Let's talk Ethanol

[Braaaaptor]

I wanna get ethanol, ethanol, I wanna get ethanol. Let me hear your corn talk, your corn talk.

Like everyone, the current price of gas is making me rethink going to an E50 tune as there's an E85 station 10 minutes away and its surprisingly available throughout northern CA. Then this video popped up from Engineering Explained talking about corn fuel and some of the myths about its use and 'eco-ness'. I'm not here to debate the politics on corn fuel but if it saves me $*** throughout the year and makes the truck more viable for trips/offroading/fun then I'm in.

I'm curious to hear from guys who've been running E50 tunes for a long time and hear specifically about any issues with injectors/seals/lines/rubberized parts on the truck as I know ethanol can be corrosive to those materials over the years.

 

[smurfslayer]

I mean... corn’s pretty good in bourbon ;-)

 

[2022 Ruth]

I exclusively ran ethanol in my 6.2 super duty. Ethanol is everywhere around here. Its cheaper but your MPG suffers. You do get a little extra kick in power. Not a ton, though. Smells good out of the tail pipe. Biggest issue for me is that is LOVES water so you have have a good source. Water and ethanol mix very well.

I never thought of running it in the 3.5. Even with the tune, I would expect that if its not recommended in the fuel system that you may have issues down the line. Neat thought though!

 

[MRV99]

I know pure dino juice gets me much better mpg. The cost savings is eroded by the drop in MPG. It has been that way in every car/suv/truck I have. With the raptor being the least of all the HP and all are forced induction

 

[smgilles]

I wanna get ethanol, ethanol, I wanna get ethanol. Let me hear your corn talk, your corn talk.

Like everyone, the current price of gas is making me rethink going to an E50 tune as there's an E85 station 10 minutes away and its surprisingly available throughout northern CA. Then this video popped up from Engineering Explained talking about corn fuel and some of the myths about its use and 'eco-ness'. I'm not here to debate the politics on corn fuel but if it saves me $*** throughout the year and makes the truck more viable for trips/offroading/fun then I'm in.

I'm curious to hear from guys who've been running E50 tunes for a long time and hear specifically about any issues with injectors/seals/lines/rubberized parts on the truck as I know ethanol can be corrosive to those materials over the years.

@GooseTuned ran ethanol in his Gen 2 for a long time. He will have to chime in for total miles. I am not aware of him having any issues. I think the rate limiting supply to running ethanol in the Raptors is the High pressure fuel pump and obviously a tune (tuner, intercooler, etc), I suspect the seals/rubberized parts are ubiquitous across the F150 line (flex fuel, etc).

I ran e50 for around 10,000 miles and then changed the HPFP to the XDI brand recommended by GooseTuned so I didn’t have to mix fuel and now just run pure e85 all the time. I have been running ethanol 50% or higher >2 years or around 25,000 miles without issue. I have a 2017 now with 84,000. With ethanol >50% + tune you are looking at ~75+ HP and 100+ torque gains over non-tuned. The truck is a pissed off hippo on ethanol.

Downside is your MPG is gonna drop a significant amount, depending how hard you get into the truck. On e85 I get 13 mpg in summer and 10 mpg in the winter. I’m talking TRX mileage. Prior to ethanol I would get 17 - 18 mpg in the summer and 15 mpg in the winter. Remember…. Smiles per gallon, not miles.

 

[Braaaaptor]

I mean... corn’s pretty good in bourbon ;-)

Nowadays I don't know who's thirstier, me or the truck...

I exclusively ran ethanol in my 6.2 super duty. Ethanol is everywhere around here. Its cheaper but your MPG suffers. You do get a little extra kick in power. Not a ton, though. Smells good out of the tail pipe. Biggest issue for me is that is LOVES water so you have have a good source. Water and ethanol mix very well.

I never thought of running it in the 3.5. Even with the tune, I would expect that if its not recommended in the fuel system that you may have issues down the line. Neat thought though!

Yup, lots of guys run E50 or E85 with a tune on here, I've actually never heard of the 6.2 running on Ethanol!

I know pure dino juice gets me much better mpg. The cost savings is eroded by the drop in MPG. It has been that way in every car/suv/truck I have. With the raptor being the least of all the HP and all are forced induction

Drop in MPG will definitely be a factor, rough math for me is if I get >10mpg its a cost savings. I was doing that math based solely on E85 and not an E50 blend which would reduce the cost benefit a bit. E85 ~$3.89/gal on gas buddy and 91oct is $6.19/gal and worse in some places.

@GooseTuned ran ethanol in his Gen 2 for a long time. He will have to chime in for total miles. I am not aware of him having any issues. I think the rate limiting supply to running ethanol in the Raptors is the High pressure fuel pump and obviously a tune (tuner, intercooler, etc), I suspect the seals/rubberized parts are ubiquitous across the F150 line (flex fuel, etc).

I ran e50 for around 10,000 miles and then changed the HPFP to the XDI brand recommended by GooseTuned so I didn’t have to mix fuel and now just run pure e85 all the time. I have been running ethanol 50% or higher >2 years or around 25,000 miles without issue. I have a 2017 now with 84,000. With ethanol >50% + tune you are looking at ~75+ HP and 100+ torque gains over non-tuned. The truck is a pissed off hippo on ethanol.

Downside is your MPG is gonna drop a significant amount, depending how hard you get into the truck. On e85 I get 13 mpg in summer and 10 mpg in the winter. I’m talking TRX mileage. Prior to ethanol I would get 17 - 18 mpg in the summer and 15 mpg in the winter. Remember…. Smiles per gallon, not miles.

Absolutely will use Win's magic if/when I decide to pull the trigger. I already have upgraded IC and have been stage 2 goosetuned for the last 18k miles. Thinking that I'll start with an E50 tune to avoid the $1600 HPFP for the time being until I get bored of mixing.

Thanks for chiming in with your experiences, I assume if people were having issues it would've popped up on here by now but gotta ask just to be safe.

I'm at about 16mpg stage 2 tuned with a mix of city/freeway and a fun day or two a month thrown in there. Like I said above, the breakeven point for me is about 10-12mpg to make it viable on a $$$ basis.... that's what I'll tell the wife... SPG is where its at!

 

[GooseTuned]

I ran E85 for around 50,000 total miles!

 

[jpar247]

I've been running Goosetuned E50 for almost a year and it's been amazing.

Fuel economy is way worse but after the math, blending e50 is still cheaper per mile than running 91/94oct.

I run total knocks on my AP and the highest usually is 3 and that's on a lugged pull up an incline where the truck is on the fence for a shift. Not sure is this matters, maybe Win can chime in but I never see negative timing lowest usually is 2.00-4.00. If I'm running my 91 tune it's always -1.00 at least. Probably because of the crap fuel up here.

If you have corn close by I can't say enough about it Goose's e50 tune

 

[GooseTuned]

I've been running Goosetuned E50 for almost a year and it's been amazing.

Fuel economy is way worse but after the math, blending e50 is still cheaper per mile than running 91/94oct.

I run total knocks on my AP and the highest usually is 3 and that's on a lugged pull up an incline where the truck is on the fence for a shift. Not sure is this matters, maybe Win can chime in but I never see negative timing lowest usually is 2.00-4.00. If I'm running my 91 tune it's always -1.00 at least. Probably because of the crap fuel up here.

If you have corn close by I can't say enough about it Goose's e50 tune

Heck yeah man!

That is ok and normal to see. Trucks will pick up knock counts, and the knock system will handle it as it needs to. It’s why the trucks have knock sensors after all. All vehicles knock/ping. My job is to minimize that while advancing ignition timing in a way that is safe.

Ethanol does wonders for these trucks

 

[Don N]

I went from thinking going stage 1 initially to deciding to go stage 2 and now thinking of completely just skipping all of those and going straight to E85. However, on some of the FB groups, I have heard people talk about breaking their cranks. Obviously anything can break, stock or not, but it has me slightly worried if going to E85 is too much power for the longevity of the engine. I am probably not the norm, but I usually keep my cars for at least 200k miles.

Aside from that, I have seen some people say to change the fuel pump and others say to just change the injectors when going to E85. I am not sure which one may work better or what the effects of going ton way or another would be for running E85.