Your thoughts on E85

[BigBlock61]

Earlier today my son Erik and me were having a discussion about a video he watched. Apparently according to the video E85 makes more horsepower on the dyno than premium gas. I'm not sure on the specifics of the video but I looked it up on the net. Basically what I discovered was that E85 is about 105 octane and comparable to 110 race fuel. It burns cooler, is resistant to detonation, and does not corrode your fuel system as I thought. You have to tune the engine to run on it but you have to do that for the fuel you are using anyways. What are the thoughts of you all? I still have more research to do on the subject but it does look promising.

 

[themechanic]

It's not good for long term storage. Maybe if you add fuel stabilizer.

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[coloradodave]

This has been covered many times in this forum. E-85 doesn't corrode your fuel system if it's built for E-85. E-85 attracts water from the air, so if your system contains any aluminum, steel or normal rubber fuel line, you will have problems. The racers that I know who use E-85 have built their systems from 100% stainless steel and if they are using AN fittings, they completely drain the fuel system in between races.
The other thing to keep in mind is that compared to gasoline, a motor will use approximately 30% more E-85. Availability of fuel (locations of stations that stock it) for a street car may be a problem as well.
It may be a solution for some with high compression motors if you can get by the problems running it.