E85: why aren't more folks running it?

[MikeyPee]

Excellent exchanges in here.

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[RSKTAKR]

Got a email from Erick Brooks. He said he hasn't explored the s550 PCM enough yet to do/find the flex fuel option yet. I almost want to start looking for it too. That would be awesome to find that and be able to use it in these cars.

 

[Process]

Got a email from Erick Brooks. He said he hasn't explored the s550 PCM enough yet to do/find the flex fuel option yet. I almost want to start looking for it too. That would be awesome to find that and be able to use it in these cars.

It's only been tested on the copperhead pcm.

 

[Walt1120]

Again, unless you have E85 available everywhere around you there is no point imo on a N/A car.

Filling drums with it not the best idea either, gasoline is made up of mostly nonpolar hydrocarbons.. ethanol by contrast is a polar molecule. Polar attract polar and nonpolar attract nonpolar

Water is a very polar meaning that moisture in the air is naturally absorbed into a vessel containing ethanol much more than gasoline. The higher the temperature and humidity, the worse this effect. Every time you pump out of that drum or tank your introducing moisture into the system and overtime can cause a buildup of water in the fuel. You dont want your ever clear to slowly turn into just vodka now do you, ha.

 

[Supa LA]

You essentially scale it as a max value. The ethanol content percentage will then scale timing stoich etc compared to the gas spark tables.

So one spectrum is a pure ethanol table and the other is pure gas. Your content will be the average value.

It takes dialing in but it does work. For what it's worth Eric is my tuner.

Having his function enabled would've came in handy a few weeks ago because I got a bad tank of ethanol. Idle was all messed up from it. Had to get rid of it. Once I did was all smooth sailing

How did you get it out? Siphon the fuel tank? I have always been curious about this.


From what i have read/heard, if you have a N/A car, even with bolt-ons and a tune the gains on E85 are minimal. Like 10whp range. Is that worth the trouble and extra mods to the car? Only YOU can decide that. For me? Na. I'll wait until i go FI. Whenever that day comes.

 

[Process]

The reason to do it na is you'll never knock. Summer Heat and 93, these cars tend to knock.

Basically just hook up a gt500 fuel filter to your fuel line at the rail and some fuel hose to a bucket.

Have your tuner set you up with a drain tune which basically just turns on the fuel pumps. Easy siphon.

 

[Walt1120]

The reason to do it na is you'll never knock. Summer Heat and 93, these cars tend to knock.

Basically just hook up a gt500 fuel filter to your fuel line at the rail and some fuel hose to a bucket.

Have your tuner set you up with a drain tune which basically just turns on the fuel pumps. Easy siphon.

If your running a 93 tune when it happens have your tuner make a safer tune for hot temps or load a tune for say 87 or 91 octane while using 93 gas. Not saying you do but from my experience people like to load the most aggressive email tune they can and run it all the time whether its 100% humidity..20 degrees or 110 degrees out. And then they bash the tuner when they have issues from daily driving on a race tune

I see you have a D1 so I know your not running the stock tune but just as info for others, the car should never be knocking with 93 octane and stock tune, if it is the noise must be something else. And if it really is detonation, there is something else going on

 

[Process]

Why run the stock tune ? These cars unlock so much potential with a good aftermarket tune.

A lot of tuners keep adaptive spark enabled which raises and lowers timing based on a lot of variables. A few of those is engine coolant temp and inlet air temps. When they reach certain thresh holds the car knocks and the knock sensors reduce timing to a safer level. This happens a lot in the summer time when driving the car aggressively.

Benefit to running e85 is, this never happens.

 

[Walt1120]

Why run the stock tune ? These cars unlock so much potential with a good aftermarket tune.

A lot of tuners keep adaptive spark enabled which raises and lowers timing based on a lot of variables. A few of those is engine coolant temp and inlet air temps. When they reach certain thresh holds the car knocks and the knock sensors reduce timing to a safer level. This happens a lot in the summer time when driving the car aggressively.

Benefit to running e85 is, this never happens.

Yeah I personally wouldnt load a tune that reduced the ecu's ability to make adjustments unless it was a tune only for the track.

I still have the stock tune, I dont want to chance voiding the powertrain warranty just yet since I only have 1100 miles.. curious to see if the ford racing tuner is gonna be any good. Im gonna go with a lund tune eventually but from what I understand Ford can view the flash history even easier than the 11-14's. Its just getting harder and harder, cant just flash it back to stock or else Id already have one

 

[Old 5 Oh]

Never seen E85 for sale, so not a real option for me.

 

[mattdue]

I just converted to E85. It took bama a bit to get the car lined out. Paul says it should be good now. I will have track numbers and dyno numbers on Monday. AS far as mods the car has all the standard ones. JLT intake 47lb injectors, bama tune on an x4, and a Gibson catback. All stock the car made 385/360.

 

[ero 5.0]

I switched to E85 a couple months ago, and would never go back. Even though the closest station is 25 mins away its still worth it, even on a N/A car. The torque gains and throttle response is amazing. my car puts down 460rwhp which is plenty for the street. My only other future plans are maybe a good 150 nitrous shot setup for future track outings if i want to put the money into some halfshafts.

As long as you dont store the gas for a long period of time you will be fine moisture wise. I have two 15 gallon hdpe tanks that i fill up in my truck and store for my car, but i never hold em more than a month. You also dont want to just let your car sit for long periods of time (more than a few weeks) without running it. They also suggest swapping tunes and running a tank of 91/93(whatever your other tune is for) through it every once in awhile just so your injectors dont get build up.

 

[Process]

Yeah I personally wouldnt load a tune that reduced the ecu's ability to make adjustments unless it was a tune only for the track.

I still have the stock tune, I dont want to chance voiding the powertrain warranty just yet since I only have 1100 miles.. curious to see if the ford racing tuner is gonna be any good. Im gonna go with a lund tune eventually but from what I understand Ford can view the flash history even easier than the 11-14's. Its just getting harder and harder, cant just flash it back to stock or else Id already have one

then you'd understand incorrectly. The pcm is reflashed for many reasons. Such as warranty pcm updates etc. If you look at the published internal documents all the dealer tries to do is look for proof then get you to admit to it.

So what you are hearing is from people who have no idea how the pcm works.

Yes Ford can see key cycles since last flash, no they don't know why it was flashed.

 

[dubster99]

I just converted to E85. It took bama a bit to get the car lined out. Paul says it should be good now. I will have track numbers and dyno numbers on Monday. AS far as mods the car has all the standard ones. JLT intake 47lb injectors, bama tune on an x4, and a Gibson catback. All stock the car made 385/360.

I'm interested to see what you put down. I haven't been to a dyno and just made the switch this week...we have the same mods. I'm about to put the 2nd tank in today and finally rip on it, and get some logs over for adjustments. It ran awesome just driving easy around town.

I switched to E85 a couple months ago, and would never go back. Even though the closest station is 25 mins away its still worth it, even on a N/A car. The torque gains and throttle response is amazing. my car puts down 460rwhp which is plenty for the street. My only other future plans are maybe a good 150 nitrous shot setup for future track outings if i want to put the money into some halfshafts.

As long as you dont store the gas for a long period of time you will be fine moisture wise. I have two 15 gallon hdpe tanks that i fill up in my truck and store for my car, but i never hold em more than a month. You also dont want to just let your car sit for long periods of time (more than a few weeks) without running it. They also suggest swapping tunes and running a tank of 91/93(whatever your other tune is for) through it every once in awhile just so your injectors dont get build up.

This. I don't think I'll go back, unless there's an e85 shortage. Also, I've seen plenty of people run e85 for tens of thousands of miles with no injector problems....entire motor was clean as a whistle, fuel system too.

Anybody who thinks e85 is not worth it on an NA car is lying to themselves, unless you can't get e85.

 

[MikeyPee]

then you'd understand incorrectly. The pcm is reflashed for many reasons. Such as warranty pcm updates etc. If you look at the published internal documents all the dealer tries to do is look for proof then get you to admit to it.

So what you are hearing is from people who have no idea how the pcm works.

Yes Ford can see key cycles since last flash, no they don't know why it was flashed.

Now I'm confuzzled. Why does everyone get their man-panties in a bunch about voiding their warranties when the dealership can't discern why the PCM was flashed?

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