E85 Tuning

[black92mtx]

There are plenty of E85 stations in my area and was wondering about making the switch over to the alternative fuel. From what i have read many people are against using E85 due to having poor fuel economy due to using more to make the same energy as regular gas. Ive also heard that you need to change your injector seal and various o rings in the fuel system is this correct? IM sure plenty of you are thinking why would he want to run E85 on a daily driver with no boost. The answer is nitrous I would like a little bit more safety net when and if I get a nitrous set up. with the tweecer I would be able to control the cycle of the injector wouldn't I and make my timing changes to gain the most out of the new fuel? I come from the Grand Prix world into the SHO world so Im not to familiar with Tweecer So any and all input would be appreciated.

 

[rubydist]

you will need larger fuel pump and larger injectors, as well as the tune to take all that into account. the o-rings, etc. should be fine as is.

 

[SuperHO]

I thought E85 was corrosive to a SHO's fuel lines?

 

[SHO Dude]

Some of the plastics in the system my not like it too much.

It does make more power, but it takes an ass load more fuel to do it. If you take an engine that makes 300hp NA and do nothing more than convert it to alcohol, it will make 400hp. But instead of getting 16mpg, it will only get 8mpg. Stoich for gasoline is 14.6:1. Stoich for alcohol is around 9:1. It takes 75% more volume to make 30% more power.

So yeah, you can make more power on an NA engine, but what does it cost? Also, it's not that good for the environment. The alcohol generates a ton of CO2. A lot more than gasoline. This is something that the Tree Huggers don't talk about.

Another issue is blending. The new E85 cars have a fuel sensor that measures the specific gravity of the fuel in real time to tell the computer the concentration of the alcohol in the fuel and adjust the fuel controls accordingly. Unless you completely drain the tank and refill with E85 and calibrate for it, the tune is gonna be off.

Now for a boosted car, it's pretty cool. You can crank up the timing and make a ton more power with E85. The alcohol has a charge cooling effect that improves knock tolerance allowing more timing and more power. But the same issues stated above still apply.

 

[92sho16]

The alcohol generates a ton of CO2.

http://www.cleanairchoice.org/fuels/E85C02Report2004.PDF , um yea i dont think so. E85 has problems but emissions isn't one of them. Energy density, production, and how corrosive it is are the problems.



Now back on track with the thread, there was a guy who ran e85 1SlickRed89 i believe was his forum tag. I would pm him as probe his mind on what needs to be changed as far as seals, gaskets and he might be able to give insight on the tuning needs.

 

[rubydist]

reading that report, its pretty clear why the feds want to have ethanol in all of the gasoline that we use.....

what I found interesting is that the test vehicle got better mileage with the E10 gas than it did with 'straight' gas, which is unusual.