ran out of gas

Being a high performance turbo engine the problem of running out of fuel can be a lean condition as well as the sensors having havoc wreaked upon them as the bubbles come through the fuel lines and injectors.

I can imagine a heavy throttle and especially in a hilly area it may take a couple of minutes before you run out from when you start to chugging.

So now you're forcing lean conditions, chugging, sensors getting no burn then burn then no air then air, vacuum turn boost, then hot spots and all sorts of stuff. Probably not good for an electronically controlled engine.

RandomJoe said:

k.

In the manual Ford says flex-fuel engines must use no more than 15% ethanol, or E85. Perhaps they don't do gradual readjustment and simply switch between two timing maps? Wonder what happens if you blend the two and wind up with - say - 50% ethanol...

Click to expand...

E85 is actually 51-83% ethanol so I'm sure it won't matter.
The manual is probably written in a way that says use "normal" gas which is e15 or the "other gas" which is E85. Giving you an option, not either/or.

It's not almost up to 50%. It's from 51-83% ethanol and the remainder is gasoline. E85 is MOSTLY ethanol.

The regular gas you buy at the pump is usually E10 or E15. The only gas without ethanol is marine gas and off road gas.

Cars since 1984 were designed to handle a small percentage of alternative fuels. Before then you'll have issues with Rubber hoses and plastics but these days it's not really an issue.

The problem is that it is an energy negative fuel and it also uses food to make fuel and we don't need it. Subsidiation makes things worse, not better. It also doesn't increase hp because it's a lower btu/unit product.