I have 2012 E85 Town and Country Touring. I'm going to be vacationing in the middle of nowhere Colorado and the only gas they have around where I'm going is 85. Will a tank or two hurt my van or should take some cans of 87 with me?

 

E85 is just the main ethanol based fuel. The van with work with all forms of gas but diesel lol

 

I know that. I don't even use E85. The owners manual says to use 87. I've been told that putting lower octane fuel in an engine that calls for a higher octane can cause damage. My friend had a turbo Subaru that called for 93 octane and he only ever put 89 and it damaged the engine.

 

You're concerned about octane levels correct? The 85 in the term E85 isn't the octane rating. It's the percentage of ethanol in a given gallon of fuel. The actual octane rating of E85 gas is around 100.

 

Okay you should be fine. First off forget what your Subaru buddy is saying. Turbo engines are far more sensitive to lower octane fuels than naturally aspirated engines and can be damaged.

The reason you are seeing 85 octane rather than 87 is because many parts of Colorado are high, for example Denver. therefore at these higher elevations your engine is drawing in less oxygen per cycle than it would at say sea level so they can run on a lower octane fuel.

Therefore your engines ECM will dial back on ignition timing and adjust fuel ratio to match air density, so it should run quite happily on 85. The only thing you may notice is a drop in power and maybe a slight increase in operating temperature.

However, if you are still not sure, just grab a few bottles of octane booster, just ensure its CAT friendly, not for pre 70's engines.

 

Oh good. Now I feel a lot better.