Hey guys, good E85 power thread over at http://www.turbomustangs.com/smf/index. ... ic=47094.0

who says E85 doesn't make power!

Go pick up a copy of this month's "Car and Driver" for a scientific analysis of ethanol as motor fuel in non-exotic vehicles.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I'm stuck at home recovering from surgery and can't go pick up the new car and driver. Can you summarize the article briefly?

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11 ... mises.html

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Nope, it's not the answer to our fuel problems, but it's going to create a lot of jobs for farmers. It's also a "greener" way of obtaining a cheap high octane racing fuel.

Henry Ford wanted ethanol fuel to help support farmers. He also built tractors to lessen the toil of farm life.

The problem is we don't produce ethanol effeciently from corn. It just doesn't happen because of the low yiled per acre and the energy cosumed in production. The Brazilians can make ethanol much more efficiently than we can because they grow sugar cane which has a much higher yield and they have a distributed infrastructure so they don't have to transport the sugar cane and ethanol as far so the transportation losses are lower. The great Plains are great for feeding us, but not so great in meeting our energy needs.

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Joshua

Yeah, we should really use a different crop for it, I agree. A lot of our corn is for feedstock too, which creates more problems when you get to the end waste products from meat production (sludge/water).

Anyway,....105 octane...

I wonder about the water usage involved in raising that much corn or sugar cane. But then, in this part of the country, we worry about water a lot.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

That is a major concern in our area now. There are many ethanol plants planned to be built that will draw water off of the aquafier that all the cities and towns in the area get their water from. Nobody involved with the plants will answer what it will do to the water supply.

Ethanol will do nothing for corn prices. Production is so high now that the government has been supporting prices for years.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

One thing that was noted in my Geology Classes a decade back, was the problem of water, and the great plains water table...they noted then that the consumption level was high enough that salt content is starting to be noticed in the ground water which means corn production will not be supported soon enough by farms drawing on wells and have to give way to wheat fields to tolerate the change in water mineral content.

Beer in the gas tank anyone?

-D.Idiot

Yeah, our water is already kind of crunchy.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO