E85 Daily??

[Headless Horseman]

Hello gang!! Happy holidays!!!
I was wondering if it were safe to run E85 Daily? I haven't done anything to my fuel system only a throttle body. I'm Wengerd tuned for E85. My local Amoco has E85 that tests to E90 regularly. Premium is at $4.05 while E85 is $2.85. I recently realized I didn't drive the car enough. So i made it my daily driver. I couldn't ask for a more fun way to commute. Can it be harmful to use E85 daily, regularly?

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[NGOT8R]

The only harm that will come from it, is a reduction in cash from your wallet. Good stuff though! My car loves E85 much better than it does 93. You’re good to go.

 

[K4fxd]

Can it be harmful to use E85 daily, regularly?

It's only harmful if you do short trips. You need to get the engine fully to temp or the oil will sludge.

 

[Headless Horseman]

It's only harmful if you do short trips. You need to get the engine fully to temp or the oil will sludge.

Does letting the car warm up before driving help with this?

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Yes

 

[NGOT8R]

Keep an eye on your fuel pressure if you have a means to do so. I didn’t daily my 2019, but it lived on E85 for over 3 years and I suddenly had a fuel pump failure at 7K miles. This may not be an issue for all end users though. I‘ve since upgraded to a DW400.

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/suspected-bad-fuel-pump-2019-bullitt-on-e85.189945/

 

[Cordero1]

I had E85 in my last car for 3 years straight & only swapped when going on road trips. Currently on e85 since early this year. Great stuff to run especially if catless due to the smell from 91/93. Only down side is cold winter starts.

 

[2morrow]

FR on the cold starts...or if your cammed or both.

Re; sludge,
@Headless Horseman , https://motoiq.com/e85-can-mess-up-your-engine/

A good heat cycle, using quality lubricants and reducing your changing intervals will mitigate this.

 

[Cordero1]

I can't think of the name of the Lucas additive I put in every tank & just finished the last of it this last tank.

 

[2morrow]

I can't think of the name of the Lucas additive I put in every tank & just finished the last of it this last tank.

Ask and you shall receive.

 

[Cordero1]

Ask and you shall receive.

Yup, that's the stuff

 

[engineermike]

It’s my belief that cold starting is all in the tuning. If ford can make the f150 start perfectly fine on e in the cold then it can be done in the mustang.

 

[Angrey]

It’s my belief that cold starting is all in the tuning. If ford can make the f150 start perfectly fine on e in the cold then it can be done in the mustang.

It's absolutely an OEM thing. It's obvious that the engineers do it for whatever reason, but now that I'm on the stand alone, the car starts and purrs at target idle. No more terrorizing the nighbors.

I'm guessing the Ford tuning structure is setup for starting the car in Alaska but I don't know enough about it to understand why the tuners can't just replicate the warm start conditions on the cold start tables.

I spent about 4 hours with my previous tuner (who tunes Chevys and Dodges as well) and he was explaining to me that the Ford idle strategies are way WAY too complicated and with GM you can simply fix a couple of variables and stabilize it very easily.

 

[Angrey]

Hello gang!! Happy holidays!!!
I was wondering if it were safe to run E85 Daily? I haven't done anything to my fuel system only a throttle body. I'm Wengerd tuned for E85. My local Amoco has E85 that tests to E90 regularly. Premium is at $4.05 while E85 is $2.85. I recently realized I didn't drive the car enough. So i made it my daily driver. I couldn't ask for a more fun way to commute. Can it be harmful to use E85 daily, regularly?

E85 is 51%-83% by law. They're not allowed to call it E85 if it's outside of that.

Most people don't let the tube test settle properly (i.e. 15-30 minutes) to get an accurate reading. The reading just after you've shaken and let it initially settle will be much higher than when you let it sit for an extended amount of time and fully separate. But I get it, who wants to sit there at the pump for 30 minutes (or take the tube full of fuel with you).

Fun fact, it's 83% (not 85%) because the denatured ethanol that fuel refiners use for blending already has 2% "contaminants" to make it non-consumable/poisonous (and ostensibly to avoid consumption ethanol taxes and such).

E85-R sold at a very minor number of stations is truly 85% Ethanol (always) as it's not compliant for FFV (flex fuel vehicles) and sold as a specialty or race fuel.

As others have pointed out, E85 is actually better for your vehicle in nearly every way if you have a modern fuel system (ethanol resistant) and properly tuned for it.

The biggest drawback is not allowing the motor oil to fully heat and burn off lighter weight contaminants, so just let the car fully warm before driving and if you can, heat the oil higher from time to time (i.e. flog the car and drive spirited for a bit). This will elevate the temp of the oil and help drive off the lightweight stuff that cuts your oil viscosity.

 

[engineermike]

Fun fact…the factory f150 flex logic oil-life usage rate doubles when on e85.

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