Ethanol 85 & 2000 Ford Expedition XLT

[DoesItMatter]

I've got a 2000 Ford Expedition I bought used, but in awesome shape.
By the end of this year it will be paid off!

Now, I hear they will be converting to E85 (Ethanol 85) and most 2001+
vehicles have the proper setup for it.

What would I need to add/purchase to allow my 2000 Ford Expedition to use E85?

And - as a side note... my Expedition headlights - the glass is dimmed/yellowed.
Is there a way to clean that or do you guys/gals just replace the glass?

Thanks!

 

[Racenut]

You really don't want to do it, and it would be EXTREMLY COSTLY to even try ( fuel pump and tank have to be changed along with fuel lines, also the computer would need to be retuned to run more fuel thru the injectors) the only way to see a true benifit from E85 is if you where to convert your vehicle over to use nothing but E85. But of course to due this you would need to rebuild the motor and increase the compression ratio.

While E85 is cheaper, you will get worse milage and not have as much power. The only benifit to E85 is it is "cleaner", the motor will run slightly cooler, and it has reduced emission levels.

E85 is nothing more than a " blend " of 15% gasoline and 85% " Corn based Alcohol ( Ethonol ) " anytime they add more Ethanol to the gas your power and fuel economy will go down (in flex fuel vehicles), because Ethanol does not have as much " explosive energy" and in order to make the vehicle run on regular gas and E85 the compression ratio's remain lower since high compression motors can not run on regular gasoline due to detonation from the octane rating being to low.

Here is a good article for you to read. It covers all the pro's and con's to E85:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

 

[DoesItMatter]

I may have been reading and wrote about the wrong thing.

I thought I read somewhere that instead of the 10% ethanol mix that gas currently has,
the government is going to be pushing the use of 15% ethanol mixture in gasoline.

Yea - just did some google searching -

http://www.dailytech.com/UPDATED+Ga...+Could+be+Here+by+the+Summer/article21124.htm

This is what I meant to ask about

Will something like the Sniper program module (I think thats what its called?)
allow you to reprogram the car to work ok with those blends?

 

[Racenut]

This is going to be something just like E85 - it's optional.

The gas stations will not be replacing Regular Gasonline ( which already contains 10% Ethanol ) but will make the E15 available for those who wish to use it.

By doing a quick google search I was finding the new E15 WARNING LABELS that say IT CAN ONLY BE USED IN MODEL YEAR 2007 AND NEWER FFV ( FLEX FUEL VEHICLES ) VEHICLES.

They say that E15 cannot be used in any type of HD motor, or any off road engines ( ie: chain saws, lawn mowers, tractors ) and the pro supporters of E15 are trying to PUSH the use in FFV vehicles produced as early as 2001.

All in all you could probably run it ( even with no additional tuning ) and not have any issues as I have heard of people running a 50/50 blend of E85/gasoline, but would you really want to take a chance of hurting your truck ( corroded fuel lines, posibility of a fuel tank hole or explosion - yes the type of pump is different for Ethanol it has to do with the electrical connections, corroded exhaust - Ethanol is even more corrosive after being burnt ).

E85 and E15 will both lower your fuel milage and in all reality if you do a comparison on milage from a full tank of Regular gasoline and a full tank of E85 about 90% of the time you will see that the milage DECREASE does not make up for the slightly lower price of the Ethanol.

It is hard to say exactly how much the E15 will decrease fuel economy, but many say that the E85 decreases economy by as much as 30%.

 

[nvycrmn]

i agree. i usually run e85 in my 2010 silverado and that thing only gets about 14mpg. however, the price is DRASTICALLY cheaper, at least in iowa. gas prices are about 3.60 a gallon, but e85 is only 2.69 a gallon. so i run the e85 in the silverado, but need to fuel it just about every week. my expy on the other hand gets horrible gas mileage anyways, the difference is it costs me over 4.00 a gallon to fill it! hahah