I just looked at a folder which has material relating to Flex Fuel Vehicles; material that I have collected over time. You can go to this site and find some of this info:
National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition ......and......
Iowa RFA.
As noted in one of the articles, the E85 is high in alcohol content and is therefore corrosive. All fuel-handling components have to be changed to materials which resist corrosion such as a stainless steel fuel tank and teflon lined hoses. Ethanol also acts as a solvent and will loosen any contaminants that are in the tank or other areas of the fuel system.
E85 has a higher octane rating (100 to 105) than does gasoline but the energy content per unit is lower. A vehicle that is not optimized for using E85 will typically show a 5 to 15 percent drop in fuel economy. Overall, the E85 retrofit thing is not quite as easy as it sounds. The proponents of using E85 are on record as discouraging the retrofit thing because they know that results are going to be less than satisfactory, and they don't want the bloom to go off the ethanol rose because of a few disappointed consumers.
More flex 
**** For quite a while now I have been wondering about the wisdom of using corn for ethanol since it takes over five gallons of diesel per acre to grow corn. My neighbor farms just over 1000 acres and is very efficient as far as burning fuel is concerned. He has divided his fuel useage for one year by acres and that consistently gives him about five gallons per acre. Of course in that number is the fuel used to mow the grass strips and drive the augers that fill the bins; everything except that last trip to the ethanol plant. He has someone else haul the finished product to town.
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