Running E-85 Again

KillSwitchNY

Registered User
So, the weather is breaking so i decided to use a Gasoline/E85 Mixture again. This past fall I was occasionally running at about a 25% E85 to 75% 93 Octane. The car was running awsome, felt alot better throttle response and better acceleration. Of course when winter came i had to stop since it was getting a little hard to cold start the car.

This time around i just put in about a 50/50 mix of 93 to e85. again the car feels a little more peppy, But doesnt seem as good as with the 25% i used to use.

Post up any personal experience with this stuff in your SC, looking for some good info on fuel mixtures. As far as im concerned i have not seen any harm done by E85 and will continue to ocassionally use it in my car.
 
A tune? What's a tune? Haha.... No I don't tune for anything. I'm wingin it! No problems since last year of occasional use. Experimenting basically
 
You won't see the true potential of running E85 w/out tuning the car for it.

Some of the Terminator guys are making some very good power with it but the tune is totally different than straight gas.

Good luck!
 
Awsome info. I was thinking of getting a 4 bank sct chip... That would be awsome to have a tune for the e85 and I could switch it for straight 93. Any idea if u can tune for 87 octane for normal driving
 
Awsome info. I was thinking of getting a 4 bank sct chip... That would be awsome to have a tune for the e85 and I could switch it for straight 93. Any idea if u can tune for 87 octane for normal driving

Not worth it to tune the car for 87 as you would not see any gains except for less power, and the car will have more detonation no matter what when you went into boost.

Fraser
 
I've been running straight E85 for almost a year now. However, I've also tuned for it and run 60 pound injectors. If your only running a 50% mix of it, your computer probably tunes for it "close enough". Is it right? No. Will it work? Probably. The thing I would worry the most about is running lean at high rpm/load if you haven't upgraded your injectors.
 
Awsome info. I was thinking of getting a 4 bank sct chip... That would be awsome to have a tune for the e85 and I could switch it for straight 93. Any idea if u can tune for 87 octane for normal driving

Let me know if you are serious about that. I have one that I think I may be getting rid of.

Ira
 
I've been running straight E85 for almost a year now. However, I've also tuned for it and run 60 pound injectors. If your only running a 50% mix of it, your computer probably tunes for it "close enough". Is it right? No. Will it work? Probably. The thing I would worry the most about is running lean at high rpm/load if you haven't upgraded your injectors.

thats awsome that your runnning it straight. Cheapest gas with the highest octane, how can you beat that. And hey, the only way to find out about anything is to try it, so thats what im doing, you are def right about the computer compensating for it. I will most likely put the car on a dyno and get some reading on injector duty cycle and air fuel mixture to see how its handling it. As for now i dont care, its $2 a gal and 96 octane or whatever so im doin it. the car is making about 17psi max full throttle, so that will help me out a tiny bit.
Other thing im going to do is adapt a Russell inline stainless steel filter to the stock location so i dont have the stock paper dissintegrate.
 
The thing with e85 is you need to use more of it for the proper air fuel ratio, so that means you get worse fuel mileage and need bigger injectors.
 
OK, so as i stated the car runs fine with the E85 Mixture.... Although now i followed some peoples advice and just replaced my plugs.

Story is i boost more now, and was having a detonation problem under load/high boost (17 psi)

i was told to go a step colder on the plugs and gap them less at .030.
i went with NGK TR6's which are 1 step colder than stock and gapped to .030

NOW, the car has massive missfiring at idle and especially with ANY throttle. Could this be because of the Fuel mixture versus the colder/smaller gap plugs?

i have 3/4 tank of 50/50 E85 and 93oct :( i really wish i had put a drain plug in my gas tank last time i had it down.
 
Not a good idea to mix. As had been said you need to burn more e85 to get proper AFR...So youre probably running lean and detonating.

And an e85 tune isn tsomething you just throw into an SC

So to run e5 even on a stock SC you will need larger injectors..Which you dont have..You do hav ea 255 which will be ok for now
 
Gotcha.... I knew it was more involved but I didn't realize it went that deep. Not that I'm aiming for using e85 all the time.. But if I wanted to, any idea on what injectors would work well with it? I can't say it enough, how awsome it is that the gas is so much cheaper and higher octane. If I can only get the right parts to make it work best with my car I'd be happy
 
E85 requires about 35% more fuel to maintain proper AFR. That the car even runs at all with it is a matter of nothing other than dumb luck. Sorry if that offends.

1) The stock tune commands an extremely rich AFR at WOT, so running a 50% mix may lean it out enough that it is still in the power range for gas, but not for E85. The fact that the high octane stopped the audible detonation doesn't change the fact that your flame was really lean/hot. You might get away with it but you'll never know until its too late.

2) At part throttle the EEC will learn quickly to compensate, but you may end up at adaptive limits and cause an occasional check engine light.Then when you switch back your car will run rich for a little while in it's relearning stage. If you disconnect the battery after re-introducing straight gas it will not have to relearn itself.

3) Learning does not take place at WOT, it takes place at certain areas of part throttle and is applied blindly to WOT. Without looking I'm not sure what the rpms and loads are, but even if I told you, you'd still have to guess if adequate learning had taken place for your WOT information to have adapted or not.

4) With stock fuel injectors at WOT you could easily run 100% duty cycle and not go overly rich because they don't have the capacity to do so. So you'll never be too rich at WOT but you could be too lean. Hopefully the octane will save you if it goes lean.

5) If you didn't burn off a plug tip or mess up something when you installed them (ignition misfire) then the rough running at idle is most likely caused by a mixture that is too lean to burn properly. I wouldn't say in your case that it is terribly bad to run E85 cut into your normal gas and maybe increasing the mixture a little at a time to see where you start to lose power/drivability, but changing your mixture like Damon changes his underwear is really going to screw you up.

6) I wouldn't experiment as there is no point. We already know what needs to be done with E85 and what the results will be so you aren't learning anything knew. What you are really doing is playing roulette with your motor.

To run E85 effectively, you need a chip that compensates, and 60lb injectors, so your cost would be about $500-800 to convert, depending on what you go with. Trying to run E85 for money savings is going to be futile in the long run. Using it for a performance advantage is a different story altogether.
 
Gotcha.... I knew it was more involved but I didn't realize it went that deep. Not that I'm aiming for using e85 all the time.. But if I wanted to, any idea on what injectors would work well with it? I can't say it enough, how awsome it is that the gas is so much cheaper and higher octane. If I can only get the right parts to make it work best with my car I'd be happy

everything Dave said is to true. on a stock system the most you want to mix is 4gal e-85 to the rest of the tank 93octane. that will put you around 96octane. much more then that the eec is not going to adjust for and your injectors are to small for. no matter what, if you increase your injector size get the 60lb injectors. they can be turned down and that way you'll most likely never have to change them out again.

the e-85 is used mostly in flex fuel engines which are far more efficient then our engines. they are designed for e-85 so using that fuel wont change the fuel mileage much. how ever our engines are not efficient. you will never make any gain money wise going with the e-85. our engines will burn that much more that you might brake even or even end up using more fuel.
if you want to try to save some fuel mileage get a snow kit. they help a little bit. (again) you will then need a tune.
 
if you want to try to save some fuel mileage get a snow kit. they help a little bit. (again) you will then need a tune.

The snow system can be set up for cruising but most of us here don't use it for that purpose. I have mine set up so it doesn't come on until I am in boost. I drove my car to Ohio and back, dyno'd it, raced it and didn't use a whole tank of fluid for the 2008 shootout.
 
I have been running only E85 in my Bird for at least 3 years now. After doing a lot of research. I wanted to have the 105 octane, and cooling effects of the alcohol. This allows me to run high boost, with 10.5 compression.

I compiled a lot of information before I made my decision to switch, and have found out a lot more about it since then. It is a GREAT choice for blown and/or high compression engines.

Here is a web page I put together about using E85 in high performance engines. It should answer most questions about it, and debunk a lot of rumors.

http://members.tccoa.com/392bird/e85.htm
 
the e-85 is used mostly in flex fuel engines which are far more efficient then our engines. they are designed for e-85 so using that fuel wont change the fuel mileage much. how ever our engines are not efficient.

When it comes to E-85, an engine's efficiency has nothing to do with the change in fuel economy. It's all in the fuel.

Every time I have used E-85 in one of my 5 different flex fuel vehicles I have had over the years, the fuel economy went down 15-25%.
 
I have been running only E85 in my Bird for at least 3 years now. After doing a lot of research. I wanted to have the 105 octane, and cooling effects of the alcohol. This allows me to run high boost, with 10.5 compression.

I compiled a lot of information before I made my decision to switch, and have found out a lot more about it since then. It is a GREAT choice for blown and/or high compression engines.

Here is a web page I put together about using E85 in high performance engines. It should answer most questions about it, and debunk a lot of rumors.

http://members.tccoa.com/392bird/e85.htm

awsome write up! I wish i would have built my 408 stroker to a higher compression and could have just gotten the big injectors and had it tuned properly. Its at about 9.8-1 right now N/A.... to avoid race fuel.

As for the SuperCoupe i dont think im going to get that crazy into it, unless i get a tuner and some larger Injectors for cheap.
 
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