E85 What you Need To Know!

Fabman302

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Since this topic is still fairly new to the performance world and there is not a lot of information out there on this subject, I figured I would make a thread on "What You Need To Know" about E85.

E85 is still one of those things that people in general don't know much about. Ask 100 people to tell you about what E85 is and 90% of them will not know. The 10% might remember seeing something at a gas station, but not understand what it is or the benefits it provides.

For gear heads such as ourselves, the benefits are HUGE! Especially on todays boosted engines such as the popular 03-04 Cobras and 07 and up GT500's.

Being an owner of a 2004 Cobra with an upgraded Whiple Supercharger I am always looking to learn about how to get the most performance out of my car.
This means tuning the car for optimum performance. Running a safe amount of boost and timing to keep the engine alive while increasing it's performance can sometimes be tricky. One of the limiting factors of how much boost or timing you can run comes down to fuel. Octane limits, depending on where you live, can range between 86 an 93 and limit the amount of timing and boost you can run. Thus you have to tune accordingly to what fuel is available in your area.

The more Octane you have, the more boost and timing you can run without detonation. This means More Power!!!!!

Since a lot of us drive our cars on the street, we are limited to what fuel we run due to availability, price and ease of aquiring the fuel.

Race Gas has been used for many years and there are tons of brands and types out there, but the availibility and price tends to turn most people away because it is not convenient enough to run on a regular basis. So most cars are tuned for what we call "Pump Gas". And if you are the street/strip type, then you get 2 tunes. One for "Pump Gas" and one for "Race Gas". Which has been the way for many years for a lot of racers.

But what if you could run "Race Gas" all the time? What if it was CHEAPER than regular gas and you could buy it at the pump? Would you be willing to switch?

In comes the answer!
e85.percent.ethanol.nevc.500-758964.jpg


If it is available in your area and you are running High Compression or Boost, then this is the fuel for you!

Here is some good information sourced from the members.tccoa.com.


There are many Myth's floating around about Ethanol not being good for an engine. These are primarily from people who own oil companies and do not like to see profits decline. On thing to remember is that the petroleum industry is the largest money making industry on the planet! Take some of the Trillions of dollars away from the oil companies and rumors start to fly!!!

With that being said, here is a good example of what you would typically find when running E85 VS Gasoline.
[youtube_browser]HuOs1yap8mU[/youtube_browser]



Hope this helps some of you. Feel free to ask any questions I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Kevin

Question:
Since e85 varies from station to station and time of year, what is the impact of this change on a vehicle with high boost and lots of timing? Mine was tuned with an ethanol content of around 79/80% but mostly what I am finding now is much lower than that. Am I risking my motor? What if I buy race e85 that really is 85%? Is that going to run leaner than what my motor was tuned for? Since ethanol is cut with gasoline, will the lower ethanol content/higher gasoline percentage fuels tend to detonate sooner?
Thanks for any input.
 
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04sleeper

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Question:
Since e85 varies from station to station and time of year, what is the impact of this change on a vehicle with high boost and lots of timing? Mine was tuned with an ethanol content of around 79/80% but mostly what I am finding now is much lower than that. Am I risking my motor? What if I buy race e85 that really is 85%? Is that going to run leaner than what my motor was tuned for? Since ethanol is cut with gasoline, will the lower ethanol content/higher gasoline percentage fuels tend to detonate sooner?
Thanks for any input.
You really don't see an octane change until you go below E50. Because of the higher stoich point, it may run a little richer, but the timing will still be fine.

If you do go higher on Ethanol content than what the car is tuned for, you most likely will still be fine, but I would recommend at least verifying the A/F.
 

Fabman302

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You really don't see an octane change until you go below E50. Because of the higher stoich point, it may run a little richer, but the timing will still be fine.

If you do go higher on Ethanol content than what the car is tuned for, you most likely will still be fine, but I would recommend at least verifying the A/F.

Wow...that's incredible.
 

binks

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Are you still using the fc350 lines. How long have they been in use? Are they still as flexible as new? Do you use any upper cylinder lubricants or ethanol treatments like Lucas to prevent moisture? Making the switch this winter, closest station is 40 MI so I plan to fill a 55 gal barrel and use a treatment like stabil or Lucas.
 

Fabman302

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Are you still using the fc350 lines. How long have they been in use? Are they still as flexible as new? Do you use any upper cylinder lubricants or ethanol treatments like Lucas to prevent moisture? Making the switch this winter, closest station is 40 MI so I plan to fill a 55 gal barrel and use a treatment like stabil or Lucas.

Good question. I keep a drum here in my shop and wonder how long it will be stable......
 

04sleeper

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Are you still using the fc350 lines. How long have they been in use? Are they still as flexible as new? Do you use any upper cylinder lubricants or ethanol treatments like Lucas to prevent moisture? Making the switch this winter, closest station is 40 MI so I plan to fill a 55 gal barrel and use a treatment like stabil or Lucas.
My 04 Cobra still has the FCC-350 hose that I installed in 2009. Still no issues and still running a 10 micron paper filter. Still flexible like new.

No lubricants or additives have been used.
 

Cobra_Tim

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I'm slightly confused...

to run E85, do you need a seperate tank and pumps for the e85 to be able to switch back over to 93 when e85 isnt available? Or do you simply run the tank empty, fill up 93, and flash in the 93 tune via some kind of handheld tuner?

How easy is it to change tune from e85 to 93? I don't currently own a Termi yet, but I have begun my research and reading as it is the next car I want to get.
 

70SCJ

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I'm slightly confused...

to run E85, do you need a seperate tank and pumps for the e85 to be able to switch back over to 93 when e85 isnt available? Or do you simply run the tank empty, fill up 93, and flash in the 93 tune via some kind of handheld tuner?

How easy is it to change tune from e85 to 93? I don't currently own a Termi yet, but I have begun my research and reading as it is the next car I want to get.

Run it down to near empty and switch tunes with fill up of different fuel.
 

stangfreak

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Need some help guys. Not sure if this was brought up. I want to run c85 from vp. Now, how long can you have e85 sit in your ? I was told it's not good to have it sit for a long time. I drive my car on the weekends only. So I don't drive it much. Will this be bad?
 

BurnTire

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Question:
Since e85 varies from station to station and time of year, what is the impact of this change on a vehicle with high boost and lots of timing? Mine was tuned with an ethanol content of around 79/80% but mostly what I am finding now is much lower than that. Am I risking my motor? What if I buy race e85 that really is 85%? Is that going to run leaner than what my motor was tuned for? Since ethanol is cut with gasoline, will the lower ethanol content/higher gasoline percentage fuels tend to detonate sooner?
Thanks for any input.
When I ran E-85 I never filled up at the pump. I always pumped into my fuel jugs and tested the consistency. I would see variations from 79-87%. I had tunes for every 1% of content change. If you tune at 85% and pump in 79% the car will run richer. If you tune for 80% and pump in 85% the car will run leaner. So your best to tune with a true 85% mixture and accept a little more richness if the content is lower. E85 is good stuff. Smells like a mixed drink at the red lights.
 

BurnTire

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Need some help guys. Not sure if this was brought up. I want to run c85 from vp. Now, how long can you have e85 sit in your ? I was told it's not good to have it sit for a long time. I drive my car on the weekends only. So I don't drive it much. Will this be bad?
I was a weekend warrior and never had any problems letting it sit in the tank.
 

Fabman302

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I have the test tube but don't feel like I get accurate results from it.
I have a Zeitronix gauge in the car and I know which stations have what by now so I go to the one with
the highest Ethanol rating with a 55 gal drum and a handful of fuel jugs and get 75 gallons at a time.
Best I've seen around here is 82% about 60 miles away and it goes down to 72% at the one closest to my house. :bash:

1609851_10152135974213535_70716725_n.jpg
 
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Fabman302

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There is one in return line so it reads what the injectors actually see.

1526746_10152135974453535_694593700_n.jpg
 
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burke985

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this thread has answered alot of my questions thank you for the info , now i dont have to aggravate shaun with all my noobness..lol
 

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