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E85 in Winter

whalesalad

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Howdy,

I live in Michigan so winter is upon us. Fortunately being in Michigan also means there is plenty of E85 around #cornfed

I am finally about to make the plunge and get a flex fuel tune. My questions are:

  • How will the engine like the cold E85? Anyone have cold start problems? I hear it can be troublesome.
  • How does availability of E85 change in the winter? I hear the mixtures become more like E70.

Thanks. Depending on the answers I might just wait for spring.
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ryant601

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There's definitely a marked difference in the starts in the cold, mine is garage kept and it helps, but if I leave it parked outside overnight...it gives me some trouble. Nothing catastrophic though.
 
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The mixture get as low as E50 now, but even that should be enough to reach MBT. When I lived in MN I didn't even bother running E85 during winter. Tires just spun due to cold pavement.
 

ryant601

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so would stock injectors have more breathing room in the winter (supposing the E is less than 85)? Or do they have more trouble.
 

Dominant1

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I have a flex fuel tune and i now run 93 octane gas with octane booster when the mornings started to getting cold! My station is consistently e-90 so cold starts were hard!
 

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Saywhen

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I'm in north Georgia and my cold starts here lately with the flex fuel tune running e85 piss me off so bad I hate to even crank the damn thing. It's embarrassing when your sitting in a car you have over 20k in and it won't start when it's 60* outside. I have 47 miles to empty on this tank of e85. I'm going to put 93 in there a few tanks then change my tune over to the 93 Lund tune and hope for the best. NOTE: the e85 I'm running is very good stuff, but my car turns over forever and struggles to start, kinda shitty for a 2017 w/5k miles if you ask me. I feel like I'm back in high school trying to crank my beat to shit 87 bronco II again :doh:
 

Dominant1

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Its not the car its a characteristic of the lower igniting properties of e-85 in cold weather. I call e-85 cold fuel because of this! And if you ever lit gas with a match it practically explodes upon ignition. E-85 is like lighting rubbing alcohol, it ignites but not as lively as gas!
 

Saywhen

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Either way it still sucks!!!
 

Dominant1

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Thats why they invented “flex fuel” tunes ... its all a part of the game!!!
 

Saywhen

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Still sucks
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