Doing a 6.0 LQ4/LQ9 build with a mild cam, torque converter, and 373 gears. I was thinking ahead and possible wanting to an E85 build. Looking for the pros/cons of this as well as everything that it would take in order to successfully do so.

 

To me the biggest con is you need to drive it alot with E85. If your car sits alot E85 can do some damage to your fuel system and injectors. I only run E85 in my 2023 F150 5.0 and in my 2007 Silverado classic 1500 flex fuel 5.3. I do drive both alot. I also get about 2 to 3 mpg less on E85. Pros are E85 is the best and cheapest for great power. Everytime the do E85 on Engine Masters it always makes the most power and it also cools the combustion chamber better than others.They even did an episode on a turbo engine and said with E85 you don't need an intercooler.

You will the proper fuel lines and fittings for E85. Plus bigger injectors because E85 needs more fuel. For your build i would look for some GM 50 lb flex fuel injectors which are pretty cheap. I have them on my 5.3 head and cam and are very easy to tune since the data is easy to find.

Is it worth it? My only experience is with my 2023 F150 5.0 and i did it on a 2018 GMC 6.2 and it is definitely worth it.

 

My thoughts on the cons:
30% less gas mileage, without the full 30% savings on fuel price (at least where I am), so will cost you more per mile
30% larger injector needed for whatever HP level you are aiming for
30% more fuel pump needed for same gas HP number.
More frequent fillups.
Hard starting in the cold (most E85 stations actually dilute more with regular gas in winter to compensate for this). I drove mine all winter and had no problems at 77%+ all winter.
My experience is the way larger injectors made it tough to tune the idle at low pulsewidths, but not a con if you have a pro tuner. I have tried Deka 80's and 60's with "fair" success.
Finding E85 if you DD the car on a trip, but my car runs "ok" on 93 in an emergency. Car trims it to 25% and it's acceptable AFR, safe to drive, just keep it out of PE mode LOL.
Some cars get the E85 black goo problem.. my opinion is that this occurs on certain cammed cars that have a lot of overlap that causes this. I have never seen it with stockish cam with tens of thousands of miles on E85 in turbo L33.

If you're not high horsepower you may already have this 30% overhead in your current parts list but make sure you do the math.

I think if you keep your fuel system sealed/closed like factory did, you probably won't have problems with E85 storage in the tank. I have friends that had some in a gas can over a winter and it seemed fine. Moisture in the air gets absorbed, and the e85 also could evaporate in a vented fuel system.

Pros:
Basically your timing and KR problems all go away.
Yes power is better if you adjust timing (and maybe compression) to take ADVANTAGE of the E85, which I'm sure you would since you need to tune VE anyway.
Exhaust pipes/turbo/rear bumper are all much cleaner and sootless in my case.
You feel a "little" less guilt about having no cats. :-)

 

Thank you very much for writing this explanation!

 

These are all great points as well. Thank you very much for all of the thorough reason and detail!

 

honestly depends where you live. I live in a area where the only good e85 station is 20 plus minutes away making it very inconvenient. Its also very corrosive so if the car/truck sits for long periods of time like during winter or what ever itll gell up and cause so many issues. the horsepower gains are nice and the lower combustion chamber temps.

 

I've seen back to back testing on heads/cam/intake ls7s that picked up less than 10whp after tuning. From a performance perspective on an NA setup I am not really sure its worth it. Boosted or super high compression then sure.

 

If you're boosted then yes absolutely if you're only NA then probs not unless of course you're ridiculously high compression

 

Have any of you seen the inside of an E85 motor? I'll just say if you're going E85 change oil and filter frequently.

 

 

Well that's gross. Looks like the chemicals from the fuel get into that oil and make some wild changes to it

 

Those video's are BS in my experience. I've run E85 in my turbo fox since 2018, never a single issue or sludge, clog, etc. I've had my injectors flowed and cleaned 3-4 times and each time they were only very mildly dirty. It got to the point I came to an agreement with my injector cleaner he would just flow them for $20 first to see if they even need cleaned. So far they haven't. I change the oil 1-2 times a season and have never seen any milking or other sludge or nastyness.

I'm not saying it is impossible but please don't make sweeping generalizations just because you wanted a video on Youtube about it.

 

I'm merely stating a fact so do not kill the messenger.

E85 can dilute engine oil and potentially accelerate its oxidation, leading to the formation of sludge.

 

You aren't going to get any performance gains going E85 with your combo except worse mileage.