i am considering e85

[cptnmorgan]

i have been considering e85 for a bit now. i have an h22a swap. now i understand that it requires 30% more fuel. i understand that it will eventually eat any rubber seals in the fuel system. but im looking at short term problems. 1, what short term issues will i run into (specifically with the h22)? 2, how will i know if i am leaning out (as i know that will be the first issue most likely posted). i am not looking for power. im looking at the dollar per gallon saving over premium unleaded right now. and i am looking to have the engine run cleaner (i have done my research on this part). and im a bit of a hippie so im looking at the environmental impact as well other useful info like what size are the stock injectors in the h22 and would it even lean out at all at top end? any responses to any of these would be great.

[illinois_erik]

i cant say anything about the H22 but.. I use e-85 a lot especially during the summer months. I havnt had any problems with degradation of seals what not. However since our cars timing and fuel maps arent optimized for ethanol it really doesn't pan out, sure youre paying 40-50 cents less a gallon which is okay if its your last fin..but you can only go half as far. e85 has about half the amount of energy in it than the same volume of petrol, plus more water needing a hotter spark for better ignition etc. As for the alcohol messing up the fuel system..probably wont. 1) youre not running methanol which will dissolve rubber and aluminum 2) this warning is more for like pre 1980s cars before everyone started running e-10. Now if your car was set up to run e-85 and only e-85 then you could see some benefits. When and if I ever build up a boosted car I will be setting it up to run e-85, besides the higher fuel consumption it has awesome anti detonation properties (e85 is basically like running 110 octane fuel; perfect for high boost) So yeah thats about all I can share off the top of my head. So.. youll be fine oh and e-85 in a regular car when its below 45-40 degrees has a hard time starting and runs kinda shitty till things warm up, (due to the water volume and higher ignition point) summer it works fine and is cheap minus the overall distance you can get out of it vs a tank of regular e-10

[cptnmorgan]

ok its not half,u need about 30% more fuel. and 40-50 cents? its 3.09 a gallon for e85. its 3.98 for premium here. and i bought the car already swapped, chipped and tuned and he told me to run premium (min 91 octane) cuz that what it was tuned with. so im looking at 90cent savings. and preventing detonation. but will the stock injectors hold up?

[Jarrett]

The biggest deterrent for most people is the availability of refueling stations for E-85. To run it with some type of benefit you would need to build and tune around it. Once those considerations are made it becomes less safe to run the car on 92/93 octane gasoline. I can't feasibly run it because there are too few E-85 stations near me. But if I were to run it I would take advantage of being able to run much higher compression. The higher compression forces would offset some of the energy lost from the type of fuel being used.

Also, E-85 has roughly 30% less energy than gasoline, not half. And the octane ratings for E85 are realistically 94-97 depending on the blend. The advertised numbers are normally incorrect and are created with a gasoline-specific algorithm.

EDIT* You posted before I could. All other things the same I think it would be smart to upgrade the injectors to 450cc DSM injectors if you'll be running the H22A injectors close to 90% duty cycle. The factory injectors are 345cc for the JDM H22A. If you only commute, you should be fine. But for peace of mind I'd do the upgrade and do an E-85 specific tune.

[cptnmorgan]

well do i need to find out what it was previously tuned with. the guy told me it had a chipped p28 ecu from phearable.net i dont know who tuned it or with what program. i guess i need to verify what ecu i have (but its snowing right now and i dont feel like getting cold and wet), to see if its really a p28 right? and how would i know what they used to tune it with? just so i can give my own tuner a heads up when i come in for my tune. and im in wisconsin and there seem to be alot of e85 stations popping up. one is about 4 miles away, and ive seen others in nearby towns that i travel to often.

[Sordz]

I run e85 on my boosted h22, I would advise you to invest in a wideband so you can monitor the afr, you will also want to get the car tuned to run on e85. Also there is a summer and winter blend of e85, I would personally wait till spring to make the switch and upgrade the injectors.

[cptnmorgan]

ok tried the e85, i put 20 bucks in (about half a tank on a near empty tank) and the first things ive noticed are a slightly rougher idle, deeper exhaust note and a noticeable drop in power at 3/4 to WOT. its only been 10 miles so i may just be paranoid. im thinking though that it may still need to be driven a little bit for it to adjust to needing more fuel, or im flooding the cylinders and not burning the extra fuel, or my injectors ARE too small for the e85 to run on the previous tune. either way, i think im going to fill the rest of the tank up with regular unleaded to dilute it a bit, and give up the fight for e85 till i turbo and tune it properly on e85. wish i had an a/f meter to see what its actually doing.

[Jarrett]

With no supporting mods such as an adjustable fuel pressure regulator or higher flow injectors, diagnostic devices like a wideband, or tuning software you're just pissing in the wind.