unfathomablefate

Ok not sure if I am using this forum right hope I am not posting to something that has no relevance to my question but has anyone put on an E85 conversion kit for a jeep cherokee sport? If so was it a complicated instalation? How is it working for you functionally? I know E85 stations are few and far between. But if it is practical I think the savings on gas would be amazing. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

89Laredo

Paying tons of money for 15% lower mpg? sorry, not worth it.

1996XJSport

E85 is the worst choice of any fuel to run in an internal combustion engine.
Ethanol is what you DON'T want in your Gasoline at the pump and most stations do a 1:10 Ethanol to Gasoline mixture to increase profit.
Ethanol burns much hotter than Gasoline and does not have near as much energy as Gasoline does. If you do find a kit out there to convert your XJ to run E85; your engine will probably overheat, your seals and gaskets will probably blow, and you'll get worse fuel economy than you did with gasoline. Odds are, because the 4.0L's stock cooling system is inadequate, you'll need to upgrade all of your cooling system in order to run E85.
Basically, sorry to burst your bubble but it is more trouble than it's worth. If you're trying to save money on transportation costs, look into swapping a diesel in your XJ and possibly running a bio diesel setup. An extreme swap you could try is an LPG conversion, I think someone on here is running a LPG XJ. Just search it up and check the results, you'll probably find it. Good luck man.

96_xj

about $1200-$1700 to do a full LPG conversion and have the option of gas AND LPG... that would be alot more cost effective

1996XJSport

Oh and you can run your XJ with the garage door shut as much as you want!

KD3NE

How about " spending tons of money to 'future proof' your jeep? "

I own more motorcycles than I do Jeeps and if the EPA has their way my Jeep and Motorcycles will be effectively taken off the road and none of them can tolerate more that 10% ethanol.

Guess what?

15% minimum Ethanol mix is on the way.






.

MonacaYankee

Ethanol is political bs.

captainofiron

+1000000

this, I would have never guessed that the corn lobbyist had so much sway. have you seen those corn syrup commercials lately. same people

and as far as future proofing your Jeep.
I doubt the feds (EPA) will ever be able to push vehicles off the road due to compliance. Did you read not to long ago what Texas did to the EPA? the states would revolt if they did something so heavy handed, it would place an undue burden on millions of car owners in the US.

8sec-z

I am reading a lot of "probably" statements in here...
An E85 "kit" doesn't exactly exist. If you want to switch over to ethanol, you simply need to verify if your fuel system can handle the corrosiveness of ethanol AND get your computer reprogrammed for the extra amount of fuel that e85 requires to run correctly. It takes roughly 30-40% more fuel to run e85 as opposed to gasoline. Your stock computer can't adjust this much so you'll need a tuner to reprogram your fuel mapping. Timing tables will only be off a little so getting the fuel correct ia the biggest hurdle. As far as your engine overheating, I don't buy it. You would be running too lean of a fuel mixture if you overheat an ethanol/alcohol motor. Alcohol race motors typically run 20° cooler on alcohol. Probably blowing out your seals and gaskets? C'mon. More doomsday misinformation. On the mpg issue, yes, your gas mileage goes way down. My 06 Impala went from 22/28 city/hwy to 17.5/ 22 on e85. My Tahoe went from 15/18 on gas to 10/14 on e85. MPG sucks on e85. But my reliance on foreign oil is nonexistant though. My e85 is US crude and US corn, refined/manufactured by my countrymen, sold by US citizens. Also, e85 is a little cheaper, sometimes as much as a dollar per gallon cheaper. This doesn't make up the loss in mileage though.
Also, if you switch over to e85 it will be difficult for you to switch back to gasoline "on the fly" or at will. One fuel tune will not work for the other fuel. I guess you could always keep a laptop with you if you ventured from home on a trip. If you can't find any e85, just fill up with gasoline and download your gas tune into your computer and drive off.
I hope my opinion helps out. Normally, if your current vehicle isn't rated for e85, it's not worth it to switch over to e85.
I would be interested in a diesel swap kit...
G/L..

captainofiron

Not to start a flame war, but you know 100% that the corn farmers use US oil/fuels?
Im all for getting the OPEC strangle hold off, but ethanol is not feasible.

8sec-z

No, I don't know for sure. Most farmers use diesel from co-ops.
Most co-ops use the "american made, american refined crude", that is, most co-ops in my area...
Good point..

8sec-z

Ethanol would be feasible if it wasn't a $7.00 a bushel commodity.

KD3NE

Read up on the EPA pushing Ethanol to 15%.

It's all over every motorcycle forum I read. Oh they are saying it will be 'optional' to make it more palatable but the EPA has been doing some arbitrary things lately .... moving to enforce their way on everyone without legislative action.

You are right, it will put a burden on a lot of people, but the chatter within the EPA is there and not something we should ignore.

Imagine the outcome if they pushed ethanol content to 15%. That would render my just purchased 2011 Tractor USELESS according to the manufacturer. They clearly warn to " NOT EXCEED 10% Ethanol Content "

1996XJSport

The AMC 242 was never designed to run ethanol. So odds are it will blow gaskets and seals with the engine heat and corosiveness of the ethanol as you mentioned before. I've driven a jeep commander that was designed to run E85, even that ran hotter than with gasoline. Also, I doubt there is a diesel swap "kit" for the 4.0L. Ever heard of the diesel engine that cadillac had back in the 70s? It was one of their normal gasoline V8s that was converted to a diesel. The thing was a POS and no other car maker used the same concept again. If you're interested in making your XJ a diesel, you'll have to swap an engine in. There's a guy on youtube who swapped an 80s mercedes 5cyl diesel into his XJ and he was able to actually use the Jeep's stock AX15 transmission. That's probably your best bet if you want to do something like that, those engines are bulletproof.

8sec-z

Sorry, should've elaborated on the swap kit- I meant 4bt cummins into my xj or a vw diesel into my xj, not switching the 4.0L.
My two vehicles mentioned above and two other vehicles I ran e85 on never overheated. Idk why your commander ran hot. Maybe you can call your chrysler dealership and ask if there is a bulletin on this issue or if they have a revised tune for it.
Simply running e85 doesn't blow seals. It may eat your injector/fuel rail orings but not head gaskets. This is where you need to contact a knowledgable chrysler mechanic and verify if e85 would destroy them.
Olds also made a diesel off the 350 platform. It was a serious engineering mistake too.