Well as A licensed Ethanol fuel producer. I decided to Create a challenge for myself.

Drive From Philadelphia to Tampa using Gasoline as a secondary fuel. That's Right A lot of buzz surrounds alternative fuels. Biodiesel, Ethanol, CNG, Methanol, but in my opinion unless you are operating on 51% or better of the alternate fuel it's not an Alt fuel vehicle. (and only one is available enough and can support a motorsports tuned engine) This is a daunting task for any Flex Fuel vehicle owner. stations selling E85 are few and far between. But ladies and gentlemen to add an additional twist, I did not use a Flex Fuel car. I used my 2006 Nissan Spec-V.

Sure i brought a Selection of air flow meter adapters to increase flow velocity, 10/20/ and 30% allowing me to compensate for whatever changes the fuel composition does to AFR and keep the car safe. now in addition I was monitoring the Vitals on the ECU Air Fuel ratio, throttle position sensor IDC's etc.


Tallies for the Trip 54.4 Gallons fuel
21.5 Gallons Gasoline 40%
32.9 Gallons Ethanol 60%

37.3 Gallons of E85
11.6 Gallons of E10 (Gasoline Blended with Ethanol)
5.5 Gallons of E0 (100% pure Gasoline)

Average Fuel Economy of 23.9MPG (85% of my normal 28MPG on gas)

Since Ethanol's Stoichiometric Ratio is close to 9:1 and We all know Gasoline is 14.7:1 if we go strictly by volume My Fuel mileage should have showed Around %77% or 21.56MPG.. So there must be some advantage to this fuel over just the Volume change.

In my initial runs in Philadelphia I kept increasing the Ethanol Ratio while monitoring the engine operation. as expected the Injector Duty Cycle increased as the 02 sensor saw the "leaner burning" Ethanol fuel. I expected the computer to compensate under closed loop conditions. however the Sentra had a trick up it's sleeve. at anything below E40 It even reprogrammed the Open Loop Maps. that's right Full throttle, everything! at E50 The car threw another trick at me. when the injector duty cycle started approaching 100% The throttle blade started to shut... I did the test again!.. yep the IDC's got high the throttle position decreased, as you would expect changing the demand curve of the engine and keeping it from going lean. it would rev to redline but not make a ton of power. if the load was light enough to keep the IDC's low the car ran like stock regardless of Ethanol content.

KEEP IN MIND> Flex Fuel cars have a fuel composition sensor. The Sentra Being a Gasoline only vehicle does not have one.

I am tired and just got done a 1300 mile drive. (with detours and routing for fuel availability) I'm bushed. I'll continue tomorow.