There is an E-85 filling station 10-15 mins from my house now, just wondering has anybody thought about using it, what would be required aside from bigger injectors. Its always been in the back of my head really, to have 2 separate tunes, one for E-85 and one for normal pump.

Rumor has it all Wal-marts are going to start carrying E-85.

 

I plan on switching over to it this summer. Theres alot of writeups around. Ive heard rumors about fuel lines getting ate away over time. My buddy is running his all motor honda with it just fine with stock lines.

 

I'm going to use ethanol with nitrous and a separate tank , pump and regulator, only the E98 stuff you get in a gallon can at the Ace Hardware stores. Engine will be on race fuel.

Methanol is death on most metals, except stainless steel.( Flush after every use) Ethanol can wreck older gaskets but metals are safe. I've been looking into this for a while.

Ethanol takes about 1.3 times as much volume as gas - methanol about 1.5 times as much. I know a couple of brothers in KC with turbo DSMs - one has a Dodge Shadow converted to rear-wheel drive with a DSM turboed engine running on E85. He drives it everywhere, and has gone into the low 11s at the strip.

FWIW...

 

Thats a myth, cars made after 85 IIRC should be perfectly fine with E85.

 

im thinking about just buying some oversized injectors and giving it a shot. I was planning on just picking up some 440s, but i think some 600-650s and try running E-85. The only thing that i question alittle is if an EB can handle everything, or if i have to upgrade to an EU.

What would be really nice come to think of it would be if there was a way to have a drain plug under the fuel tank. But the hazards of fire are alittle too great, especially for somebody like me with a overly lowered car. I would like to have multiple tunes one for around town on E-85 then when i have to go on trips drain whatever is in there and go back to normal pump, solely E-85 isnt going to work yet.

 

I did that by using a relay I installed at the back to control the fuel pump, which always provides full battery voltage to the pump. By using a pushbutton switch mounted under the hood, and a big ball valve just after the fuel filter, run a piece of hose down to a can outside the wheel well, switch the ball valve to Drain, and power up the fuel pump by pushing on the button. When you let up on the button, the fuel stops. This is safer than draining the tank directly.

 

Thats pretty clever.

 

Well, you can't get every drop out of the tank, but life is like that - and gas and E85 mix just fine.... I had that problem early last season, where I needed to get some old race fuel out of the tank - so since I already had the booster relay installed for the Walbro, it was a "Duh" moment to switch it from the front, and ball valves are cheap and I had lots of extra fuel line and a 5-gal can.

If you run a separate 10-gauge wire (fused) from the battery to underneath the rear seat, open up the hot wire that goes to the pump, take a standard automotive 12 volt relay and wire the coil to that wire (ground the other side of the coil), connect the N.O. contact to the new battery buss and to the fuel pump, then the pump comes on as usual, but running with full voltage. The PB switch goes across the battery buss and the coil of the new relay. It's a good way to check fuel pressure without starting the engine, too...

 

I have thought about E85, specially in my FI case, I would benefit greatly as far as power goes. But for daily driving it is a total waste of money. Yes its cheaper than gas, but you use a crap load more of it, meaning you'll be visiting the gas station 2 or 3 times more than you do already, you'll probably end up paying more than what you pay with 93oct or w/e your city has. If its for a weekend or track car, then hell yeah it would be great, also gotta know how to tune for it as well.

 

i dunno about 2-3 times more fuel, at most u will use 30% more fuel, but i have a friend with a boosted honda that converted, that thing only has a 10 gallon tank to start with. He said he gets 200-230 miles per tank, he use to get 250 on normal pump.

It also depend where you are like where i live, E-85 is $2.50 a gallon. That super unleaded on the other hand, **** runs $3.50 a gallon. NC has the highest gas tax of any state.

 

quite a few of our gas stations already do E10, so i know it doesnt matter if alittle is left over, as long as most of it is out.

 

Correct. When tunning with e85 stoich is actually 9.7 not 14.7

 

When tunning with e85 stoich is actually 9.7 not 14.7. Some widebands can be set up for different fuel types.

 

I have also read that the octane rating varies everytime you fill the tank, so there are systems out there that detect the octane and adjust timing based on that, or others actually make their own mixtures and such so that every full tank is equal (but these are like race car guys), so I assume tuners adjust their maps on the conservative side so no one has to worry about having a low octane tank... someone correct me if im wrong, i have not done heavy research on this, just a lil.

 

There are octane testers you can buy. Usually e85 is around 104 octane rating.

 

E85 is a joke. It is maxxed out potential. The only pro in it is it is more available than race gas. You will probably burn through your oxygen sensors faster as well running e85..

Also, it is not fuel efficient to run it as somebody said about 30% less miles on a tank with e85

 

Still interested in this. Premium is about to hit $4 out here, E-85 is still at 2.70 a gallon. people that are tuned correctly on E-85 are getting some outstanding mileage averages. My friend in his honda use to get 32mpg on pump, on e85 he is averaging 30mpg. He gets close to 270miles a tank now.

 

Does not make sense to me, if E85 requires ~30% more fuel, dosent that mean you will have to fill more often than 93oct?

 

It really depends, because it can use UP TO 30%, if you are just driving around not really getting on it then you will not use that much more fuel. I was just talking to the him yesterday and he was driving his car, and he was saying since he got the car retuned(he had fuel pump issues so his tune was a little skewed), he cant notice the difference between the 2 and he is just driving the car around town.

 

At that price I'd run E85, the problem is getting a tune 4 it. My se-r ran 30-33mpg on 93 and 23-26mpg on E85. Now 4 pump gas I was running my jwt ecu and 4 e85 my stock ecu, so the tune wasn't optimal. I was able to pass emissions with e85 where i failed with 93.

 

think the 440s wont cut it for e85. but IMO its prob a good idea. Plenty of people have made the switch. Most do a dual walbro setup and big injectors for fuel needs and thats it.

@3.90 per gallon for 93
and 2.70 for e85
that $1.20 difference is 30% cheaper/savings right there, so even if you run out of gas 30% faster, should be about the same. and you get to tune for more power (: !!safer!!

 

nah the 440s are not big enough for E-85, unless i run ridiculously low levels of boost.

 

Mehh, if it ends up being the same as running 93, then why not just use meth lol. Keep things simple, i think e85 is overrated.

 

I think awhile back when I was thinking about trying this I figured you needed 550cc injectors to make 300whp. There are still no stations near me that carry this other than on an army base near by. And when you do the math, it is pretty much the same amount of money gas mileage wise as paying for just straight 93.

 

ALOT, I mean ALOT of 3800 guys are running E85.

I've thought about going that route, gives these guys a nice boost.

 

In USA e85 does run 30% less efficient than that of Petroleum (we use corn, in South America they use sugar cane ethanol and is much better than what we have here). It is a proven fact. E85 octane rating is around 100 octane give or take. At the end of the day when gas hits 4 bucks for Regular Unlead, e85 is a good alternative regardless of how less efficient it is.

I work in the Petroleum industry, and I have seen e85 pumps and they are nickel plated so that the metal isn't eaten away. If you are going to use e85 I would recommend that you do in fact change your hoses/lines out to nickel plated!