2006 5.3 - Can you burn ethnal? and if so...

[kirkg1]

With gas going up, I want to look at the option of ethanol. First, can my 06 Envoy Denali burn it? If you are using in, what kind of mpg are you getting?
Thanks, Kirk

[Envoy Fan]

No, engine not ready for Ethanol. If it was, you could expect a 20 to 30% decrease in MPG.

[Spong]

The only Ethanol you can use is E10 (10%). You will see a drop in MPG though. Anything more than E10 and you will throw codes.

GM talks alot about their "Go Green, Live Yellow" BS, but every GM vehicle I've owned disliked Ethanol gas! My 2003 Bonneville had several fuel related issues from running E10 and when I went back to regular gas, the problems went away.

It's only a matter of time before we are FORCED to burn the sh*t, but until then, I pay the extra and burn the non-ethanol fuel.

[randygreer]

Actually you get a slight increase in mileage with 10% max because of the small percentage of water that is in the alcohol. the steam expansion negates the fact that alcohol is less energy dense.

[Spong]

Actually you get a slight increase in mileage with 10% max because of the small percentage of water that is in the alcohol. the steam expansion negates the fact that alcohol is less energy dense.

What?? :confused: Even ethanol promoters admit there's a MPG drop with E10.

I've never, ever heard of someone getting BETTER mpg with Ethanol!

[Envoy Fan]

What?? :confused: Even ethanol promoters admit there's a MPG drop with E10.

I've never, ever heard of someone getting BETTER mpg with Ethanol!

:iagree: The times I have to buy gas with ethanol in it :hissy:, I always without fail get poorer mileage than when I get 100% gasoline.

[Teacher]

I used E85 in my 2002 5.3 Yukon. There is a reduction in mpg due to the fact that alcohol has fewer BTU's than straight gas. It does clean up your fuel system though! Check out this link: http://e85vehicles.com/ There are shops that will do this here in Denver that will do a conversion but I hear it's pretty easy to do yourself. :m2:

[randygreer]

http://www.ilot.edu.pl/Journal%20of%20KONES%202003%20No%203_4/1-2/26.pdf

[Spong]

http://www.ilot.edu.pl/Journal%20of%20KONES%202003%20No%203_4/1-2/26.pdf


Straight from your PDF file

5. Conclusions
The engine performance and pollutant emission of a SI engine have been investigated by using ethanol–gasoline blended fuel E10 and pure gasoline. Experimental results indicated that when ethanol–gasoline blend is used, the engine power and fuel consumption of the engine slightly increase; CO emission decreases dramatically as a result of the leaning effect caused by the ethanol addition; HC emission decreases only in some engine working conditions; and CO2 emission increases because of the improved combustion.
In this study, we found that using ethanol–gasoline blend, CO emission may be reduced by 10–30%, while CO2 emission increases by 5–10% depending on engine conditions. The engine power and specific fuel consumption increase approximately by 5% and 2–3%, respectively, in all working conditions.

I've personally witnessed fuel consumption higher than 5%, you can pretty much count on about a 2 mpg drop using E10 instead of regular unleaded.

[Doc Brown]

I've driven various GM vehicles all over the country. Where I live we have to use E10. But I haven't noticed any difference in mileage using E10 or straight gas when traveling. Infact, when I tow, I get WORSE mileage out of state where there is no E10. There was a difference when reformulated gas was still using the MBTE additive instead of ethanol. As soon as I'd get a "clean", non-MBTE tank of gas out side of the area, HWY mileage would go up at least a couple of MPG.

My take on it is if your computer is used to plain gas, a sudden change to E10will be noticable. Those of us running E10 all the time generally won't see much difference with a sudden change to plain gas. I suspect that if I were able to run plain gas for a month, I'd see a small increase in mileage over that time period as the computer adjusted.

When gas is $5 a gal, and E85 is $3, it'll make a little more sense to use E85. If Coskata and GM can pull off the ethanol production technology that Coskata's working on, E85 use will make even more sense. Thats a few years out though. Right now its vaporware, though I can't imagine GM sticking thier money into something dumb these days. Until things like these happen, there doesn't seem to be a lot of compelling reasons to use E85.

[2005DkGrayEXTLT]

I live in Baton Rouge and get to use gasoline. I travel to houston routinely, and all 4 of my vehicles get less mpg with the e10 in houston. My Sonoma would loose 2 mpg, my crown vic at least 1 my tb looses 2. The wifes saturn i have not checked exactly but my wife commented she does not get the same number of miles per tank in houston.

[Nukedog]

E10 can be used by any car ever made. It gets 1-2mpg less and costs the same as regualr gas for some reason.

E85 needs the "flex fuel" capable vehicles and it is good for spraying nitrous on but bad for fuel mileage and efficiency in regular vehicles...

[Nukedog]

Actually you get a slight increase in mileage with 10% max because of the small percentage of water that is in the alcohol. the steam expansion negates the fact that alcohol is less energy dense.

You are wrong about the mileage. Completely wrong and the water isn't "in" the ethonal it is aborbed by the ethonal if their is condensation present. Better go back to school...:bonk:

[weaverr6]

It is a terrible idea to use E85 in vehicles not designed for it. No part of the fuel system is designed to run that stuff through it. You will have tremendous amounts of problems over a prolonged period of continual use.

[weaverr6]

E85 will drop your MPG's and effectively negate the cheaper price of fuel. You will lose 20% on MPG's and normally E85 is no more than 20% cheaper.