I have a local distributor that is a VP fuel dealer. I was picking up some M1 and he asked me what fuel I planned on running on my Boosted combo.

When I told him E85 he almost **** a brick. He of course mentioned the ethanol swing (85%-70%). However, he also stated that you were never sure what the octane rating was with it, and that it could hurt the motor since your never aware of what your getting.


I have to make a fuel decision soon. My car is a street/strip weekend warrior and I would love it if my fuel was not $10+ a gallon.

 

keep researching , your race fuel dealer is trying to instill fear in you because e85 is well on its way to eliminating the need for most race fuels in markets where e85 is available. Heres a link with a well known shop owner on this site that just dynoed a badass e85 car for a customer

https://ls1tech.com/forums/eastern-m...l#post17381687

I bet his take on e85 is different than the fuel dealer/shop owner lol

the only time of year you should see a big difference in e content is when they change from winter to summer blends , you can go with an inline ethanol tester like zeitronics or buy a simple test tube and check the content that way

theres plenty of links around on other forums that have e85 specific sections to get you started , the grand national guys have it down to a science over on turbobuick.com in that forums e85 section or fast fords & modular mustangs in their e85/e98 section

I put a long winded reply with a lot of info in another thread around here i will see if i can find it and link it here for you.

as for octane rating the pump has the minimium octane rating label like any gas pump is required to , that label will read 105 octane which is what e70 rates at , e85 is a marketing name for a series of fuels that vary between 70-85% ethanol but called e85 to keep confusion down with the consumer. actual 85% ethanol is 112 octane but acts more like 118 thats why you see people swapping from c16 (116 octane) and making more power for $3 a gallon instead of $12+

I am raring to go with the stuff on another platform I own but the closest station to me has been 2 states away and the progress in my corner of the world seems to be at a dead halt....

 

more in depth info here

https://ls1tech.com/forums/fueling-i...28692-e85.html

 

been reading through. Just mainly needed to know if I could run it without ever adjusting AFR or timing from the ethanol swing. Guess that depends on the tune and how safe it is. I dont want to leave power on the table really.

 

One thing that I was thinking about for an E85 setup along your lines - put a sensor from an early model flex fuel vehicle (newer use virtual flex fuel sensor) in the fuel return line (because it won't flow enough for the supply line). Then, connect the sensor to the PCM and use a flex fuel OS - that way, you can vary the stoich AFR and even timing based on actual ethanol content. Don't know anyone who has actually done it, but don't see why it wouldn't work...

 

I've looked into it and there is only one OS for the 0411 PCM that even has flex fuel enabled from the factory and that is a SUV/Truck OS which is also 4L60E tranny segmented. This would make the 4L80E segement swap nearly impossible unless you could get your hands on a 2001-2002 2500 silverado that was flex fuel enabled in which I don't think exists.

Joey the other alternative is to install the Zeitronix ethanol gauge and adjust the stoich ratio in the tune according to your current ethanol content. A variance in +/- 5% ethanol isn't going to cause enough swing under load however to cause an issue but it would be nice to verify and make sure you are still on the correct ethanol content. I can show you how all that works when you come up!

 

We love e85 here. We'd love it more if it was easier to find in our area.

We did a turbo 5.3l for drag week, a turbo 5.3l for a school bus that jumped 16x feet for the nitro circus movie and we have a turbo 427 LSX ta in the shop right now that has made 950 Rwhp at only 15 psi.

I looked at swapping the fuel segment into a 411 file like '156 but read horror stories about the price and the failure rate of the sensor. I then just paid close attention to the E85 in our area and how much it was actually changing. In our area at least the ethanol content hasn't changed (83-87% or so). You can buy a fuel composition tester or there is a cheap ethanol tester that quick fuel sells.


The ta I menationed above actually picked up something like 80rwhp going from 113 to e85

 

Here is a E85 calculator I built a few years ago.

Excel spreadsheet for burning E85 or some percentage of ethanol and gasoline


Enjoy!

 

ill be controlling the 80e with the 60e segment per a special wiring harness from Frost.

 

I8UR4RD, I wouldnt worry too much about the e85 swing if I were you. A good idea to do, is to just buy an ethanol tester off of some place like summitracing for about $10 and every time you fill up, test it. It only takes a second. Then whenever you find the actual percentage then just enter your new stoich value in the computer. I take it you probably own something like hp tuners. That's all that should need to be done. If you have your timing values set a little conservative and not RIGHT on the edge, then you should have no problem going to E70 from E85.

 

I don't see the need for the eth tester just tune it with e85 and let the knock sensor do its job when you get some poorer quality eth

 

thanks guys. I was waiting to buy HP tuners because I have not needed it since the cars been down all this time, however I did download a beta type of version and I poke around it from time to time to learn where things are.

lots of excel looking **** with 1000's of numbers that I figure for the most part dont mean ****.


I just want to adjust the simple **** in the tune based on what the car tells me.

but again thank you all for the reassurance.

 

Did you ever decide what you were going to use for fuel? I keep going back and forth for my boosted setup. There's several E-85 stations within a few miles of my house and I know a few guys who tested the E-85 in April here in Michigan and it was coming out as 87% Ethanol. Talked with my tuner and he was trying tot alk me out of E-85, since he heard it will most likely be getting phased out in the next few years. I love the idea of getting a race gas quality fuel at the pump for around $3 a gal. My tuner told me I should just run Sunoco 104 unleaded. Getting a drum from a local distributor I would be paying just under $8 a gallon. Even though I only drive 2-3K miles a year that **** is going to add up!

 

I've got a 5.3 l59 out of a 2003 taho. While working on the wiring there was sections for a 4l80 option in 2wd. I guess it's a HD towing option package. Find that OS and your golden.

 

03 would be the 1Meg pcm and there is several OS's and COS's with FF and 4l80e for them.

There is only 1 FF OS for the 99-02 512kb PCM's and there is no COS's or 80e segmented OS's that will match up with it.

Also Jefro, I would go ahead and build your fuel system and plan for E85 even if your tuner doesn't approve. E85 isn't going anyway any time soon. Auto manufacturers have invested millions onto FF cars and trucks and if anything happens, it might only be that they start making ethanol from another source other then corn. You can always still run race gas if you change your mind later.

 

OOps missed that part!!