E85 questions

[AlleyCat]

I change the oil every 3k miles. Catch can.

 

[coolblue]

23 degrees timing. We run her rich. .78 lambda. High 10s on dash afr. Even in 110 degree heat no kr. Just has to be tuned correctly.

Wow. That really is something. 23 degrees timing at 110 degrees heat. SPEEDY said he had his at a conservative 10/11 degrees in heat I'm sure nowhere near 110 and lost the engine on 93 octane gas.

 

[coolblue]

The MDS (or DoD/AFM actually) LS motors would drop lifters whenever they felt like it because the lifters themselves are garbage. The first thing anyone should do is at least tune out the DoD if not outright delete it. My GXP LS4 got exactly 1 more mpg with it. Not worth it.

And yes...to an extent the ethanol based fuel screw with the oil. It is recommended to reduce your oil change interval when on E...I usually stick to 3k miles. Ford recommends 5k. GM I don't believe has a specific recommendation other than following the OLM and for Severe duty applications.

Yes, I put a Magnuson on the 5.3L in my Silverado and it came with a pre-programmed tune in a handheld with an SCT tune and they locked out the AFM.

 

[AlleyCat]

Daily driving. 110. At track it was in low 90s. It pulled two degrees of timing on log. 21 racing. Sorry for not clarifying. Da was 6500 though so not as much boost. They love to be over fueled with e85.

 

[coolblue]

Daily driving. 110. At track it was in low 90s. It pulled two degrees of timing on log. 21 racing. Sorry for not clarifying. Da was 6500 though so not as much boost. They love to be over fueled with e85.

Still a noticeable and impressive difference. Thanks for the hard numbers for comparison sake.

 

[Blkout]

The MDS (or DoD/AFM actually) LS motors would drop lifters whenever they felt like it because the lifters themselves are garbage. The first thing anyone should do is at least tune out the DoD if not outright delete it. My GXP LS4 got exactly 1 more mpg with it. Not worth it.

And yes...to an extent the ethanol based fuel screw with the oil. It is recommended to reduce your oil change interval when on E...I usually stick to 3k miles. Ford recommends 5k. GM I don't believe has a specific recommendation other than following the OLM and for Severe duty applications.

Yep, I've been told to change oil at 3k. The longest I've gone without an oil change with E85 has been 4k, but I typically change at 3K. Been on E85 since 6K miles and car currently has 22K miles, no issues with E85 so far.

 

[TMAC]

I did find an interesting chart that compares E50 with E85.
No idea how accurate the data is.

 

[AlleyCat]

View attachment 3512
I did find an interesting chart that compares E50 with E85.
No idea how accurate the data is.

I always thought e85 burns faster than E10. According to the specific gravity in this chart it is a heavier fuel and burns slower. I have to research that. So that is correct on the specific gravity. There are other factors above my knowledge that makes e85 burn faster than premium e10.

 

[coolblue]

View attachment 3512
I did find an interesting chart that compares E50 with E85.
No idea how accurate the data is.

I did some reading on fuel years ago (I think HOTROD mag) and don't even remember most of it. It was when E10 was coming online and was going to be the new norm for standard petro at the pump in the country. Even back then they randomly checked a bunch of gas stations in CA and the range was from 15%-30% ethanol. Only a few had true 10%. I can't remember what was more significant, RON or MON. I think it was MON but no one uses it. I also remember back then E10 was reeking havoc. Aluminum gas tanks(Boats) corroding like crazy and eating up rubber fuel lines and needle seats in carburetors (remember those.LOL) and that was just E10!.
The most useful info in my limited knowledge I could gather is that it looks like on average you have to run @43% more E85 to get the same stoichiometric AFR as E10. Don't even know what RG and HO (heating oil?) are?

 

[Blkout]

View attachment 3512
I did find an interesting chart that compares E50 with E85.
No idea how accurate the data is.

Not sure on accuracy, I've read in other places that 85% ethanol is actually closer to 105 RON. That being said, you can see that even E50 has a significant advantage over 93 pump gas and is quite a bit cheaper than 100+ octane race gas.

 

[FFBOS]

View attachment 3434 I test at the pump every few weeks. I’ve been very lucky. E-85-90 every time.

You should test every fill man, good habit to get into.

 

[Primetime Hellcat 17]

You should test every fill man, good habit to get into.

Yes I agree.

 

[Hpindy]

So you get really bad mpg so you have to stop more often and check it every time? Sounds like a lot of work for a toy or daily driver . Maybe a race car .
Has anyone ever really figured out the real price difference between E85 and pump gas? If you have to burn more of it wouldn't make the price be the same as pump gas in the long run? We don't have it here so I have no idea .

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[coolblue]

So you get really bad mpg so you have to stop more often and check it every time? Sounds like a lot of work for a toy or daily driver . Maybe a race car .
Has anyone ever really figured out the real price difference between E85 and pump gas? If you have to burn more of it wouldn't make the price be the same as pump gas in the long run? We don't have it here so I have no idea .

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk

Yes it would. I can get it for 2.05 gal but if you gotta run 43% more that brings it right to @3.00. The question is , is the perf difference worth the aggravation for a daily driver and how available is it even if you say yes.

 

[AlleyCat]

I bring 4 5 gallon cans with me. So even though I have 43k miles on her after 3 yrs. I fill up once every 1.5 weeks. If I did not use the cans it would be more of a pain as the station is 20 minutes away.

 

[FFBOS]

I've been daily driving e70/e85 for over 11,000 miles now. I test every fill. Not a hassle at all for running in "kill mode" all the time.

 

[Hpindy]

I've been daily driving e70/e85 for over 11,000 miles now. I test every fill. Not a hassle at all for running in "kill mode" all the time.

You are definitely more dedicated then most .

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[Blkout]

Cost of E85 vs gasoline is about the same for me when mpg factors in. Technically I do have to stop more often to fill up on E85 but I also get an extra 40-50hp and I hardly ever check the ethanol content of my E85 with Curt's flex tune. A few extra stops per year for fuel to run race fuel all the time is an easy tradeoff for me.

 

[fubar569]

Unknown stations get tested for a handful of uses. Trusted stations get spot checked. Car goes back on 93 pump with stabilizer for winter storage anyways so no worries about "winter blends"...

 

[TMAC]

Unknown stations get tested for a handful of uses. Trusted stations get spot checked. Car goes back on 93 pump with stabilizer for winter storage anyways so no worries about "winter blends"...

Exactly the opposite here in the desert southwest. I took my Hellcat in for a ton of work way back when it started getting hot and told them take your time because I'm not going to be driving it in the heat anyway. So its now cooled off for the year (looking at 8+ months of perfect weather) and all the mods will be completed in the next couple of weeks. I visited them today, and all that's left to do is install the chiller and meth system. Then the tune.