I had intended on going to E85 for several reasons: price, and I was sick and tired of watching my money (oil) go to people who wouldn't spit on us if we were on fire. Even though the price diff between gasoline and E85 is not that big, I ran it as long as I could.
The swap to E85 and megasquirt was quick and easy. Fill up, tweak the VE up to dump in more fuel, and then fine tune it. I made the swap back in July. Maybe I didn't have my afterstart and warmup set right, but I never could jump in the car, start, and drive away. I always had to sit there and warm it up some, and even then it was balky until I got some heat in the head. When warm, the car ran like a bat out of H***. It was a hoot to drive.
However, when winter rolled around, it became increasingly difficult to start in the morning. E85 does not want to "light off" when cold, and it took several tries to get it started, then I sat there and didn't touch it (let it idle) till it got some heat in the combustion chamber. When the temp went below freezing, and down to around 15 degrees F, it refused to start. I had to lift the hood and resort to ether. I played with priming pulse, cranking pulse, after start, and warmup, and nothing seemed to help. I read up on it, Honda ran a study, along with a University up north to attempt to improve cold starting with E85. They tried exotic stuff like hydrogen injection, but nothing within the normal persons grasp will help. This isn't a problem with our car - its a problem with the chemical makup (vapor pressure) of the fuel.
So you might ask, "Should I try E85"? I can't answer that for you. I will tell you that as soon as I get to the tail end of winter, I am heading back over to the alcohol pump. I have never seen spark plugs burn so clean. If you live down south and have a mild winter, it may not be too much of a problem. If you live where the temp dips below freezing, I would suggest you stick with gasoline, unless you want to mix up some kind of gasoline/alcohol cocktail. I don't have an E85 sensor installed, so setting VE on a homemade mix is a hassle when its cold out.
Writing this to get the word out. If the stuff would burn when its frigid cold out, I would still be using it. Having to lift the hood and give the motor a huff of ether in the snow and ice stinks. Besides the issues that manifest themselves cold, I have no other complaints about using alcohol as a motor fuel.