Last week I thought it might be fun to experiment with E85. It's $2.50 a gallon in Wisconsin; cheaper than regular 87 octane by about 40 cents.

I filled up my '95 pickup (3.0 4x4 5spd 4.88 gears, 31x10.5, yadayadayada) with 5 gallons exactly. With a 19.3 gallon tank that came to 26% E85, or 22 percent alcohol overall. There may have already been some ethanol in the regular gas. I have no idea, but 10% isn't unusual (many pumps say "may contain up to 10% ethanol"). So I was running with at least 22% ethanol and maybe up to 29 percent. I suspect closer to 22 percent.

I ran 280 miles with this mix and achieved 18.3 miles per gallon. About what I would expect this time of year and for the driving I was doing - about 25% in stop and go traffic and 75% hiway (interstate/state hiways).

I noticed no issues with power, check engine lights, operating temperatures or anything out of the ordinary. I did notice that when I started from cold and backed up out of my driveway, the exhaust smell was different - more alcoholly. Made me want a beer.

My current fill-up is with 87 octane gas. I'm going to run it through and reduce the possible alcohol content in the tank. Then I'll do the 5 gallon test again and see what happens.

Nothing really major to report, just passing this along.