[letthewookiewin7]

Greetings fellow midwest peeps.

I recently took the E30 plunge by way of Stratified, and am finding the E85 offerings in my area (Schaumburg) to be inconsistent. I will be testing stations around the Chicagoland area for actual E85 content, and will post up my findings here. I thought I saw a thread like this somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. If anyone has tested any stations around Chicago, post up your findings so we can have 1 cohesive map of the area.

My first test, which happened to be the first place I filled up at when I switched to my E30 map, came in at <E60 (yikes). No wonder I was getting negative corrections.....
I called this station beforehand and asked what the E content was in their tank, which resulted in a long, awkward silence on the other end of the line. I also couldn't get an answer on what they blend their E85 with.

Shell
1097 E Main St, Dundee Township, IL 60118

 

[Recycler]

Going to be tough to find frequently rotated e85 around Chicagoland area. Suggest planning for year round winter like blends. If you have a Meijer near you, they tend to have good rotation. If you live near Indiana side, cross over into Lake County and find a Meijer there.

4 gallons of e85 per tank full with 93 should give you enough octane rating to use the ots map knock free with winter like blends. Most of the 93 will have 10% EtOH and is blended at the Whiting refinery just south of Chicago. That refinery is one of the most updated and largest inland refinery in the nation. Those test kits are only rough measurements and easily off 5-10% in under estimating content.

 

[letthewookiewin7]

Going to be tough to find frequently rotated e85 around Chicagoland area. Suggest planning for year round winter like blends. If you have a Meijer near you, they tend to have good rotation. If you live near Indiana side, cross over into Lake County and find a Meijer there.

4 gallons of e85 per tank full with 93 should give you enough octane rating to use the ots map knock free with winter like blends. Most of the 93 will have 10% EtOH and is blended at the Whiting refinery just south of Chicago. That refinery is one of the most updated and largest inland refinery in the nation. Those test kits are only rough measurements and easily off 5-10% in under estimating content.

Thanks for the feedback. The only Meijer in near Chicago that offers E85 is in Evergreen Park, which is quite a bit out of my way for regular fill-ups.

5-10% off, if that is the case, is still accurate enough for me, considering the alternative (assuming the ethanol content....).

Assuming you can squeeze 4 gallons of E and 8 gallons of 93 into your tank (I've only ever pushed 11.5-ish into mine), here's what I get for best and worse case scenarios using E85 (Ethanol) Fuel Calculator, and assuming the lower accepted E85 octane of 100, which I believe correlates to using 85 octane blend gas for the other 15%:

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[iurl="http://www.focusst.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=245930&d=1496759609"]

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Interestingly, the octane of both blends comes out to be the same, but the ethanol content varies by 18%.

 

[letthewookiewin7]

Here's another one:

Speedway
12700 S Pulaski Rd
Alsip, Illinois

Looks to be 86-87% ethanol.

The real E85 smells way different than the lower concentration.

 

[jimj166]

Amstar. On Harlem in North Riverside. Just tested this about a week ago. Straight up E85. I was pleasantly surprised!

 

[letthewookiewin7]

Nice! Thanks for keeping it going!