My step dad picked up a new-to-him truck last week. Replaced a 2005 F-150 with 60,000 miles with a 2006 F-150 with 16,000 miles. Both are SuperCab's, Long beds, 5.4's 2wd's and regularly pull 9,000 pulls (and does so very well).

At any rate, we had a discussion about E85 in the 2005. I looked on the E85 website and it said 06's were compatible.

Not thinking twice, I gave the greenlight. So Bob fills the 34 gallon tank up with 31 gallons of E85. A couple of hours later, he calls.

"So, I have low power and a check engine light, what gives?"

Me: "Perhaps a clogged fuel filter. Ethanol is a cleanser and you might have had some junk in the tank (although I was thinking 16k should NOT have that problem."

I direct him to replace the fuel filter tonight (located under the driver's side cab in a nice easy location).

Then I started thinking. Wait, most engine are OPTIONAL flex fuel capable. What if his 2006 did not come with that option.

Apparently the 8th letter of the vin has to be "V" or it's not flex fuel compatible.

He's suppose to call back with the vin shortly.

We either have E85 in a non-compatible engine. It obviously throws the check engine light and does not have the capacity to adjust fuel flow rate to compensate. Or we have a clogged filter and fuel flow restrictions.

Anyone want to take a guess on which it is? We should know shortly.

BTW, we have successfully ran E85 in our 2004 Tahoe Z71 5.3L with good luck, although it once in a rare while that it is filled with it. Whereas with the truck, there is an E85 station on the daily route.

D

The engine isn't E85 compatible.
I don't see how there could be enough gunk that 585 would have dredged it up on a 16k mile vehile that has probably had E10 in it all its life.

E10 not required in KS. It's been using MTBE.

Confirmed. 8th character of the VIN code is 5, not V.

So now the decision of whether to burn it, siphon it, or do what.

Input? I know it's corrosive on non poperly designed systems. I think I might have him siphon what he can into the Tahoe and portable tanks. Then just fill with regular gas and drive until it corrects.

Thoughts?

What's the code?

MIL code?

i know whats wrong now. The ECM has no idea it has ethanol because it's not equipped. So, the extra oxygen is confusing the hell of the ECM. So it's in open-loop mode which is why there is reduced power because the ECM is not increasing fuel flow to compensate. Infact, it's doing nothing but delivering the premapped amount of fuel. Which means it's running a little lean now (thanks Ethanol) Which means this is a little urgent to get this fixed before the engine blows or the cat is clogged.

WHOOOOPPPPSSSSS

Yes.

Didn't check it.

If it stays on, I will have him run by A-zone to see.

Here is the action plan. He's going to siphon about 13 gallons out into the Tahoe (which as mentioned has ran E85 before). He's going to put about another 5 gallons in portable storage. The will leave him with about 6-7 gallons of E85. He's going to top the tank off with straight up MTBE fuel, which is about 23 gallons. This will bring his ethanol ratio to about 20%. I think 20% should be within the system's buffer zone. The stuff wont last a week, so i'm not too worried about MTBE and ethanol separating and causing problems.

Anyone have suggestions against this idea? Bob? Thanks!!

I say if a dinosaur didn't poop it then don't burn it, eat corn, it cleans out people not cars. Just ribbin' ya'll

Sounds like a good plan, but I still would like to know the code sometime...

Okie. If it's still on when I get home this weekend, i'll take it to go find out.

What are you thinking the code is? Clogged Cat?

I just bought an 07 Impala with the flexfuel option. I looked online for e85 stations, the nearest one is 49 miles away. then I looked some wore and found that since e85 contains less energy than gas I'll get worse gas mileage and it turns out mile for mile e85 costs about 4.80 per gallon (adjusted for the lost fuel economy) why would I want to use e85??

Doesnt make as much sense in a higher efficiency car as it does in a gas hog truck.

Basically 13mpg vs 12 mpg. Over 30 gallons, at a 50 cent cost savings per gallon, we were looking about about $30 a month savings.

D-rod, MTBE was outlawed years ago for polluting the water supplies.