I was averaging 30mpg while only hitting 55mph on the freeway.

now I'm at 19mpg and still going down more every day.

I managed to get 260 miles out of a full tank with the last fill up of e85. Before I was getting almost 400.

It's $3.99 a gallon but I do not believe the savings is worth it.

I constantly have to floor it to get it to do anything....which makes the fuel economy even worse.

What do you all think?

 

You will get better mpg at 65 or 70. That's where they are most efficient

 

I have not used anything but 83 octane in the BlackSwan, 2.4 flex fuel 2011, so can’t really comment.
fuel at $2.09 a litre CDN x 3.785412 = $7.91 CDN for a US gallon , I’m happy to see 32 mpg in the DIC

 

I red somewhere that lowest rpm in highest gear is the most efficient.

 

That's weird. I put E85 in mine and it was all GO. If I do a nitrous setup I'll set up a secondary tank for E85 or Nitromethane.

 

i have tried E85 and E87 on a few different vehicles and found I get lower MPG than if I use full gas with no ethanol in it. for me there is hardly any savings when you figure in the lower MPG and lack of performance. That may be different if I had a vehicle set up specifically for running on E85 or such. I'll stick to the good old dino fuel and leave the corn for the birds.

 

Something’s not right. Fuel economy should not be THAT much different. And the motor is rated for slightly MORE horsepower with E85.

Original motor? No CEL? Scan for codes.

E85 in a FlexFuel HHR won’t make it a rocket ship but it should be good for a few extra horsies.

 

My car will be locked up in 6th gear and only be doing 45mph. It gets lousy mileage there.

 

I assume you meant overdrive (4th gear) + torque converter lockup (not exactly 5th gear)? Since HHRs only have a 4 speed auto or a 5 speed manual.
That usually happens around 40 MPH unless you are accelerating hard.

 

Peak fuel efficiency comes, generally speaking, at maximum vacuum. Too high gear and low RPM makes the engine lug.

The torque curve of the engine tuning is a factor also. Same thing, too high gear and too low RPMs doesn't allow the engine to get in that sweet spot of the torque curve.