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Old 06-14-2008, 02:40 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Default Running 50/50 E85/91 = E43

I am in the process of tuning my new setup (SST v2, ported mani, 3" O2, returnline, 650s, mapclamp) and I was having trouble getting the pump gas tune right since I have no way to monitor knock yet. I'm ordering a scangauge for that, but until it comes I have to be conservative. I don't want to run around on 6 dollar a gallon 100 octane in my daily driver, although done it and it has been fun.

Anyway, I've done a ton of research into E85 conversion in the past and was planning to do it eventually once I had a good tuning method (SCT). There is a guy who put one of those converter boxes on his SRT for E85 and has had it for a while with no problems. I figured since I have way more fuel than I need and two ways to control it I could give E85 a shot. So I waited until I got down to 1/2 tank and filled the rest with E85 (I have three places which are close to my house or on the way to work where I can get it). I raised the fuel pressure and then adjusted the mapclamp while bringing the boost up to 23 psi. I think this should be safe since I'm running roughly 98 octane (50/50 mix of 105 and 91 should be 98). Car runs awesome and pulls harder than ever even though I haven't put the new colder NGK 4306 plugs in yet. I figure once I get the scangauge, I can push up the boost a bit and get it just right.

So, since E85 is $3/gal and 91 is $4/gal, my price for 98 octane is $3.50/gallon. Even though I'll lose a little bit of fuel economy it will work out to about the same cost as running pump gas, with race gas type performance. With a 50/50 mix of 91 and E85 I guess you could call it E43, because that's about the percentage of Ethanol I'm running. It should be safe for all the parts of the car's fuel system since it is designed to run on E10 in the winter anyway. I report back on my progress if anything changes.
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Old 06-14-2008, 02:09 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Quote: Originally Posted by enginjoe View Post
I am in the process of tuning my new setup (SST v2, ported mani, 3" O2, returnline, 650s, mapclamp) and I was having trouble getting the pump gas tune right since I have no way to monitor knock yet. I'm ordering a scangauge for that, but until it comes I have to be conservative. I don't want to run around on 6 dollar a gallon 100 octane in my daily driver, although done it and it has been fun.

Anyway, I've done a ton of research into E85 conversion in the past and was planning to do it eventually once I had a good tuning method (SCT). There is a guy who put one of those converter boxes on his SRT for E85 and has had it for a while with no problems. I figured since I have way more fuel than I need and two ways to control it I could give E85 a shot. So I waited until I got down to 1/2 tank and filled the rest with E85 (I have three places which are close to my house or on the way to work where I can get it). I raised the fuel pressure and then adjusted the mapclamp while bringing the boost up to 23 psi. I think this should be safe since I'm running roughly 98 octane (50/50 mix of 105 and 91 should be 98). Car runs awesome and pulls harder than ever even though I haven't put the new colder NGK 4306 plugs in yet. I figure once I get the scangauge, I can push up the boost a bit and get it just right.

So, since E85 is $3/gal and 91 is $4/gal, my price for 98 octane is $3.50/gallon. Even though I'll lose a little bit of fuel economy it will work out to about the same cost as running pump gas, with race gas type performance. With a 50/50 mix of 91 and E85 I guess you could call it E43, because that's about the percentage of Ethanol I'm running. It should be safe for all the parts of the car's fuel system since it is designed to run on E10 in the winter anyway. I report back on my progress if anything changes.

No one has dynoed an E85 set up yet. Do this and you will have a ton of people looking in here. Set up should make very good numbers just remember to not let the gas sit to long. If I remember right the additives from e85 to regular fuel seem to separate over time if the car sits for to long of a time period.
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Old 06-14-2008, 02:40 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Quote: Originally Posted by ptperformance View Post
No one has dynoed an E85 set up yet. Do this and you will have a ton of people looking in here. Set up should make very good numbers just remember to not let the gas sit to long. If I remember right the additives from e85 to regular fuel seem to separate over time if the car sits for to long of a time period.

Yes. This should not be a problem since it is my daily driver. The longest it could possibly sit is when I go on vacation which is never more than two weeks at a time. When I get the scangauge, I'm going to tune it for max power and dyno it. Should be interesting.
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Old 06-14-2008, 10:38 PM   #4 (permalink)
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car runs pretty decent with 10% ethonal walmart gas(93oct) that we get here. i just dont like that fact that i have to fill up all super earlier than normal.
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Old 06-17-2008, 06:57 PM   #5 (permalink)
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more updates on this...................
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Old 06-17-2008, 07:07 PM   #6 (permalink)
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this is nothing new, people mix E85 w/ regular gas all the time. Keep an eye on your AFR and you should be okay. If you get too heavy on the E85 you'll end up throwing a code

Might want to change your fuel filter if you plan on doing this alot. E85 tends to clean your gas tank rather well, but all that junk gets caught in the filter.
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Old 06-17-2008, 10:42 PM   #7 (permalink)
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I hear you about the filter. Mine is brand new as of a few weeks ago. I'm going to get the bottle neck fix with a nice external type filter that is easy to check and change. Eventually, the tank will be shiny like new.

Ok. I'm on my second tank of 50/50 mix and things are going well. Using my gasoline calibrated AEM UEGO, I'm tuning for 11.0 AFR at 22psi. The experts say that for straight E85, a 10.4 AFR is what you should shoot for at high boost to be really safe. High boost is somewhat subjective, but I'm assuming that I'm getting to the high end. Since I'm 50/50 E85/91 I should be really safe being about half way between 11.5 and 10.4. I'm only going to 22 psi for now until my scangauge comes in and I can monitor knock. Should be just a couple more days. The butt dyno says the car is about as fast as the Camaro was on 5 psi with the STS GT67. It definitely is the fastest it has ever been while being much more driveable than the maxxed out stock turbo (thanks to the SST and mani).

It's easy to get a 50/50 mix at the pump. I just do gas first and match it with E85. If I ever goof up and am full before I get the matching amount of E85, I'll be erring on the rich side and will be safe. If I ever want to go on a long trip, I can turn down the boost and lower the fuel pressure to use normal gas if E85 is not available. Once I get a real tune (SCT) this method will still work.
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Old 06-24-2008, 04:02 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Damn I better go get some pump gas I pumped 5 gallons of straight E 85 when my gas light was on Noticed that im going really lean like 14.5 but I let off as soon as I hit the gas, but I am getting no knock at all Btw whats a conversion box do?
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Old 06-27-2008, 09:14 PM   #9 (permalink)
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Quote: Originally Posted by 2.4 litre kreeder View Post
Damn I better go get some pump gas I pumped 5 gallons of straight E 85 when my gas light was on Noticed that im going really lean like 14.5 but I let off as soon as I hit the gas, but I am getting no knock at all Btw whats a conversion box do?

You need to add fuel to run that much e85. The conversion box just adds injector pulse width to the injectors to compensate for the increased fuel need of E85. Supposedly it can tell if you need more or less fuel and compensate for any mix you end up with.
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Old 06-27-2008, 09:30 PM   #10 (permalink)
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Default E85 no good with Walbro Fuel pumps?????

My almost new Walbro 255 went out the other day. There was a small metal part rolling around in the plastic fuel reservior where the fuel pump sits and all it did was stir the fuel around in a glass bottle when I bench tested it.

Well, I just recently switched to running 50/50 E85/91, so a natural question was, "Did the E85 cause the problem?" I called Walbro to see if the pump was covered until warranty and they said no, suck wind dude. Ok, that's fair, it's a high performance part and it did last a few months, whatever. I then asked if their pumps were ok to run with E85. The lady I spoke with said no, absolutely not. I asked if she meant they just weren't rated for E85, but that it probably would work. She said no. I know you can get failure from the increased workload and gunk that the E85 cleans out of your tank, but the filters didn't look that bad (looked worse when I took out the stock fuel pump) and they were new a few months ago.

This runs contrary to everything I've seen about E85, including local tuners and those I've read about online. I talked to AGP (got the new one from them) and they have people they know running the same pump with E85. Anyway, I call BS on pump failure from E85. I'm going for it again. If this one burns up, I'm going back to stock and getting a real car.

Anyone else who's running E85 having issues?
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