ·
The first tank of E85 is now in the car. I filled up on the way home from work last night. The DIC read 29.4 mpg for the regular gas when I stopped to fill it. Manual calculation netted 28.2 mpg on the regular gas. So far, with about 100 miles on this one, I'm sitting at 25.8 mpg on E85, according to the DIC.
 
#26 ·
The first tank of E85 is now in the car. I filled up on the way home from work last night. The DIC read 29.4 mpg for the regular gas when I stopped to fill it. Manual calculation netted 28.2 mpg on the regular gas. So far, with about 100 miles on this one, I'm sitting at 25.8 mpg on E85, according to the DIC.
You're losing 6 MPG as compared to regular fuel. I know you just started, but is such a loss in fuel economy acceptable to you? Are you still coming out ahead considering the price difference?
 
#30 ·
I just checked and where I'm at E85 averages about $0.50 cheaper. I'd definitely pay an extra ~$200 for a car set up for E85.

I want a E85 capable Volt!
 
#31 ·
I just checked and where I'm at E85 averages about $0.50 cheaper. I'd definitely pay an extra ~$200 for a car set up for E85.

I want a E85 capable Volt!
It will be. That was stated from day one.
 
#32 ·
OK, my official first tank of E85 is in. The DIC was showing 25.4 mpg on it's screen. Manual calculations came back 24.3 mpg on E85. Compared to the 29.4 on the DIC and 28.2 by manual calculation for "regular" gas, running E85 will be costing me 3.9 mpg - well worth making the move to E85.

Now, here is where I decided to have some fun with figures. :D In acknowledgement to the fact that I am still using some gasoline, I added a couple of columns to my spreadsheet. One column figures the amount of actual gasoline pumped into that tank at 15% of the total fuel pumped. The second colum runs another MPG comptation for the average distance travelled on fossil fuel gas. These numbers came back at 1.976 gallons of GASOLINE used over 320.6 miles, for a figure of 162.2 miles per gallon of actual gas consumed. :cool:
 
#33 ·
OK, my official first tank of E85 is in. The DIC was showing 25.4 mpg on it's screen. Manual calculations came back 24.3 mpg on E85. Compared to the 29.4 on the DIC and 28.2 by manual calculation for "regular" gas, running E85 will be costing me 3.9 mpg - well worth making the move to E85.
24.3 mpg = 162 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Please excuse me. I'm all misty.



There. All better. Wolfman01... doing his part to Rebuild America First.
Uh-oh. Here I go again...
 
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