2018 up GT on E85 come on in...

[BWG]

I made the switch to e85 last night. I have to do some rpm holds after work today for Palm Beach Dyno. I just have a Roush CAI, 3.55 and a10. The difference is sick to say the least over the 93 octane. My local e85 tested at 78% ethanol. They're likely tweaking my tune for that today so I can flash it again tonight for logging. Nice thread!

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[michail71]

I just got a tank of 85% (as seen by the computer) from RaceTrack and loaded an E85R tune. First impressions are the idle can be rougher and bounce around some for a minute after startup. Otherwise it just feels stupid powerful, like the car gets launched by a catapult.

I may stick with the Flex file for normal day to day driving.

 

[RBELUN]

Impressive. I hope to see more of these ~500whp dynos for the basic bolton cars. Is the dyno tune still through Palm Beach Dyno?

Yes the dyno was used as PBD was able to edit and update data logs after runs were made.

 

[BWG]

I noticed the rpm swings on cold start too, but then the tuner cleaned up the fuel trim, and they mostly went away. They were only 125 rpm swings for me though. Overall, the e85 havs stupid power, but casual driving isn't quite as smooth for me yet as the 93 octane. It's still being worked on.

What I notice is a little more drag while moving with my foot off the gas and also with very minimal throttle maintaining low speeds. I'll have to see if I can get the tuner to give me more info on that. It might just be a characteristic of the fuel.

Not that I care, but 15 mpg's for me so far on it in case anyone was curious.

 

[Lo Pony]

This is perhaps the most awesome thing I have ever seen on this forum. The only way this could get any better is if you added price per level of mods so you can see bang for the buck factor. As is, this is extremely helpful information! Thank you for publishing this.

I agree. There’s no substitute for DATA that’s part of a well controlled experiment.

 

[Lo Pony]

I have the E85 flex from Livernois and drive it every day 20 miles round trip to work. Love it. Last I tested was E78 from a Chevron off Fletcher and I-5 in Los Angeles that also sells 100 octane Sunoco. No real issues with starting, drivability, anything else. This particular tune also has some transmission tweaks that make the car extra fun! Mileage is about 13 miles per gallon, but remember this is Los Angeles! Other than MRR wheels and tires, car is totally stock.

 

[Lo Pony]

One question I have is why aren’t these cars E85 flex capable from the factory?

 

[Andy13186]

One question I have is why aren’t these cars E85 flex capable from the factory?

That is a good question because clearly our fuel systems are good enough. F150's with coyotes are flex fuel vehicles too. So IDK.

 

[thehunterooo]

One question I have is why aren’t these cars E85 flex capable from the factory?

Would cost Ford more. Tuning would probably be another issue I expect. And E85 is still pretty rare in a lot of areas :(

Do any higher performance cars have flex fuel capabilities from factory?

 

[thegeniusmoose]

Chevy SS had a flex v8 LS motor at one stage. Came out in a lot of Australian Commodores too.

 

[bootlegger]

One question I have is why aren’t these cars E85 flex capable from the factory?

I can tell you my thoughts from working at a fuel system supplier...
First of all, higher ethanol levels tend to cause polishing of the roller surfaces in the HP pump. This tends to be the biggest issue with E100, but is still present in E85. This could cause early failures if a person was to run max ethanol content for long periods of time. I am guessing this is more likely in areas that always have >80% EtOH.
Second, the corrosion inhibitors that are normally used in ethanol are known to cause IVD and DI deposits. Someone running E85 100% of the time, with no detergent additive, would be very prone to having performance issues from deposit buildup.
Third, and probably the most important reason, is the tuning/validation restraints. Testing and validation would have to be done on both gasoline and E85, which leads to a lot more development costs. There would have to be a lot of additional mapping, as they would have to compensate for 87, 89, 91, and 93 octane gas, as well as E5 to E85 blended fuels. Given that most people don't care to use anything higher than E10, it's cheapest and easiest to just state that max E15 is allowed.

 

[Lo Pony]

I can tell you my thoughts from working at a fuel system supplier...
First of all, higher ethanol levels tend to cause polishing of the roller surfaces in the HP pump. This tends to be the biggest issue with E100, but is still present in E85. This could cause early failures if a person was to run max ethanol content for long periods of time. I am guessing this is more likely in areas that always have >80% EtOH.
Second, the corrosion inhibitors that are normally used in ethanol are known to cause IVD and DI deposits. Someone running E85 100% of the time, with no detergent additive, would be very prone to having performance issues from deposit buildup.
Third, and probably the most important reason, is the tuning/validation restraints. Testing and validation would have to be done on both gasoline and E85, which leads to a lot more development costs. There would have to be a lot of additional mapping, as they would have to compensate for 87, 89, 91, and 93 octane gas, as well as E5 to E85 blended fuels. Given that most people don't care to use anything higher than E10, it's cheapest and easiest to just state that max E15 is allowed.

Good points. I like your earlier suggestions in another thread about using a detergent occasionally if e85 is the only fuel. I’ll do that too.

 

[Kermitz]

I had a talk with Shaun from AED about using E85 full time.
He said it's fine for full time use, but he did suggest using 5 ML of Marvel Mystery Oil per gallon of E85. Adding this supposedly lubes the fuel injectors.

 

[bootlegger]

I had a talked with Shaun from AED about using E85 full time.
He said it's fine for full time use, but he did suggest using 5 ML of Marvel Mystery Oil per gallon of E85. Adding this supposedly lubes the fuel injectors.

Does MMO state compatibility with E85? From a detergent standpoint, only 1-2 are soluble in E85 (the main one being PEA).

 

[Zinc03svt]

I use Lucas UCL or Ethanol safe occasionally.

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