So I finally took the car out after about a month of no driving (got a new honda insight so i'm loving the 70mpg I get). The tank was a little low so I figured I would fill up for winter storage. At the regular station I go to I started pumping then noticed the sticker color changed from yellow to orange and to my shock I see that they lowered the standards on e85!!

I was pissed. I was going to switch back to pumpgas anyways but now I have this horrible hybrid blend of crap fuel in my car. 51% percent...what a crock.

Anyways on the way home My car started bucking and acting crappy when cruising. I my a/f was low, cruising at 11:1 so I figured it was too much petrol causing it. I did a log and only my bank 1 is low and only when cruising, under load or at idle it's fine. I even pushed it a little into low boost and they balanced. So now i'm just confused and it can't be the fuel. I'm going to pull the plugs and check them. Maybe I'm suffering from that strange build up that people claim happens when running e85 on my injectors.

Here is an article about the fuel changes. In case anyone is thinking of switching to e85. E85 was just ruined. 70-85% is easy to overcome but dropping down to 51% is way too different.

http://ethanolproducer.com/articles/...-to-51-percent

 

Wow, haven't seen that around here but good to know. All the more reason to run our flex fuel sensor with digital ethanol readout gauge.

 

Ya, I don't think it would help unless I put the new haltech in so it adjusts automatically. I don't have time to make 3 full fuel maps. LOL

Soon enough though. I should be opening a new practice in the spring so I have to be responsible on my spending for a little while.

Not sure what the deal is with my bank 1 going super rich under light load cruise. I'm checking all my logs right now and it just doesn't make sense.

 

'E85' is now officially useless in addition to being a gigantic tax subsidized ripoff for stock flexfuel vehicles.

 

^ +1

 

Interesting.. Thanks for sharing.

 

^This.

Isn't there some issues with long term storage of fuels high in Ethanol, though? I suppose folks in the US should have a better idea since E85 is more "common" there.
Bad news, anyway for those that can use it; but, that whole E85 "environmental" agenda has reeked from the start.

 

On damn. Thanks for sharing and hope everything is all right with injectors. Really hope I can store ethanol with out it going bad. That may be the route I take since there aren't many stations here for e85 as it is.

 

I may be wrong, but I think ethanol absorbs moisture making it not suitable for storage

 

Yeah that's what I'm saying. Once you open it. I have talked to some guys about it.

 

That really sucks for you guys. Not like e85 actually even existed in california.

 

I only go to a local mom and pop gas staion to get my e 85 called canyon lake gas and auto repair. They have a tank with ethanol that they mix with gas and a sensor tells hi. What perctage the mix is. I just called him to verify this. Lucky us

 

Jeff, we have had those stickers on indy for over a year now and the blend is almost 90 percent ethanol in summer. I think you are just on a really crap winter blend of e85 and it will be back up to standards in summer

 

this, most places drop way down in the winter for cold start issues and even then it will typically be above 51% they just have to have that sticker for legal purposes so they cant get sued if it says 70% and they give out 69%. either way im good with my insane amount of meth lol ill prob keep it once stateside at this point since i might be leaving the army so ill have my 2.25 a gallon at the track again

 

I don't think it's the e85 I filled up with causing the issues or I would have it on both banks.

I'm tuned on e70 anyways just for safety so I run 11:1 with e70 with timing appropriate so during winter blend I should be safe on timing. I'll be good when the summer blend comes back although I run around 12:1 which is still safe considering my timing. Running 1 map for e51 up to e85 will be too hard though. It scares me that this local place just now changed it making me think they are now using less ethanol blend in order to pull more subsidy money.

I'm going to switch the injectors bank to bank and hopefully the problem will stay with the injectors. If not then I have no idea why. Widebands control the o2 correction and they are working properly (fuel is being pulled because of the rich condition on that bank).

 

I am running e85 in my evo. I don't drive much, so my fills over the summer were limited, but I never saw anything over 72..... I have the zeitronix eca... would have bought Hal's setup, but it wasn't available

I have been considering switching my Z over, but if 50% is the new norm, forget that. My Z makes more than enough power on standard premium.

 

Wow, that's the second person i've heard say this now... What a bummer, nothing like good 'ol consistent VP fuels.

 

That’s disappointing… maybe I’ll run meth instead of flex fuel/E85…

 

Even if it ever did drop of 50%, it would only be in the winter months, in colder climates.

But if you are not using a true flex fuel VE based EMS, then it could be a PITA.

 

Ya, I can't justify the expense of switching to a new EMS and buying the flex fuel stuff just for the map switching. I can just go back to pump gas and make the power level I currently have.

The only thing that I'm going to miss is the spool. The expansion volume is nice and gave me a few hundred RPMS of spool.