K_Espirit17's Journey Build Thread
 

So I guess it's time to compile my whole build up to this point. So I'll break it down into sections.

The most recent experience was using E85.

E85 Experience:



So a Racetrac station opens up literally a few minutes from my house. I find out they are selling E85. At the time, I already thought of doing cams. Spoke to Jon at Z1 and he joked with me how he was only going to tune the car on E85. The setup was big cams, adjustable exhaust gears, billet oil pump, VHR upper/lower, VHR fuel rail, GTR Injectors, and Z1’s new carbon 3 inch intakes.



Benefits of E85:

-Higher octane, which in turn means the tuner can add more timing without the increased risk of detonation

-Runs cooler because Ethanol has a higher thermal threshold during combustion. The temperature during combustion is cooler than pump gas.

-Smells great

-Picked up 15 whp or so just on the fuel change. This was just on regular pump ethanol and not the jungle ethanol from Ignite or One R.

Downsides:

-Longer time to crank over. Usually starts the first crank after sitting, but it’s been colder lately so it’s taken a few starts. Usually people have issues cold starting, which has been the case now since the temperature drop. I usually experienced longer crank times after shutting the car off to turn it back on again. During Z Nationals track day, it definitely took some cranks to get it started, but eventually did. When I was ready to hit the road back home, it had a nice little backfire when trying to start it. Lol

-MPG wasn’t as bad as people said it’d be. From my location to Road Atlanta was 70 plus miles give or take. I brimmed the tank and still had ¾ of Ethanol. On track during back to back sessions, I had anywhere between ¾ of a tank to ½ a tank at full chat. I was getting 23-26 mpg on the highway.

-Since Uprev is pretty slow (years) on the flex fuel update, the car has only ran on Ethanol since the tune. I don’t have my cruise control switches in yet because I’m planning on relocating it somewhere in the center rather than have it in the way of the steering wheel. Pretty ridiculous since I’m sure many of us would want to purchase a kit. Looking at other options for flex fuel since it’ll be easier to thrown whatever whether it be pump gas, pump ethanol, or even race blends. Another note is that once you tune on the ethanol you put in the car, you might need a retune with higher ethanol content like 90 plus.



-If pump ethanol is hard to come by, it wouldn’t really be realistic to run it unless you can get it without having to haul jugs of it back with you. For the upgrades I did, it only made sense to run ethanol exclusively and how a station is minutes away compared to someone who has to drive an hour or so just to fill up.

My Take:

Other than the extended cranks, it hasn’t been too bad dealing with E85. The car and the way Jon has tuned it makes it all worth it. Runs cooler, smells sweet, and who wouldn’t want a few extra WHP while playing it safe even if it’s just NA.

Video below: