Is a 2000 ML320 E85 compatible? On www.e85fuel.com it lists the C320 Sport as the only Mercedes as compatible? Wouldn't this be the same or virtually the same as our 3.2L engines?

 

Nope Nope Nope.

Ethanol is an alcohol. E85 Means 85% Ethanol and 15% Gasoline content. Regular Gasoline engines are safely tolerant to E15 or 15% Ethanol. In Houston, TX - Most gas is mixed with 10% Ethanol (Chevron, Exxon, Sam's Club etc.)

You would need special fuel lines and line heaters for E85 Compatibility. Also the ECU needs to know that you are burning E85 (faster burning fuel). Hence only cars with E85 fuel lines (No glue/rubber cement joins - Alcohol eats them over time), and proper ignition timing, all gasoline engines shouild be able t run E85 fuel. If you live in Cold areas, line heaters also help burn alcohol faster.

A Conversion caveat is that since alcohol is a detergent, your existing goop, gum, tar, dirt will all be freed from the tank and end up in the fuel filter. Also engine will get cleaned pretty good (which may have issues on high mileage vehicles where internal seals can get destroyed by alcohol).

I am no mad scientist, but existing etanol prices versus its yield (less Miles per gallon compared to gasoline) make it a "not worth the effort" deal. what is $2.36 vs $2.89 if you are getting 10MPG vs 14MPG.

In my humble and personal opinion, Ethanol may have environmental benefits (Not a lot as some may think becuse you HAVE to use fossil fuels to produce Ethanol) but not really economical benefits.

Also in my personal opinion (I keep repeating personal opinion - because someone WILL flame me for these comments for the time being, it may produce competition which is good as competition almost guarentees lowered prices for the consumer.

Future promises are hydrogen fuel cell, compressed-air vehicles, electric cars and so on. i am hopeful someone will economically make converters or retrofit kits that will generate Hydrogen from water on the fly and use that as a fuel (self service fuel - no pumping stations involved). Fun would be to see these kits seamlessly installed in our existing engines.

While I am on this topic, another think that bothers me is the hype about Hybrids. HELLO! Honda accord hybrid costa 34K while regular LX accord is maybe 20K (14,000 dollar difference). Now, if the difference in MPG is 25 vs 35 (saving of 10MPG) and if the driver drives 12K a year, they will put in 480 gallons in LX vs. 342 in hybrid. That is 137 Gallons difference a year. Even at $3.00, that is just $411. So you wil have to keep the hybrid for 34 years just to justifythe fuel cost difference! WOW!

 

I was wondering why only the 2004 C320 Sport is listed as compatible and none of the other 320's. You cleared that up.

As for hybrids, I totally agree, even at a modest price increase they don't justify themselves financially. Also, environmentally they are questionable as how do you dispose of the batteries?