LS swapped chevelle, garage kept. It’s in Central CA. It get cold here in the winter but not bad. Anyway, car is running on e85.

I suspected some fueling issues when I saw my AFR (I’m running Holley Term X) bouncing all over the place when I would roll into the throttle from 3000rpm in 5th gear at like 55…. Anyway, took the Magnafuel Filter out and apart.. there is a TON of gel on the element… and it’s sticky!

any suggestions on how to clean it? I tried brake cleaner but that didn’t work… soapy water also didn’t work. I really have to try hard to blow air through the filter element.

any suggestions would be appreciated… btw, this junk got on my fingers and it was like when super glue gets tacky and stick before it cures… only this stayed tacky.

 

 

That looks like someone at some point used the wrong octane booster in the fuel. Or a dditive that maybe wasn't compatible.
Or worse yet, someone vandalized the car by dumping something in the tank. It kinda resembles sugar in the tank.

Check out Klotz products for alchohol race cars. Super popular with teh dirt track guys, I've used their fuel stabilizer for methanol and its great stuff.

Try soaking the filer in 100% ethanol, if it doesn't desolve try alchohol free (Avgas) one of them should desolve it if it belongs in a fuel tank.
I would drop the tank.. See if someone did something bad..

 

no one vandalized it. Like I said, garage kept and when I do take it out, it’s never parked long enough for someone to do anything. As far as additives, only one I’ve used is the Lucas e85 treatment

 

It looks to me, like it just has sat, and the E, has absorbed water, causing your issue.
I have a buddy who worked in the commercial fuel distribution field, and this is pretty typical. You can't leave E, sit in a fuel tank. Worse, it's done the exact same thing to your injectors.
If it were mine, I'd pull the injectors, get them cleaned, and flush the fuel lines/tank.

 

I have had E85 in my truck for 5 years now and never had any issues, The only thing I do for winter storage is to run it down to a 1/4 tank or less and fill it up with non ethanol unleaded and only started doing that the last couple winters. The truck may sit for a month or more at time in the summer. I do hear about people having gel issues but it's usually in a carb application.

OP, What filter material is the filter? If it's paper and not stainless that could be part of the problem. My Son-law had what he thought was fuel pump issues that ended up being the paper filter was damaged from ethanol and a lot of people have had the same issue.