E85 Has anyone done it?
 

Hey guys-

I am contemplating converting to E85 just wanted to see if anyone has done it. I know I would need a bigger pump and injectors, and I am pretty sure the lines will handle it.

Does any one know which size is best to go with?

Any opinions? Help is appreciated

Well, I doubt you would see the benefits NA that other cars see as you can't advance timing like they can.

But...hell if I know. Would love to see any sort of gains.

We cant advance timing with Uprev? I thought we could. I was just looking into this option. Obviously I would need injectors and a pump and a re-tune. If anyone has an idea on what I would need, let me know and I will try this out for the rest of us and report back results.

We can only retard timing with uprev. The ecu will do whatever it wants when it comes to timing advance. You can set something similar to target afr's but that seems to be about it.

Outside of injectors, pump and retune you're going to hear a lot of people say the fuel lines can get corroded by e85 and over time can cause a problem. However, I really can't tell you how accurate that is as I know many people down here running e85 in their newer cars that are "not e85 ready".

Just spray it :)

Ha well you took my idea, I was thinking of going e85 then spraying it. Stinks we cant advance timing with Uprev. What do people with FI cars use?

uprev but I didn't know the tuner couldn't advance timing

I could be wrong, I am not a tuner. However, I recall hearing a few mention you can advance it, but the ECU will put it back to where it sees optimal.

gaveup- we can advance timing with uprev apparently. So I guess I will be moving forward with this.

I'd skip it man. My buddy's have some problems with it in their Challengers. Absorbs moisture like crazy, eats up filter socks, etc. Too much trouble for a normal car IMO.

Our cars ride the knock sensors. The ecu puts the timing where it wants to a point

You can advance timing, but the motor doesn't make much power beyond another degree or two of advance. There are limits.

I don'think it's worth it on this (or maybe any) motor, NA.

When I ran E-85 I got a little more whp and gobs of torque in my Saturn Sky I was at 300 whp and 400 torque. I ran about 290 whp and 350 torque on 93 with tune. Yet my car could run through 12 gallons in less than 60 miles and I would run out of fuel and hit limp mode on a 4th gear pull. Yet that would get me to about 130 mph really really fast before it went into limp mode. Example I smoked a modified 6.0 liter pontiac top end or up to limp mode.

The stuff is just like race fuel when tuned, but it goes like race fuel too! You will have to fill up more than you do, but it does cost less at the pump.

A lot of people run a mix half 93 and half E-85 and call it E-47 I think the best of both worlds. Still need to be tuned for it. This keeps the fuel limits more in check.

In addition to the metal lines corroding from E85s ability to soak up moisture, you've also gotta make sure your rubber lines are E85 compatible. If not, it's cheap and easy to replace them. Also, run an inline fuel filter.

I really wouldn't bother with E85 on a mostly stock engine. If you're going to boost it or do a high comp build, then go for E85. Otherwise you're just going to end up with worse fuel economy and minimal gains in my opinion.

Talk to Phunk, he runs e85 on his TT setup.

Would it have any benefits naturally aspirated that would warrant the difficulty? On turbo cars, it allows higher boost and more power, but at the cost of burning MUCH more fuel to get that horsepower. E85 has less BTU than gasoline per gallon.

You could always get an aquamist type system and fill it with methanol, which is what my FD runs at high boost levels. I still don't know what that would do naturally aspirated besides cool the intake charge (which is more critical on boost) and add fuel. N2O works better for cooling the charge and is a great oxidizer.