will the 85% ethanol fuel offer better performance than unleaded gasoline?
Some place have started selling it and GM says they are building cars to run on it.

 

E85 has higher octane. This allows for more compression and more HP. GM has been building cars to run off of it for about 6 years now.

Current list of GM FFVs

2006 Chevy Avalanche
2006 Chevy Monte Carlo
2006 Chevy Tahoe
2006 Chevy Silverado
2006 Chevy Suburban
2006 Chevy Impala
2006 GMC Yukon
2006 GMC Yukon XL
2006 GMC Sierra
2007 Chevy Tahoe
2007 Chevy Avalanche
2007 Chevy Suburban
2007 GMC Yukon
2007 GMC Yukon XL


Not all engine options are FFVs. You get a nice tax break when buying an FFV too.

All major manufactors offer at least one FFV. GM and Ford offer the most.

 

if you run E85 in your cobalt it will corrode the fuel sytem and damge your engine. in order to run E85 your engine has to be a flex fuel engine. the difference: stainless steal fuel tank, teflon coated fuel line, larger fuel injectors, etc... currently the only FFE are mostly v6 with some 2.2 truck engines (s10). This flexfuel engine was designed for fleet vehicles and copany cars. these cars are not all FFE, you have to order it with the optional engine. The Cobalt doesnt have this option, but i emailed them asking if they plan to, i will let you guys know...

hope this helped, good to hear about more E85 fuel stations!

 

http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/liv...low/index.html

I was a little disappointed to learn Cobalt is not a FlexFuel vehicle. There is a gas station near me that sells Ethanol and the price is MUCH cheaper than gas ($1.89 vs. $2.17)

Interesting to see which vehicles CAN run on E85: http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php

 

You lose MPG with flex fuel. E85 has less energy per gallon than regular petrol.

I had flex fuel in my 2.2 S10. Never used it though, never found a E85 gas station.

 

MPG isnt the issue, its about polluting less.... and running 100 otane.

that is the biggest hurdle right now, we need to get more gas stations, like Minnasota has.

 

got the email back:

Thank you for contacting Chevrolet and for your interest in the Chevrolet
Cobalt! There are no plans at this time, to offer the Cobalt with an E-85
compatible engine. General Motors is always looking for ways to improve our
vehicles. Our customers play a major role in this by providing suggestions to
us. We appreciate your comments pertaining to the Cobalt and we will forward
them to the appropriate department.


Maybe if we petition, it will get through....

 

maybe someone can come up with a conversion kit for the ecotecs.

 

Converting to E85 is not as dificult as some think to beleive and it does have performance benifits. I have been running it for months now in my car. If you can tune your car and know what you ar doing the mpg lose is minimal. You also need to know that converting a vehicle to run on a different fuel is illegal also.

 

No thanks! It makes less power, worse MPG's, high cost to retro the car. Not worth it IMO. Thanks but I'll pass.

 

i noticed your sig shows 12s on e85, thats good enough for me, especially since i have no inclination to be dependant on foreign oil for my car. pollution isn't my biggest concern. renewable energy is, eventually oil will run out, and i like my internal combustion engine's. i did some research and there are companies out there3 trying to get there epa certifications for conversion kits.

 

I would like to know the companies that are trying to get the ball rolling. id like to see if i can help them out.

Like zinner said earlier, if there are no e85 gas stations around then people cannot use the gas. I think its up to each state's officials to decide weather or not to push e85, thats why MN has so many stations.

 

All we have in MD is E10 gas and it's mandatory in Maryland. Ethanol was substituted for MTBE because MTBE was showing up in the water table.

There are studies that are showing E85 is actually a bit more polluting that regular petrol or rather the pollution it does produce is more harmful than regular gas.. So at the very least it's less pollution argument is under hot debate.