69thunder

E85 is not a new technology. It was called "gasahol" in the late 70's and early 80's. One of the reasons it did not catch on was the corrosiveness of it. It will eat steel that is untreated. Cars that run it today have plastic tanks and stainless steel parts among other things. Be carefull.

PReal

I think many are getting the wrong picture of how dandy ethanol production is.

Simply put it takes more energy to make then it produces and the only reason it is economic is becauseit is subsidized by thegovernment.

For you E85 guys, how many square miles of corn would it take to eliminate only the US's import of foreign oil? If 18% of US corn supples already goes to E85 and it acounts for such a small percentage of the overall energy consumption, how will it not make corn prices rise if we try to eliminate foreign oil. It will basically take the blame off the foreigners and put it on ourselves.

I work for an oil company and I don't understand why people don't like it that a business makes money. Do you work at a company that tries to make money? I thought that was the purpose of capitalism. I'm middle class and I get some of the profit, but I'm not wiping my *** with hundred dollar bills like some people think oil company employees do.Some of thelargest companies in the worldare oil companies and they pay people like me to make oil and gas. Byonly using ethanol you would be eliminateingmillions of oil and gas jobs, in the us and elsewhere, and turning them into farmers.The government has made 10 times our profit in the last 10 years on the taxes we have paid.They charge us to explore, drill, produce, and refine the oil and gas. Although the profits might be in the billions, have you ever done research that shows you the payback period, risk and overall capital that must be employed to make oil and gas? We simply make a product and try to sell it as quickly as possible to get money back to invest in another project. It is a business. We make money

Oh, and by the way, oil companies don't set the price of oil; the markets do.

Colorado_Mustang

You receive 1.3 gallons of fuel for every 1.0 gallon of fuel used in ethanol production. That is a positive increase. Not as much as gasoline maybe, but definitely a large improvement in the short term that mass ethanol production has come up.

Yes, ethanol's been around for a while. But the scale and technology has only recently been increased and researched to any significant degree.

pokertramp

http://www.mustangandfords.com/techa...nol/index.html
there is a whole article here on it. This is just part of it.

To run E85 fuel in an early car, the fuel system must not have any bare or unprotected aluminum, magnesium, or rubber components as the ethanol attacks them all. Ethanol conducts electricity whereas gasoline does not, so any electric fuel pumps used must be nonconductive where the fuel transfers through the pump. Likewise, any rubber diaphragm in a mechanical fuel pump could be subject to failure.[/align] [hr]
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andrewmp6

I like the whole biodiesel better it can be made from used cooking oil which most restaurants throw out of pay someone to take.I do love the torque a diesel makes wouldn't mind one in a mustang.

Colorado_Mustang

And I just installed new aluminum fuel lines.