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Geist local Adam Goldstein has a solution for rising gasoline prices. Owner of the Automotive Service Group off of Thunderbird Road near Pendleton Pike, Goldstein now offers a flex fuel conversion package that includes, among other things, a computer card that allows your vehicle to burn E85 ethanol.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/iRA3gM-ZYz4" width="300" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]“All cars built after 1994 had to be equipped to burn at least 10% Ethanol,” said Goldstein. “With gas prices over $4.00 a gallon and ethanol around $3.25, people can save around 20% at the pump right off the bat.”
Their new service available through IndyFlexFuel.com gives people the flexibility of burning regular unleaded gasoline, E85, or a mixture of both. Ethanol is not as widely available as gasoline, and with the price disparity, more and more people are lining up for the corn-based fuel.
“The closest places to buy E85 are at the Meijer on East 96th Street and the Gas America off of Franklin Road and 21st Street,” Goldstein said.
According to the IndyFlexFuel.com website, there are a total of 7 stations in Indianapolis that carry E85. But Goldstein points out that if you are traveling or running low on fuel and getting to an E85 station is out of the question, you can still fill up with gasoline.
In addition to the cost savings, converting your vehicle to run on E85 has other advantages. Besides burning “cleaner” emissions, ethanol burns at a higher octane rating (105 octane vs. 87-93 octane in gasoline) which gives most cars up to 10% more horse power. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 19% and tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by about 30%.
Goldstein also points out a few drawbacks to burning E85, the biggest being a decrease in miles per gallon.
“On average, you’ll see a 5% decrease in your fuel efficiency, but when you factor in the 20% cost savings and the other advantages, you are still way ahead.”
The cost to convert your late model vehicle depends on the number of cylinders primarily. To achieve optimum performance with the new E85 conversion, ASG will also check the O2 sensors, filters, tire pressure, and spark plugs. According to Goldstein, the complete package starts at $799.
For more information or to see if your car is E85 compatible, visit IndyFlexFuel.com.
![IMG_2809[1]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/3085427088_0d1c17961e_s.jpg)
There are aeveral sites that provide calculators to assist in determining if E85 really provides a more economic alternative to regular Octane Gasoline…look at http://www.intercepteft.com/calc.html. In most of the examples that I have run, there is little to no advantage to using E85 – other than emitting less CO2 into the atmosphere. The real answer here is utilizing a car that takes advantage of hybrid technology and E85, providing a lower per mile cost, AND having a positive impact on our air!
If you opt for E85, there is also a station across from Allisonville Nursery on Allisonville Road which sells E85.
E85-decreases your engines efficiency by 15% and is bad for the environment.. not good for it. It takes a gallon of oil to make a gallon of ethanol and increases the cost of food production. Bad idea all the way around
how is burning cleaner fuel bad? http://www.e85.us/EnginePerformance.shtml
I’ll give you that it takes more energy to create ethanol, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Your fuel economy will go down on ethanol, but not by 15%…more like 7-10% depending on the car.
From http://www.fueleconomy.gov
FFVs operating on E85 usually experience a 20-30% drop in miles per gallon due to ethanol’s lower energy content.
Not cleaner burning:
There are several problems with the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel. First, it is costly to produce and use. At 1987 prices, it cost 2.5-3.75 times as much as gasoline. The United States Department of the Environment (DOE) is funding a research program aimed at decreasing the cost to $0.60/gallon by the year 2000; in the last decade or so, the cost has dropped from $3.60/gallon to $1.27/gallon. There are also costs associated with modifying vehicles to use methanol or gasohol, but these costs vary, depending on the number of vehicles produced.
Another problem is that ethanol has a smaller energy density than gasoline. It takes about 1.5 times more ethanol than gasoline to travel the same distance. However, with new technologies and dedicated ethanol-engines, this is expected to drop to 1.25 times.
An important consideration with ethanol is that it requires vast amounts of land to grow the crops needed to generate fuel. The process for conversion of crops to ethanol is relatively inefficient because of the large water content of the plant material. There is legitimate concern, especially in developing countries, that using land for ethanol production will compete directly with food production.
Another problem is that ethanol burning may increase emission of certain types of pollutants. Like any combustion process, some of the ethanol fuel would come out the tailpipe unburned. This is not a major problem since ethanol emissions are relatively non-toxic. However, some of the ethanol will be only partially oxidized and emitted as acetylaldehyde, which reacts in air to eventually contribute to the formation of ozone. Current research is investigating means to reduce acetylaldehyde emissions by decreasing the engine warm-up period.
Finally, ethanol production, like all processes, generates waste products that must be disposed. The waste product from ethanol production, called swill, can be used as a soil conditioner on land, but is extremely toxic to aquatic life.
This is so funny, the responders here are repeating lies dispelling the use of ethanol right from the Oiligarchy play book. These myths have been propigated for a long time, so that Americans will continue to burn the oil byproduct of gasoline in their cars. If these myths were true, then the worlds 5th largest country in the world would not have been able to stop importing oil, that country is Brazil, they have a population of about 200 Million, and have already proven that their cars can run efficiently and cheaply on alcohol, it’s sad that it isn’t America leading the way. But this can change if we wise up.
Myth (1)
It costs more energy to produce alcohol than what you get out. This is a lie, it only requires a percentage of the alcohol output to distill the alcohol out of the mash from which fermenting bacteria make it in the first place. Alcohol evaporates at 173 degrees, which is quite a bit below boiling. and the bacteria ferment corn and sugar beats and other sources upto about 18% with the right yeast, so the distilation process doesn’t have to go to far to produce over 90% or 180 proof.
Myth (2)
one of you said that there is a poisonous residue or toxic waste, well if there were, then we’d all be dead, because it’s bacteria that produce the alcohol, not a bunch of fractional distillation towers used to break down oil, and that reminds, me, did you know that gasoline is basically the toxic dump for oil companies, they do not have to deal with their own toxics, because they get us to put it in our cars, there are many toxic chemicals in gasoline, otherwise you would wipe your arm with gasoline before taking a shot, instead of alcohol.
Myth (3)
It causes the price of food to rise, well let me give you a little education on this point. 95% of the corn produced in this country goes to cattle feed, not to your table, now it could be argued that if you bump the price of cattle feed, then the price of meet will rise, but this is also false because, When you use bacteria to break down the carbohydrates in corn to make alcohol, what is left is the proteins and fats that remain in what is called distillers grain. If you use that to feed your cattle, you end up with cattle that grow 18% faster, and their meat is then leaner, and the cattle are more healthy, closer to free ranging cattle because the carbohydrates are no longer stored as fat. This also makes the production of alcohol more efficient because the trucks that bring in the corn to be turned into alcohol turn around and back haul the distillers grain to the farm. and one final note, the big chemical companies hate this one, If a farmer used a little of the distillers grain on their fields when planting, they would no longer need the $100 dollars worth of herbicides per acre produced by Dow, and Monsanto and such to grow the corn, so the final debunk er of this myth is that it is actually cheaper to produce the corn to start with. This makes almost a complete organic production of the corn.
Myth 4
This myth says that pollution is problem with alcohol, well I have tried this, I put a few drops of gas in a bowl, and then I put a few drops of alcohol in another, I set both on fire and when they stopped burning, there is no residue on the sides of the alcohol bowl, but there is plenty of soot on the one with gasoline. This is a good example of why the oil in your car turns black, so if you want your car to last longer, start using E-85, but you will need to get your car converted to do this.
My name is Rich Andrews, and I have been using ethanol in my car, and have begun to convert my friends cars, I will convert yours if you live within 50 miles of Indianapolis, my price is $400 for a 4 cyl car, $459 for a 6 cyl car, and $479, for an 8 cyl car. I only accept cash, but will make other arrangements, if you bring me continuous business. I would be happy to answer your questions, call me (317) 529-3063