Splash Blending with E85

[Robb235]

I wouldn't use ethanol in anything that's going to sit for a while like my boat, lawn mower, weed wacker, motorcycle, etc.

Rebuilding the carbs on my boat, there were some white crusty deposits, but nothing bad. I could tell the previous owner had been running regular E10 pump gas through it instead of 100% gas. The deposits weren't that bad though.

My 4Runner on the other hand is daily driven, 30 minute commute to work each way. If it was going to sit for a while, I'd run straight gas through it.

I'm not too worried about the gas lines. Automakers have been making them ethanol resistant for years now. There are MR2s older than our 3rd gens running E85 without issue. I'm not concerned.


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[JayRolla]

So when I put the green 315cc injectors in, I thought something was wrong with them due to LTFTs being so high. Turns out I have a vacuum leak somewhere, so the injectors were fine. With stock injectors back in, my fuel trims are sky high at idle (+35) but go back to normal (~+19 due to higher ethanol content) when under load. I may have forgotten to reconnect a hose somewhere when putting everything back together.


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Just be careful. I've burned up valves in a motor one time tuning e85 blindly like you are doing.

I highly suggest a wbo2 and tuning software.

 

[Robb235]

Just be careful. I've burned up valves in a motor one time tuning e85 blindly like you are doing.



I highly suggest a wbo2 and tuning software.

Since my 4Runner is the "California emissions" style with an AFR sensor instead of the older narrowband O2 sensor, I'm able to see what the ECU sees in terms of AFR via my OBD reader. Not as good as a true WB02, and I would never do any tuning based off it, but it gives me an idea of where my AFRs are.

I've filled up with 100% gas until I figure out my vacuum leak. Using pure gas for now so that LTFTs will be show close to 0 when problem is truly fixed. I had replaced a vacuum hose and thought I had fixed my issue. It helped bring my LTFTs down some at idle, but still at +20 idling. Under load LTFTs are normal, with readings between 0 and +3. I'm going to spray some carb cleaner around the engine bay tomorrow to see if I can locate the leak.


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[JayRolla]

Since my 4Runner is the "California emissions" style with an AFR sensor instead of the older narrowband O2 sensor, I'm able to see what the ECU sees in terms of AFR via my OBD reader. Not as good as a true WB02, and I would never do any tuning based off it, but it gives me an idea of where my AFRs are.

I've filled up with 100% gas until I figure out my vacuum leak. Using pure gas for now so that LTFTs will be show close to 0 when problem is truly fixed. I had replaced a vacuum hose and thought I had fixed my issue. It helped bring my LTFTs down some at idle, but still at +20 idling. Under load LTFTs are normal, with readings between 0 and +3. I'm going to spray some carb cleaner around the engine bay tomorrow to see if I can locate the leak.


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Remember long term needs multiple drive cycles to settle out.

 

[Shuba]

I accidentally put E85 in my 2017 ...the check engine light and Trac off light came on...and my cruise control dosent work???? any advice?

 

[jgue467]

...
EDIT: Forgot to mention that it takes a little longer to start when cold now. Maybe an extra second at most to crank.


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Sweet - tough gas prices where you're at. Here in central Texas, regular gas is 1.69/gal, less than your e85! :cowboy:

 

[JohnMc]

I've been running E85 in my modified turbo Volvo wagon for about 6 years, because even though it is rated at something like 105 octane, it really acts like 110 or even 115 octane fuel. it's *very* hard to make it ping.knock/detonate. Which is very nice on a turbocharged car - you can run higher boost levels and not blow things up.

While lots of lawn equipment is not made to handle ethanol, most cars built since at least the late 80's can. That's when manufacturers knew that pump gas was likely to start using ethanol in the near future. If you have something much older, it might have issues with things like fuel lines and carb gaskets.

For a few years, I had a 'dual fuel' setup on the Volvo, I had a dash switch that swapped fuel/ignition/boost tables in the computer (Megasquirt) from gas to E85. And while the E85 was a lot more FUN (it makes significantly more power because the boost could go from roughly 15 psi on gas to 24 psi on E85), it was also a bit more erratic. I finally added a GM flex fuel sensor and a newer Megasquirt controller (that has a true flex fuel mode) and saw why: pump E85 sometimes has widely varying amounts of ethanol in it. 85 is simply the *MOST" percentage of ethanol it will have, they can have less. Seasonally, they use less ethanol in the winter (ethanol doesn't vaporize at low temps as well, making it harder to start). And sometimes they're just a bit short of ethanol at the refinery, so they use less. Sometimes they just fill the E85 tanks with plain old E10 fuel.

Flex fuel vehicles use a sensor and they can rapidly adjust on the fly to handle changing ethanol amounts. ut without that, the fuel trims have to do the same thing, only they react far more slowly. If you tank up on a new blend of 50/50 E10 and E85, you might get a lot of ethanol, or a little. And the engine might have to slowly crank those fuel trims back and forth to account for it.

And how much E85 can you use without setting a CEL? Factory ECU's have limits on their fuel trims, if the ECU goes all the way and runs out of allowable fuel trim - it gives up and sets a CEL. the fuel trims vary from vehicle to vehicle and account for production variances in all the parts that affect fuel mixtures (fuel pumps, injectors, pressure regulators, MAF accuracy, small air leaks, etc, etc, etc). Some cars might be pulling fuel (trimmed leaner) for whatever reason, they might have more leeway to adjust to account for more ethanol than other identical (bone stock) vehicles might, if they were trimmed rich already on pump gas.

In very general terms, there's not a whole lot to be gained from using E85 on a normally aspirated car. The ping resistance might add some pep in hot weather in some cars.