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Anyone tried E85 yet?

57K views 162 replies 33 participants last post by  sailor 
#1 ·
Just wondering if the pump(s) and injectors have enough capacity.

I don't want to hear that it sucks or doesn't work. I know it does, I DD with it every day. I'm just wondering if any of the tuners who are working with the ST have done it.

Thanks.
 
#70 ·
from my experience with a buddies direct injection mazdaspeed 3, e85 and direct injection really don't mix. He had problems with his hpfp and spill valve gunking up. We had to take it apart about oh every 300 miles or so. It had this blank gunk/gel like substance on the fuel parts. I have also heard the the evo guys running into this same issue. Sure he made more power but at what cost? Reliability seemed to go way down. Here is some links from the mazda forums about e85 and direct injection.

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/forum/f567/e85-discussion-hpfp-lubrication-flow-issues-79030/

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/forum/f567/e85-fuel-pump-127238/

How is mexico tom?
 
#71 ·
The gunk is a known problem that comes from certain supplies of E85. We don't see that here in AZ. There are various theories like old fuel tanks in gas stations supplying E85 or whatever. I've never seen it tracked down to a known cause.
 
#73 ·
There was a theory that something dissolved into the E85 was also more likely to come out of solution when subjected to greater pressure difference on injection like in DI cars. The guys having the issue found that running a tank of regular gas every month or so was one way to avoid the problem as well. Kind of a hassle, but it worked for some of them. That would have stopped me from using it if it was that bad.
 
#74 ·
Yeah me too! I ran e85 on my old talon with 1600cc injectors -8 a/n fuel line and 2 walbro 255lph pumps and never had any of the issues above. It was driven every other day and ran very hard! It allowed very high amounts of timing on my 2.4 stroker 4G63 motor and I could run very high (believe it was 35 psi) boost!

Also if e85 is such terrible and unreliable race gas then why motorsports like indy, nascar, wrc, etc run it? It has to be worth it for a daily driver!
 
#75 ·
jesus. I can't believe the arguing in this thread.

I'm guessing that the reason the focus community shrivels their nose to e85 so much is because there aren't that many people on here with applications that would benefit from it.

here are the cliff notes regarding e85 for those that are interested:

pros: •e85 is WAYYY cheaper than running race gas, and CONSIDERABLY more gas stations sell e85 than race gas at the pumps.
•e85 produces cooler egt's
•e85 on boosted cars allows you to help reduce risk for knock

cons: •your mpg goes down
•you need bigger injectors to run it
•you'd have to clean/replace your o2 sensors more often
•people on the focus forums, and only the focus forums claim you'll pop your motor if you run it.

One of my best friends has run over 600hp in his srt on ONLY e85 for the past two and a half years with ZERO problems, and 500+hp previous to that for three years, also on e85. Have another friend with a 600hp evo that also runs on e85. Numerous 450-500hp srt's, numerous 400+hp evos, 600hp integra, 650hp supra, all on e85, etc. You can check out my YouTube (listed in sig) for videos of all of these, and you tell me if they all don't know what they're doing with e85.

oh, and if any of you have heard of a shop called FFtech (full function technology), you might also see with their 8 and 9 second evos, as well as MANY other very fast DSM's that run e85, that they're doing well with too.

bottom line is, that if you're looking for a $3.50/gallon version of race gas for your boosted application, e85 is for you. [thumb]
 
#79 ·
You obviously dont get it and I never said or implied anyone was uneducated lets not turn this into something it isnt

If you are paying $16.00 a gallon for race fuel some one does need to educate you where to buy race fuel from , I buy VP and pay less then $9.00 a gallon for 105-108 and can get 100 at the pump for about $6.00

Even the VPC85 (e85) I can get for less then $10.00 a gallon which I am going to test

Tom
 
#88 ·
Yeah, the ST guys are getting into the E85 now. Maybe when they come up with a serious big turbo kit working on these cars, I might pick one up.
 
#89 ·
E85 sucks this is from the link one of the smart guys that carrys a tester , I have tested as low as 73% I have never tested where the e was above 85%and only 2 times that it was 85%

"I always carried my ethanol tester for fillups, as I saw between 85% and 92% ethanol content between pumps"

What do you think would of happen if this guy was tuned with higher timing and E85% then next fillup got the E73% B O O M !

E85 can change is E% as well as octane , it just isnt worth a blown engine

Tom
 
#91 ·
When you tune for E85 on a daily driver, you don't use maximum timing, you get the power with boost. If you are using the fancy E85 in a barrel, you can push the timing if you want for competition purposes. For those that get it from the pump, the car needs to be tuned conservatively to handle the variance.

Another thing...with the Focus ST, there is a little bit of help the computer gives you: closed loop fuel adjustments during WOT.
 
#93 ·
Just some background on me , I have been tuning cars for 35 years starting with the 79 factory turbocharged Mustang and then on to the SV0 Mustang making over 700hp , I have tuned more Foci then any other tuner on this forum , I have built hundreds or Turbocharged Focus cars and my Focus made 723hp to the wheels and I ran a best of 10.95 @ 137mph with a ATX Trans , DOT tires , A/C and stereo equipment

I own my own shop , flow bench and dynojet dyno own almost every type of tuning software there is , I have extensively tested e85 from the pump and had it lab tested for what people would call octane , I have a tester where I can test it at the pump

one st making a pass and not blowing up means little to me in time if he tunes for e85 adds the timing so it makes more power and keeps running it it will blow up

ANY added timing to an engine running e85 at 85% then getting say e70 and lowered octane and your engine isnt going to like it at all , just because the closed loop fueling has a target it cannot change just because you dont have the same % of E fuel and lower octane so the full amount of timing that was added for e85 is still going to be there and the same amount of targeted AF is going to be there and BOOM !

This is my opinion after years of testing e85 quality , its the only fuel at the pump that isnt regulated and its garbage and if people would take the time to test it from batch to batch they would find this out as well

Tom
 
#94 ·
I understand that you are running a shop and you don't want a customer's car to grenade on you. That is a good policy to have.

If you are a do it yourselfer, and can monitor things, it can be done safely. My car has been on E85 for 5 1/2 years and still going strong making way more power than could be made with 91 oct pump gas.
 
#96 ·
It can definitely work fine if you incorporate a large enough safety net in your tune and monitor knock and AFRs like a hawk...but I agree with what Tom said above. It's unregulated and tuning with the same mindset you do on E10 usually leads to popped motors.
 
#98 · (Edited)
Are you serious , the # of blown engine from e85 is higher then guys running nitrous , higher then any other mod I can think of

Mods . boost , nitrous etc you can tuned for reliability , how can you adjust for poor quality fuel , lack of octane , lack of E% and on and on from one tank to another , you cant its insane to think one tank of E fuel is the same as the next

The CRAP should be taken off the market or regulated like every other fuel sold at the pumps

Tom
 
#99 ·
I loved e85 until my 240sx turned into a rolling shell instead of a track car... Ive talked with tom about tuning my focus for it a couple times and he told me it wasnt smart and i always begged to differ but once i ripped my car apart that was running it for 3-4 years on e and looked at everything this e85 "race gas" is imho is garbage i need to redo the entire fuel system and lines on the car cause they are ruined and i used stuff that was said to support e


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#100 ·
Everyone who is boosted around here runs it and does just fine. Of course we are talking LSx cars, mod motors, SRT-4s, cobalts, MS3s and not any focuses to my knowledge.
 
#101 ·
Finding a gas station close by that stays pretty consistent is ur best bet if ur gonna do it and be conservative about it also if u do ur playing with something that one other focus has done and failed to my knowledge i was going to till my track car blew to bits


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#102 ·
Cobb is doing it with good success as well as another guy from the MS3 world called freektune. They are only able to do a 30% E85/pump gas mix because the fuel system doesn't have the capacity on the high pressure side.
 
#104 ·
Not much of a car guy are you. Warranties mean very little to people like me, because I can repair or replace anything on any car. The only consideration is money. If it is a really expensive gamble, I might think about it or not do it at certain times, but if I want it, I'll save up and go for it.

Examples: My 2002 SS had a cam, springs, pushrods, headers, intake and tune long before the factory 3/36 warranty was up. My SRT-4 had so many bolt ons and was making almost 150% more horsepower than stock long before warranty was up (on E85 too).

You guys ought to get out more really. This is the only forum where E85 is the devil.
 
#108 ·
E85 is very hard on engine oil and engine oil drain intervals, (per the Ford owners manual), need to be cut in half when using E85. For starters, anything that compromises the performance of the engine oil is not good for the engine and secondly, changing oil twice as often gets expensive.
 
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