Filled with E85 without tune, now using regular 91 and the car stalls sometimes....

[thehunterooo]

Wow. This is painful to read. Those a/f ratios on e85, taking to dragstrip, valve to piston, timing too advanced......

When they tell you that you need a motor, open your wallet, pay it, fix it, buy a prius.

Yeah super yikes.

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[000Camus000]

Wow nice attitude on this community. Thank you to the poeple that actually helped.

 

[SpeedLu]

Wow nice attitude on this community. Thank you to the poeple that actually helped.

Heh, don't take it personally. This was an unusual mistake that could have easily been avoided if you'd researched beforehand, and I think most people replying are just baffled and raggin' you for it. You owned up to your mistake though, and we all make mistakes so live and learn. You have to admit it is kind of funny.

Edit: Oh yeah, your best option at this point is to run a few tanks of premium while taking it easy, and hope everything readjusts back to normal. If you are still having problems by then you are going to need it looked at.

 

[DarkestHour]

Heh, don't take it personally. This was an unusual mistake that could have easily been avoided if you'd researched beforehand, and I think most people replying are just baffled and raggin' you for it. You owned up to your mistake though, and we all make mistakes so live and learn. You have to admit it is kind of funny.

Edit: Oh yeah, your best option at this point is to run a few tanks of premium while taking it easy, and hope everything readjusts back to normal. If you are still having problems by then you are going to need it looked at.

Only thing he needs to research is reading the freakin' words on the gas tank filler neck that reads E15 max.

 

[Bluemustang]

Yeah you really should’ve researched that just a little more and you would’ve learned that was a bad idea. 14-15 AFR on E50 is really lean. You need a tune for E85 or flex fuel before you can put that fuel in the car. Drain the tank as much as possible. Maybe take into somewhere and have them drain the fuel for you and put in 91 or 93. See what happens. Hopefully it works out for the best but just next time do your research or ask other members on the forum we will help you. We don’t bite lol much.

If you can’t drain the fuel it might take a few fill ups with regular gasoline before it gets back to normal. I run FF tune and after running E85 it takes 3-4 tanks of 93 octane before it returns to normal 14.1 AFR.

 

[Jay-rod427]

Yeah, as I said wasn't the smartest decision, wanted to see if would be any difference, and in fact didn't noticed anything, even the A/F ratio was the same, I monitor these values and was around 13 at WOT, 14 ~ 15 cruising, 29+ coasting, so I didn't noticed the engine on the lean spectrum while running.

I need to note that this was from a flex fuel pump and I had 1/4 of 91 regular gas on the tank at the time.

The computer A/F guage has know way of knowing it needed to register the E85 scale. So it would trim out like it was regular 91(E10). That was running VERY lean for E60 lets say with the 91 blend. And the computer didn't even know it. When flex is enabled either native, or via tune in the mustang's case the computer can change it's conversion tables for E for the widebands.

 

[SiMuL]

BTW, welcome to the forums!

To further the AFR discussion, it's important for you to know that AFR is a different ratio for every single fuel type. For gasoline, stoich is 14.7:1, for e85 it's roughly 9.76:1. So judging by an AFR gauge calibrated for a gasoline tune when you're using e85 in the tank will be very inaccurate.

Posts like these will get some backlash, because there's a pretty high expectation that one would do a little research before risking such an expensive machine for a "let's see what happens" experiment like this. ;) The backlash is not meant to be taken personally, but it's difficult not to, especially when you learn how foolish your experiment might have actually been.

 

[Bluemustang]

Most gasoline in the US is E10 or E15, so your idle AFR in pump gas should be roughly 14.1, not 14.7. E85 about 9.8 yes.

 

[000Camus000]

BTW, welcome to the forums!

To further the AFR discussion, it's important for you to know that AFR is a different ratio for every single fuel type. For gasoline, stoich is 14.7:1, for e85 it's roughly 9.76:1. So judging by an AFR gauge calibrated for a gasoline tune when you're using e85 in the tank will be very inaccurate.

Posts like these will get some backlash, because there's a pretty high expectation that one would do a little research before risking such an expensive machine for a "let's see what happens" experiment like this. ;) The backlash is not meant to be taken personally, but it's difficult not to, especially when you learn how foolish your experiment might have actually been.

Thank you, I was looking for this kind of information! and yeah, was a stupid mistake, my first thought was that maybe I would have little to no gains in performance, due to the lack of the tune, but never thought on damage of any kind.

Yesterday I disconnected the battery for 30 minutes, and it felt well, took a ride and everything fine. Now, I had to go to Lake Tahoe, that is like 2.5 hours from where I live, so it was roughly a 5 hours trip. The car didn't stall, not a single time, idle felt normal all the way, no lack of power, felt strong even at high altitude, so I guess there it was no damage. I'll keep an eye on it anyway, maybe would be good to make a compression test just to be absolutely sure, but there are no symptoms of anything wrong.

Thanks for the info and the nagging, I'll be around for a while

 

[Myshelby3425]

Most gasoline in the US is E10 or E15, so your idle AFR in pump gas should be roughly 14.1, not 14.7. E85 about 9.8 yes.

Is 10.1-10.3 idle too lean on e85?

 

[Bluemustang]

Is 10.1-10.3 idle too lean on e85?

It depends on how much ethanol content is actually in the fuel. Many pumps say E85 but it is actually E70. Have you tested the E85.

I use a flex fuel tune so I can run 91, 93, E85, FF or any combination thereof. When I switch back over to E85 after reaching 0 miles, my AFR ends up very close to what you said. It takes a few tanks before it actually gets all the way down to 9.8ish. I believe the E85 in my area is actually E85 or possibly even E90 but I haven't tested it to confirm it.

It could be that you have a little bit of gasoline still in the tank which is very common. It takes usually 3-4 tanks to pretty much filter through whatever was in there before.

For pure E85, yes 10.1-10.3 is a little on the lean side.

 

[Myshelby3425]

It depends on how much ethanol content is actually in the fuel. Many pumps say E85 but it is actually E70. Have you tested the E85.

I use a flex fuel tune so I can run 91, 93, E85, FF or any combination thereof. When I switch back over to E85 after reaching 0 miles, my AFR ends up very close to what you said. It takes a few tanks before it actually gets all the way down to 9.8ish. I believe the E85 in my area is actually E85 or possibly even E90 but I haven't tested it to confirm it.

It could be that you have a little bit of gasoline still in the tank which is very common. It takes usually 3-4 tanks to pretty much filter through whatever was in there before.

For pure E85, yes 10.1-10.3 is a little on the lean side.

I’ve been running e85 for a few tanks already. I’m between 80-83% ethanol last time I tested. My car was having idle issues when running at 9.8 on my Lund tune. They took away a bit of fuel down low and the idle issues haven’t come back. I’m running the e85R tune. You think I may have issues running like this?

 

[Bluemustang]

I’ve been running e85 for a few tanks already. I’m between 80-83% ethanol last time I tested. My car was having idle issues when running at 9.8 on my Lund tune. They took away a bit of fuel down low and the idle issues haven’t come back. I’m running the e85R tune. You think I may have issues running like this?

Hmm... sounds it may very well be fine. Run a log and look at your lambda and it should be close to 1 at idle and cruise and about 0.85-0.88 at WOT. If you're concerned I would run another log for Lund to review.

But if you look at the logs and your Lambda looks good and your short term fuel trims are within 1-3% I'd say that's very good.

Like I said if you're concerned get a log for your tuner and trust what he says.

 

[CEHollier]

OP not to bust your balls. But before attempting anything not factory spec ask about it on the forum. Lots of knowledgeable people on these forums. They can be an excellent resource.

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