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DTCs P061A/B on E85 Tune

Kronazilla

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Hello all,

Recently switched to a BAMA e85 tune. After driving the car normally for a couple of days I got it to a quarter tank and filled again with e85, same station. When pulling in third, about 65mph, the car lost power and a little wrench popped up on my dash. When I scanned it for codes I got a P061A code. Researching a bit I found some people looked to their air intakes and tunes, so I cleaned my MAF and checked my intake as well as contacted bama. Drove it for a while and did plenty of pulls in WOT with no issue. Then it randomly did it again, this time throwing a P061A and B code. Both times I cleared DTCs and the car went back to normal for a while. BAMA asked if I tested the e85, I responded no because I haven't. I see a lot of stangs go by the station I was at and filling up with e so I am not sure it's the fuel. I am planning to test out the e85 this week and getting back with BAMA to see if they'll revise my tune, until then I've gone back to 93 with no issues.

Wondering if anyone has had similar issues with e85 tunes?

Vehicle: 18 GT/PP2 with 3.73 diff, magnaflow cat backs, and a Roush CAI
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NGOT8R

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I’ve never had that Issue when running E85. Bama is right though, you should test your E85 every time and not assume that it contains 85% ethanol content. By federal law, E85 purchased at the gas pumps only has to contain between 51% and 83% ethanol. The only way you can get away without testing would be, if Bama also sent you a Flex tune. I run my car on the Flex tune (which still removes timing if needed) the majority of the time, but if I want to run it hard, I test the ethanol content beforehand. If it is 85%, then I am comfortable switching over to my E85 race tune (which has as much timing as the tuner can add LOCKED into the tune). Note: The ECM does not adjust timing in this tune because the tuner assumes that you have verified the ethanol content to be at 85%, although many do still run their E85 race tunes at 70% ethanol content or higher.

Please be careful and don’t gamble with this. Buy yourself a test kit on Amazon, keep it with you in the car and use it at every fill up. All it takes is a little water and a small amount of E85 to test it.
 
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Kronazilla

Kronazilla

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I’ve never had that Issue when running E85. Bama is right though, you should test your E85 every time and not assume that it contains 85% ethanol content. By federal law, E85 purchased at the gas pumps only has to contain between 51% and 83% ethanol. The only way you can get away without testing would be, if Bama also sent you a Flex tune. I run my car on the Flex tune (which still removes timing if needed) the majority of the time, but if I want to run it hard, I test the ethanol content beforehand. If it is 85%, then I am comfortable switching over to my E85 race tune (which has as much timing as the tuner can add LOCKED into the tune). Note: The ECM does not adjust timing in this tune because the tuner assumes that you have verified the ethanol content to be at 85%, although many do still run their E85 race tunes at 70% ethanol content or higher.

Please be careful and don’t gamble with this. Buy yourself a test kit on Amazon, keep it with you in the car and use it at every fill up. All it takes is a little water and a small amount of E85 to test it.
Thanks for all the info, this being my fist run in with e85 I am trying to obsorb as much info as I can. I have ordered a test kit and hopefully I'll test it out this week when it comes in.

I know you mentioned a Bama Flex fuel tune, do they make those on request? The only options I saw on their form were 91/93/e85

Also would a Flex fuel tune produce more power than a 93 tune?
 

NGOT8R

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Thanks for all the info, this being my fist run in with e85 I am trying to obsorb as much info as I can. I have ordered a test kit and hopefully I'll test it out this week when it comes in.

I know you mentioned a Bama Flex fuel tune, do they make those on request? The only options I saw on their form were 91/93/e85

Also would a Flex fuel tune produce more power than a 93 tune?
I’d ask Bama if they can send you a Flex tune. My tuner (Lund Racing) offered the Flex tune along with my E85 Race tune.

The purpose of a Flex tune is to allow transitioning between 93 and E85 fuels, but the beauty of it is, it also allows you to run any combination of 93 or E85 and/or one or the other. That’s why I run on mine 99% of the time. When I drove my car from Kansas to Florida, I started out on E85 and it became harder and harder to find E85 on the route, so eventually I started filling up with 93 to make the rest of the drive down. Now, I will say that with my car, it doesn’t like 93 as well as it does E85 on the Flex tune. I can tell because I get some pops and occasional backfires, but as soon as I am able to burn up all of the 93 and fill up with E85 again, the car is happy once again.

Many have said that a Flex tune is only about 5 hp or so less than the E85 Race tune. Yes, I would say that it does make more power than the 93 tune. If it doesn’t, it’s certainly a much cleaner burning fuel (less carbons) and that’s better for the engine.
 
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Kronazilla

Kronazilla

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I’d ask Bama if they can send you a Flex tune. My tuner (Lund Racing) offered the Flex tune along with my E85 Race tune.

The purpose of a Flex tune is to allow transitioning between 93 and E85 fuels, but the beauty of it is, it also allows you to run any combination of 93 or E85 and/or one or the other. That’s why I run on mine 99% of the time. When I drove my car from Kansas to Florida, I started out on E85 and it became harder and harder to find E85 on the route, so eventually I started filling up with 93 to make the rest of the drive down. Now, I will say that with my car, it doesn’t like 93 as well as it does E85 on the Flex tune. I can tell because I get some pops and occasional backfires, but as soon as I am able to burn up all of the 93 and fill up with E85 again, the car is happy once again.

Many have said that a Flex tune is only about 5 hp or so less than the E85 Race tune. Yes, I would say that it does make more power than the 93 tune. If it doesn’t, it’s certainly a much cleaner burning fuel (less carbons) and that’s better for the engine.
Yeah I'll definitely inquire about the Flex fuel tune from Bama once I am able to get back with them on the ethanol percentage. Aside from the issue I ran into the car ran beautifully, it's hard to back to 93 after experiencing that. I know people swear by the Lund tunes so part of me is thinking to just get a tune from them. Either way I won't make any expensive decisions like that until I'm able to test the e85
 

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AZ18yote

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Ya testing is key when not running a flex tune since the e content would be inferred in the tune and if the content is lower then your AFR would be incorrect and cause issues.

I would also look into a reputable tuner as alternative to Bama since the tune itself could also be the problem. Especially if no flex option is offered then all the more reason to explore alternatives. Tuners will typically send you the base file tune, then have you log and send revisions based on that.
 

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Ya testing is key when not running a flex tune since the e content would be inferred in the tune and if the content is lower then your AFR would be incorrect and cause issues.
AFR doesn’t change with varying ethanol content in our closed loop fueling system. PCM/trims targets a commanded lambda value and will maintain this during operation. O2’s read in lambda.
 

AZ18yote

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AFR doesn’t change with varying ethanol content in our closed loop fueling system. PCM/trims targets a commanded lambda value and will maintain this during operation. O2’s read in lambda.
The stoich value should reflect a change based on e content as well. Example pure e85 AFR will read mid to high 9s, e54 mid 11s to 12. Obviously standard pump up around 14.
 

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The stoich value should reflect a change based on e content as well. Example pure e85 AFR will read mid to high 9s, e54 mid 11s to 12. Obviously standard pump up around 14.
Correct, on a gasoline scale yes. Our fueling is controlled and targeting lambda. So only your display AFR changes based on a gas scale, but the true lambda does not....
 
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Kronazilla

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Well it took a while for the test kit to get here but it's here. I made sure to get a new fuel jug so it's straight e85 from the pump. Tested the e from the same station and the results look to be around e83-e85, tested it about 5 times making sure to dispose of the mixture and starting over with every new test. Gonna get this info to bama to see if maybe a tune revision is in order

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NGOT8R

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I recommend data logging again on your E85 Race tune and sending the logs back to Bama. Flex Fuel tune is gonna be easy to do. Good luck and let us know the outcome.
 
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Kronazilla

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Update: Bama did revise my e85 tune, only issue is I got half a tank if 93 to burn through before I switch. I also did inquire about a Flex fuel tune, still waiting to hear back.
 

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Update: Bama did revise my e85 tune, only issue is I got half a tank if 93 to burn through before I switch. I also did inquire about a Flex fuel tune, still waiting to hear back.
I’d still do one more log once you switch over. Get your self a 5 gal. gas can, fill it up with E85 and when you literally run the car out of gas, put the E85 in, go fill up and do one more log for Bama, just in case they need to make any more tweaks to optimize it.
 
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Kronazilla

Kronazilla

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I’d still do one more log once you switch over. Get your self a 5 gal. gas can, fill it up with E85 and when you literally run the car out of gas, put the E85 in, go fill up and do one more log for Bama, just in case they need to make any more tweaks to optimize it.
Will do that for sure. Plus gives me a reason to buy a vp racing fuel container lol
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