gs-ireland

I asked here before if anybody used E85 on a GS3, but mods moved it to Car-Chat!
E85 has a higher octane rating than ordinary petrol, but less BTU's. That is why the economy is ~ 20% less than petrol. So, if E85 is ~30% cheaper than petrol prices you are on a winner!

The 2 main probs for E85 is it is corrosive to older silicone seals, not much of a problem with newer cars, but I am unsure about the 2GS. The second problem is due to the E85 having lower BTU's, it needs more fuel-per-bang, so there are kits out there to keep your injectors open a little longer:

http://www.flextek.com

Does anybody know if our fuel lines/pumps are ok with E85?

j stuff

iTrader: (5)

Jeff ill drive to dallas for u to show me how this works properly lol

Solo_D33A

so does it mean all i need is to run rich with E85? what air fuel ratio should it be at? anyone know?

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

First of all that video refers to E10(10%ethanol, 90%gasoline). Anyways, I watched the video and a few facts are wrong. First of all the throttle body being dirtier...lol. The throttle body is located before the injectors in term of how the air flows into the engine. So really, the engine air filter being dirty and a bad PCV valve or infrequent oil change is what will cause that more than anything. More oil sludge buildup? She said at the end to have the oil changed every 5k miles. Are they freakin kidding, how many miles are people going between changes lol. Either way that video is talking about E10 fuel which is what they use now ever since the ban on MTBE(carcinogenic reasons) in gasoline.

E85 is a different animal. It's mostly alcohol so it burns much cleaner and leaves nearly no residue. Gasoline on the other hand leaves behind a ton of soot and carbon buildup. And as a few of the other people have mentioned here. Ethanol is less energy dense compared to gasoline at the same volume. You do need ~25% more of it to produce proper combustion in the engine. Thing is that with a boosted engine and the mandatory extra fuel being packed in per cycle. It actually ends up producing more power per stroke than gasoline.

KiPod

iTrader: (31)

Jeff, are you still running standard rubber in your fuel system? I know people say that its not an issue in newer cars but it is. Its not okay, its just okay at the moment. Just because the rubber is newer doesnt keep it from breaking down over time. From what I understand is unless you switch your fuel system to a silicone material I fear you may have problems down the road. I was researching doing an E85 swap when I read that article I mentioned about 4 years ago but when you factor in the extra money you put into swapping the fuel system parts, extra fuel needed to burn (more fill ups), and (at that time) lack of fill stations in my area it was seemed better for me to just buy the race fuel for the track and run 93 on the street. Im not knocking what you did at all. Just wondering if you swapped anything over from standard rubber. Your moving forward and bringing your GS into the future with you. I respect that.

Ay-nako

iTrader: (25)

jeff im not kidding come down to vegas :P

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

I've upgraded my whole fuel system not with ethanol in mind, but just due to the fact that I need so much fuel in the system lol. So when I built it, everything was overbuilt and I guess that paid off. The rubber O-rings have all been replaced with Viton rings since a while back. The fuel lines are the stainless braided nitrile AN-6 racing kind. The material the hose is made of is compatible with methanol and nitromethane both of which are WAAAY worse than ethanol will ever be. Only time will tell how this setup hold up. I'll keep you guys updated

Only downside is that the Walbro fuel pump I am running is not rated for ethanol. However, there are numerous Subaru people that have converted to E85 for several years now with no problems at all. They are even using the stock fuel system(lines, rings, injectors), but with just the upgraded Walbro fuel pump. There are a ton of Subies that have put 20-30-40k and counting running exclusively on E85.

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

haha...I can just see the looks on the faces now

Thats great. Keep us posted with more info. If we could hack these ECU's on the 2IS this would be great!

Thanks for sharing!
Mike

KiPod

iTrader: (31)

Thats awesome that once you build a "race" fuel system with appropriate lines it can handle whatever fuel you throw at it. It makes things much easier in the long run when you build it right from the start. Good job Jeff. Your car has become a complete animal in such a short time. Keep it up.

GREED777

nice work Jeff

sbullard33

iTrader: (1)

This is not true as far as I know I work for a Repair/speed shop where we service VW audi bmw mercedes and they have carbon and oil sludge issues with regular oil changes and maintence its just normal and I don't see the fuel causing the problems described in that video. I do like the foreign guy searching for something to say and then comes up with it will clog up the oil passages and destroy your engine what a line of ****....

excluesive

iTrader: (10)

so...... any car can take e85 with just a remapped ecu and bigger fuel pumps?

ElitistK

iTrader: (4)

^ and bigger injectors.

Half of the reason why people switch to e85 is because of the octane benefits, and the other half is price. For a regular car I don't really see the benefit of going e85 at all. The bioenergy required to make the same amount of energy that the fuel provides is far greater than its benefits.

We dont' have much e85 stations in cali, but we are big fans of water/meth injection.

You might be the first one, but I think there's a sc300 somewhere that did this.

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

I thought I read somewhere that most cars that can run on either E85/gasoline actually produce less power when running on E85?

sbgs400

there is no real benefit to switch to E85 unless you have FI. the benefit to FI users is the higher octane rating will help prevent knock when on boost.