**Work in Progress 8-22-11** If you have anything to add or correct, or any testimony please post below. Keep the thread neat and orderly.
This thread is about E85. It is about Ethanol. It is about racing and it is about our need to get educated on renewable resources made within our own borders and not by some douche prince in Saudi Arabia.
VS.
To keep you on topic as I go through this information, I'm going to post pics of girls in cornfields throughout this thread because they are about the best visual references and still relates to the subject, if you look at the corn behind them.
I will be trying to cover a variety of subjects on Ethanol in basic form. For more reading and info, please see the links at the bottom. Since it is still a fairly new and highly debated subject, it is important to check a few sources. I found there are more than just a few sides to this subject, so each source has their own "proven" figures or studies on ethanol. I will do my best to keep this un-biased, if anyone has any edits or corrections, PM me with sources.
Main Topics:
1. The facts about Ethanol
2. How most of us convert to Ethanol in our W-bodies.
3. Common Misconceptions
4. Results & Testimony
5. Sources (links)
Closest E85 Station Locator - E85 & Flex Fuel Station Finder | Ethanol Retailers
1. Ethanol Facts:
It can be done-
Brazil is the leader in Biofuels. They have been running at least a 20% blend of ethanol since 1977 (34 years now). They have over 3 million vehicles now that can run 100% ethanol. The largest difference between Brazil and U.S. is we use corn and they use sugar cane. If you care to research further, you'll find it is cheaper to make it out of sugar cane, but we don't/can't grow enough of that here and if we were to import from Brazil, they argue it will be more expensive. I'd like to keep a solution on our own soil than depend on yet another country for fuel. The EPA has already mandated that by 2022, 36 Billion gallons of renewable fuel will be required to be blended into transportation fuel, right now we are at 7.5B.
Let's break it down-
113 Octane. 100% ethanol is 113 Octane. Gas stations use blender pumps to come up with the different selections of gas. Tank 1 is E10, Tank 2 is Ethanol. To get E85 they mix 70-85% ethanol with the rest being E10, the % ethanol raises the octane rating. To get E85 summer blend, the mix consists of ~85% ethanol and 15% 87 octane. Now they call it E85, but the actual MINIMUM ethanol percentage is 79% in summer and 70% MIN. in winter. Which means that the actual Octane rating can range from 105 min. to 109 (85%) max. The higher Octane rating is just one perk we can point out right away with this fuel.
Very Good Read on Comparing Racing Fuels:
-Explains Octane rating and optimal Race Gas, E85 has higher MON value than typical race gas.
-High MON value=more compression, more timing than typical
http://iqlearningsystems.com/ethanol...cteristics.pdf
2. W-Body E85 conversion
Recommended: 2 Fuel filters - Chevy Tahoe Flex fuel filters
HPtuners / Powrtuner - To tune for different blends, or convert back to regular in a crunch.
30% larger fuel injectors at minimum - 60# injectors usually does the trick, near stock could get away with 42#inj
Wideband - One that has a/d outputs for a scanner, reads lambda/gas AFRs and also a gauge or display in car.
Fuel Pressure Gauge - Not totally necessary, but would be beneficial in some situations, such as deciding whether your 200k mile stock fuel pump is keeping up with the demands.
Now when you make the switch, keep things simple and try not to do too much at once. If you're just getting new injectors, install them and get the tune dialed in for those injectors. This way you create a good backup tune and start playing with the IFR table. Getting the car dialed in before the switch to a different fuel is just something that will always help you in the long run.
After getting a good tune, setup a file and add ~30% more fuel to the IFR table. This will differ how you do it from HPtuners to Powrtuner, so I will not go into details at this time but just keep in mind you need to add around 30% more fuel to the motor. If you do it and the gas reading wideband sees 15+ then you need to do the opposite.
Once you have the file setup, when the car runs out of gas, flash the new file after pulling forward from the pump of E85. Start scanning and taking it easy, the slower you roll through the throttle the more data you are collecting, the more data you collect the more educated changes can be made. Saving time in the long run and keeping the car running smoothly through daily driving. I wouldn't go over 50% throttle until the 3rd tank of E85. When scanning for the first day or so, if you notice large changes, you may want to play with your IFR table before you do some maf tuning. Especially if you had it dialed in on the new injectors and this is the only change you have made. Instead of adding 30% fuel to the IFR table, add 33% or so forth depending on the results. After getting comfortable, I would save that IFR table in notepad to your desktop. Keep in mind the blends for each state and time of year. Then start tuning as you would normally.
Change the fuel filter after the first or second tank of E85. Change the fuel filter again after 2 weeks.
One thing to keep in mind is how we only changed the IFR table and not all of the AFR values in the pcm to switch to a Ethanol AFR reading, that would be a *****. By adding ~30% to the injector table we bypassed this, but we have to keep in mind our AFR values. Keeping things simple, we shoot for 11.5 AFR on a gas wideband for boosted cars and 14.7 AFR cruising/idling. E85 has a pretty forgiving AFR range, meaning you *may* still make the same power at 10.5 than you would at 11.5 and 12.5. You can play around and find out for yourself, but I would not run too lean for the fact that the blend may change and you may be out of luck or pushed it too far.
To find the BLEND % BY MONTH in YOUR STATE:
E85 Mustangs.com - Regional Fuel Chart by state
DIY -Test Your own Blend % with distilled water, 100ml graduated cyl, cork.
http://iqlearningsystems.com/ethanol...ds/E85test.pdf
Sources:
http://iqlearningsystems.com/ethanol...cteristics.pdf
http://www.ffv-awareness.org/docs/11...chure_Indv.pdf
GLOBAL OVERVIEW | CSR Ethanol Facts
Battle of ethanol: Sugarcane vs Corn - ICIS Green Chemicals
Ethanol Retailers
Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) | Fuels & Fuel Additives | Transportation & Air Quality | US EPA
Last Updated - 7-11-11
Originally Posted by W-Body Store
