I've been having great fun doing my own E85 blending study. It has really made driving interesting again!

I have a 98 Saturn SL2 with about 105k miles. I have run five tanks so far of various blends of ethanol. The regular average mileage before the study was 29.9 mpg. Here are my results:

Blend mileage petroleum mileage
------- --------- ---------------------
E25 28.6 38.6
E25 31.0 35.3
E28 26.3 36.7
E28 26.8 40.1
E32 27.4 40.6

When I started, I slowly ramped up the ethanol percentage. The mileage dropped slightly, which you can see more clearly on the Greenhybrid mileage chart in the link in my signature below. But, nothing dramatic, just a few percent, and well within normal driving variations. And, as expected, the mileage expressed as miles per gallon of petroleum is dramatically higher. So, maybe we should all do this to avoid buying 30% of the oil we import? Oh yeah, the E85 pump is still marked $3.19, and E0 here (Rockville, MD) is about $3.50.

As for performance, it drives exactly as before. No difference. And, believe me, on the first tank, you are listening for any little noise or hesitation.....

The remaining unknown is long-term performance. I just happen to be taking it in for service in about a thousand miles, and I'm going to let them know what I've been doing and ask them to inspect the fuel line (but could they see anything anyway?). It might be that the "damage" takes longer to manifest itself. But, according to the original studies that motivated all this, there shouldn't be a problem.

Any more systematic real world experiences out there?

Cheers,
rumpole!

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