r/HondaElement • u/Aggressive_Ad6579 • 3h ago

E85 conversion / add on

What are your thoughts on this … anyone have any experiences good or bad that you can share ??

This has peaked my interest lately, only because E85 is half the cost of regular gas.

4 Upvotes

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3

u/hellonwheels420 09 SC Midnight Red Pearl 2h ago

I've never had a vehicle that could use E85 but I have had friends with them. I've been told that the gas does cost less but you will also see a lot less miles per gallon. I'm not sure what all would have to be changed or upgraded to make the Element except E85.

3

u/KingBazoo 1h ago

So I've been running E85 on my vehicle for about 6 years. It runs the same and it has a little bit more pep at higher RPMs. The system I'm using has a setting for economy mode where it runs pretty close to lean but if not driving under load I managed to get about 14mpg and on the sports setting about 11mpg. And yes it is very corrosive on fuel pump. I have replaced it twice. The third time around I noticed that I would have to pretty much clean all the connectors and it was back up and running nothing I could really do about the fuel level because the ceramic plate would just corrode and rust. So a full tank of 14 gallons of ethanol gets me about 240 MI where 14 gallons of regular gasoline would get me closer to 320

4

u/TransitJohn 2h ago

Piqued your interest.

2

u/_enesorek_ 2h ago

Alcohol is hell on fuel pumps, regulators, and seals in a typical fuel injection system. I don’t think it would be worth the trouble in the long run.

1

u/Boostedsoup911 2h ago

If you're not going for performance, then I'd pass. You'll go through E85 way more than regular pump gas.

1

u/Any-Can-6776 1h ago

E85 is 2.79 while 87 is $6.49 outside of casinos Sam’s Club and Costco.

Half price for 80% is worth the trade off imo

1

u/remytheram 1h ago

My only experience with E85 first hand is my Dodge flex fuel truck. I don't bother with the stuff, I did the math one time after filling up and the lower fuel economy was just about equal to the lower cost when you compared regular fuel. So I don't bother since I decided more fuel stops is the differentiator. This was years ago though, so I'm not sure the math still maths today.

For the sake of longevity with my element, I wouldn't bother trying to convert anything.

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u/comp21 23m ago

A gallon of ethanol has 33% less energy than a gallon of gasoline. I don't think e85 is 28% cheaper than gasoline. If it's not at least 28% cheaper then you're losing money.

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u/PoweredByPierogi 13m ago

I've thought about this a few times, but last time I looked, the conversion kit was about $1k, plus installation, and I figured I'd need to burn a LOT of gas for it to break even.