How to run your LS1 on E85

[shimp]

My PCM for my 2004 Silverado already has settings in it for Alcohol. So if I wanted to try out E85 is there something I need to do to make it use those settings? I don't think my truck has a sensor to know it's on E85. It did not come as a "Flex Fuel" vehicle, but there are all those settings in the PCM for Alcohol.

[n0dih]

Any chance you can post pictures of the settings that get changed? Does it have its own timing maps? Or other settings?

I would like see what GM does when the PCM "sees" E85 on the fuel sensor.

[shimp]

I actually only have 1 table for Alchohol, it's an EQ Ratio table.

[Runn WS7]

Any chance you can post pictures of the settings that get changed? Does it have its own timing maps? Or other settings?

I would like see what GM does when the PCM "sees" E85 on the fuel sensor.

No timing maps change. Stoich AFR change and a couple of afterstart enrichment maps and the EQ at opel loop, thats it.

[shanez]

I have a question on spark timing.

As E85 burns faster than gas, would we need to pull back timing as opposed to increasing it? I had always thought that the faster the burn, the less timing required for best combustion.

I know on my LT1 I had increased probably 4-6 degrees timing all over and it ran great, snappy throttle response and all, fuel economy wasn't stellar, but it was on the order of 2-4 mpg less than gas, most of the time 2 was the norm.

Are my theories backwards?

Spark advance is similar to what you might have on race gas. Ethanol burns at a much faster rate than gasoline, but it has a longer ignition delay. So it takes longer for it to ignite, but then burns faster.

[NoRemorse]

I plan on converting my LSJ (SC 4-banger) to E85 in the next month, so I can up my compression a full point at the 21psi I am running. However, I have a few questions

1)Because of the boost I am running, I am using a single step cooler spark plugs. I see this as a potential issue running mainly ethenal. Would I go back up a heat range (stock heat range) or even one over that? Just curioous where I should start with my plugs.

2)The cooling of this fuel over gasolene will obviously help with the insanely hot charge my SC puts out, but the PCM reads the IAT2 (post plower IAT) obvsioily later than the fuel injection, so how would anyone reccomend tackling harnessing the cooler charge, becuse it will not be measured really.

3)I run my car at about 11.8:1 AFR on gasolene (OL that is). What should I shoot for with E85? Shoot for the same lambda maybe?


Thanks for any help,
NoRemorse

[NoRemorse]

bump?

[n0dih]

We just got a new station pumping E85 on my way to work! Finally!! Not good prices ($2.33 for E85 compared to $2.54 for gas). But I can get it easily now.

Well see what the stupid high gas prices end up like this summer.

[Runn WS7]

Start testing and post your results, i´ve been driving E85 for three years now... never looked back

[n0dih]

Any drawbacks at all?
How often do you change oil? Do you change more often with the higher solvency of the E85 on the cyl walls?
What sort of oil do you use? Dino? Synthetic?
How many miles per year do you drive it?
Does it get cold there? What % of Ethanol do they go to in the winter months?

[n0dih]

I spoke with a fellow tuner for NorthStar Cadillacs (if you are looking for N* tuning, PM me...) said that when in the local area they switched to reformulated (aka, 10% ethanol fuel) they saw a rash of the fuel tank seal swelling and push out. They also have seen a rash of fuel pressure regulators fail (hmmm, like GM trucks??) what they feel is due to the ethanol laced fuels.

GM has moved away from the plastic fuel lines to steel again, and the E85/FlexFuel vehicles have stainless steel lines, fuel rails and fuel filter.

He said what happens is the water that does end up in the ethanol (it shouldn't but if handled poorly can) over time sitting separates, rusts the steel lines and the ethanol cleans it up, then eventually rusts again (like in a low spot in the fuel system) and ends up with a hole in the steel line.

So directly, ethanol is fine and won't hurt a thing, but the water IS the issue. So in my case, I drive mega miles on my car, so likely will not have much of an issue, but cars/trucks that let ethanol sit for longer periods of time can see potential issues. So if you are going to let it sit for long periods of time, as with Methanol cars, you should "rinse" with pure gas to keep it all clean....

He also said this is also the issue with the poppet style L31/L30 injectors, they would get the small amounts of rust from the fuel lines/filter (after the filter) would get into the injectors and and ultimately build up and the injector would fail (plug up or bad spray pattern). In California it was an actual recall and they had to replace the system with electronic injectors (96-97), in the other 49 states they would not recall it, but they did offer the injector upgrade kit fairly inexpensively (like $200 for 8 injectors and the connector). But back to the point, the ethanol and MTBE in the mid 90s that CA pushed and later much of the US did have some negative side effects, but as you can see, how it is used makes a difference and how well the ethanol is handled makes far more of a difference.

[van383]

im planning on trying this this weekend and was curious which cranking fuel tables u added 20% too when doing this. my car runs best with my combo so fare at about 10.8-11.2 a/f where would be a good start to put pe table at to achieve this for equivalent for e85, thanks

[Runn WS7]

How´s it going?

[tahoe]

Jus came back from our holliday, towing a 5700 lbs TT (travel trailer).
I used up 1550 liters E85 (413 US gallons) traveling 7000 km (4375 miles)
in my T engine Tahoe. Never missed a beat. I am running CL when towing, but agressive OL tune when not. (E85 is very forgiving compared to gasoline when running lean)

The Tq increase E85 give is velcome when towing.

By the way, total mileage on E85 in my hoe is 60000+ km (37500 miles), running better than new.


//

[oscareltemblo]

I have a 04 silverado SS with headers and a 217 226 55X 57X cam l92 heads and 90mm tb I want to run e 85 I still have the 24# injectors what do I need to do the e85 was 3.20 a galon at a gas station near by compared to 4.11 for 93.

[van383]

never tried it yest now i have switched to victor style intake with 1000cfm tb and the cars seems to want to be at the 13.0 numbers now and a lot more timing.. gonna play with the gas and get it close and throw the e85 to it after that.

[van383]

just converted and used runns method to do so. cars seems to start and warm up fine.. im using a lm1 wideband and i have converted it to e85 with my programmer. its reads with no tuning 8.00 .85 afr. here is what its been awhile since i have done is that i data log with table,hisogram and chart display..well my o2s are reading 12.20 or so there so im not sure how to get the two to link together in each display?? would you be able to walk me thru this? im gonna post this in the tuning forum as well. thanks

[van383]

well got it hooked up finally now tuning has begun and my lm1 after 3 years finally messes up and i get spiked out af now..has anyone did a chart of say conparing e85 af to gas af to make some tuning pe a little easier? i read somewhere that 8.50 e85 af equals 12.78 gas af, so something to work with i guess..

[WS6FirebirdTA00]

Just helped my buddy tune his turbo car today on E85 and high compression. It is amazing how much smoother the car runs with this in comparison to 93 octane.

[maxgee]

for those running e85 and using hptuners...could you post your set up? i went off runn's suggestion and changed my AFR Stoich to 9.799 and change my Boost PE to reach 8.5 but at idle i'm at 10.8 or so and the car likes this. when i add in fuel to get it to 9.8 the idle drops and the car then sounds lopey