Running E85. What you think?
 

So I recently got a front mount installed on my 88 t2 and I was thinking of getting it tuned with e85 and continue using it like that. What are the disadvantages of running that apart from not enough stations to pump. Any opinions before I do it.
Also, Im already tuned with stock Turbo, bigger secondaries, fuel pump, street port, clutch, flywheel, haltech and now intercooler. My next step is bigger Turbo after this, but I wanted to retune now. Does anyone here run this and if so what do you like/dislike and recommend. Thanks......
BTW this is not a daily driver anymore.

problem with eth is the inconsistencies of its ratio varies.

However I do run it on my setup with no problems 20+ psi. Gt35r.

Do you have E85 ready fuel pump, hoses, injectors?
If not it'll eat the rubber... >_>

What is your fuel setup now? 30% is a lot of fuel to compensate for

imo, Q16 is a way better fuel to run on than E85....
unless you live in E85, the inconvience of getting E85, the cost of converting your lines to be alcohol safe, and the higher demand of the injector doesnt seem worth it... and not only that, it is not a fool-proof, fail safe thing.

for your setup, esp with the stock turbo, there is no reason to switch to e85 unless it is accessable everywhere....

Q16 doesn't require a different tune... it just raises your detonation ceiling!

Ran E85 on three cars. Two turbo and one non turbo for three plus years with no problems.

Had to use a RTEK 2.0 on all three cars. Turbos with 720 injectors, non turbo with 550's and even then the fuel had to be added with the RTEK so they would run "normal".

Stk fuel pump, stk fuel lines, stk everything.

All three cars back to gasoline now since..............had to dirve 15MI one way to the station to get E85 and 15mi back (who'd a thought) . Too much trouble even thought I put up with it for yrs.

One car sold and the other two might meet the same fate. Got my eye on a XK for a replacement.

Thanks for all the replies. My lines are all stock but i am about to change some of them. I just got new fuel rails and was going to put them on. My plans are eventually running a gt35. Would I HAVE to change anything else to run E85?also getting new secondaries and currently running supra fuel pump if that's enough. Appreciate any feedback.

Ohh yea and we do have a couple places about 5-10 miles away for pumping. Forgive my silly qs, but what and where can I find stk fuel stuff?

wouldnt waste your time with the stuff. you can make 600hp on pump

I changed out my lines for SS ones. I think I spent maybe a little less than $200 for all the fittings/lines and even a new fuel filter under the hood. Welded -6 fittings on the rails.

At the rear I have dual walbros ($80 ea) one going to each rail, I just used the stock hard lines in the car and got the adapter to go from hard line to -6AN.

My injectors are 1100 primary and 1600 secondaries. (paid $200 for all) Although I think I am close to 90% duty cycle, I am saving up for some ID2000's.

so $480 for parts, throw in $150 for misc bullshit, yea I probably spent around $630 upgrading my fuel system and making it eth safe.

Only times I run 20+ psi is in the summer. Thats when my local station is at full 85% eth. I usually keep it at 16-17 psi in the winter as the ethanol ratio drops to around E70ish. You can ask the gas station to find out what exact ratio they are running, if they are being dbags, there is some kind of DIY test you can get to find out.

BTW 9 e85 stations near me. muahahaha

I know I could make 600 HP of pump gas, but I wanted to run something diff. My goal isn't exactly 600. More like 400 -500 maybe. I just want to know from those who have it if its worth it? Everything from changing things on the car to run and how the car runs with it. Also what are some negatives you guys have with running e85? Dangers what not? Drawbacks? Can I still run 91 if I need to? Do you waist more gas? Some people say that it ruins your internals. Wondering if anyone experienced this and after how long of running e85? I'm sorry for all the qs I just want to be sure of the decision. Thank you guys once again for any feed back.

I have 890s I believe right now for secondaries. I was planning on using those for primaries and buying new secondaries. Any thoughts?

Ok. So I found 1 station about 7 miles away. The others are about 10 to 20 miles away. With traffic here that's an issue.

Answers in caps

Personally I would not run it if I couldn't switch tunes. I have the ability to because from time to time I go on some road trips and don't want to plan my day on the ability to find fuel. Simple flick of a rocker switch andim back on pump.

For stockish applications I would not bother. To save money buy new style Bosch injectors from any number of vendors who sell injectors, keep in mind companies are not modifying injectors they are only "matching" them after testing. 7 miles to a fill station is not bad when you think years ago guys would run race fuel and have no options when it came to refueling on the road.

is this a drag car? if the answer is no, then your answer is no, it's not worth the headache upgrading everything to support ethanol.

E85 is inconsistent and can vary from season to season and location to location by as low as 53% alcohol by volume! tune it on the wrong concentration then get a fatter mix of alcohol and kiss your engine goodbye.

ethanol also collects water in the atmosphere so it more readily corrodes the internals of the fuel system.

is it better than pump gas, in some ways very much yes, in other ways very much no.

so to those who are spewing that it is superior with no drawbacks, stop, because you are wrong. it does have more "race gas" like resemblances with octane and detonation suppression as well as cooling characteristics but it is a more harsh fuel that requires more maintenance than race gas does as well as inconsistent concentration states. the flex fuel vehicles this fuel was designed for have auto tune sensors in the fuel system and exhaust that automatically compensate for the concentration of alcohol(there is no switch you have to flip when pumping gasoline or E85, the ECU automatically adjusts for whatever concentration of alcohol is being pumped into the engine) which is why they standards are quite lax from the pump. alcohol costs more than pump fuel does and at various times ethanol is less abundant than other times of the year.

you can buy barrels of ethanol and methanol for less than $5 per gallon and you will know the concentration level(100%!). as a side note many racers have run straight alcohol long before many of you were born, even in rotaries breaking records.

if you drive more street driving than track or strip then forget alcohol based fuels, it's not worth it. i've built many cars that are pushed even on pump gas that have proven that, just add water(some of you will get it).

some people also claim it eats the rubber oil control seals, i have not personally torn apart an engine to see but i do somewhat believe it. one local car running it constantly smoked and i ruled out the turbo, it was a relatively fresh engine too(not built by me). eventually he claimed the turbo blew, i believe the oil seals went.

food for thought for anyone thinking about switching.

Karack-guys have been running it for a few years now with no oil control ring issues and people who race, street drive build motors all say the motors come apart and are much cleaner then pump gas motors.

but what oil seals are they using? viton? OEM? HNBR? Buna?

a simple test using the various materials submerged in the alcohol for a week or 2 will show swelling and breakdown properties of each material.

why dont you post that question in the engine build or alternative fuel section and see if they answer

i rather do my own tests, but right now it's not of my concern. i only have one car that is planning on running E85 with goals or ~700whp but is still several months out. will be running klotz also so that may nullify some of the results.

i just know that I waited years for others to experiment and there seems to be no negatives in regards to engine wear

refueling options is one negative, the other would be economy but in the grand scheme of things 30% drop in economy doesnt really effect most of us with these cars

there's a bit more negatives than just that, the largest one being the inconsistent alcohol content.

it will never be 100% pure alcohol spirits which is to keep it from being consumable, but the pump gas is almost rediculously far from that most of the time and varies from pump to pump. if you're getting decent mileage with E85 be weary that it may have a bit more gasoline in it than you think, the next pump may not.

test kits are pretty cheap and I cant say I recall anyone locally coming across abnormally low concentration levels

well it's something to keep in mind, it's not a huge deal as i don't hear about it often but i have heard people who have experienced semi drastic shifts while travelling. you know the first time you don't test the content is when the shift will occur. ;)

i just have never had a bad tank of pump gas, while not as stable for knock suppression it still does the job for even moderately high horsepower builds, daily driven.