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Flex fuel e85

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e85 flex fuel
8K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  FoSHO99 
#1 ·
Hi everybody, has anybody equipped his car with a Flex Fuel kit on the 1.8l engine ? What's your opinion about it ?
 
#2 ·
Hmm... I don't understand the obsession with E85. I don't think E85 is good for any engine. If you upgrade components so they are corrosion resistant, there are still other wear problems associated with ethanol. The cleaning effect that ethanol has can induce increased wear if the oil lubrication is cleaned away.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Apart from some minor seepage there is no place oil and fuel should occupy the same place, and if they are straight up gasoline will cause the same kind of damage. In fact with the exception of the combustion chamber fuel should not be touching anything mechanical in an engine. I fanything you gain the cleaning effect of removing carbon build up from the combustion area. After 5 tanks of gas of E85 in my Tahoe you couldn't find an ounce of carbon even in the exhaust. You can argue that E85 will eventually eat away at seals and you may be right over a very extended period of time but most modern engines use ethanol resistant parts since most gas has ethanol in it in a lesser percentage. My only real concern would be valve seals and I'm sure it would be a very long time IF they were to go bad. There are alot of benefits to E-85 for performance reasons, especially forced induction. But for most people it won't be worth the time or aggravation to "convert" as you will never make your money back on the cheaper gas.


OP: Why do you want to run E85?
 
#4 ·
E85 is terrible in nearly every way. It is corrosive to the engine and fuel system. It has nowhere near the energy density that gasoline has so your fuel mileage is about half. And because of that, is defeats one of the so called advantages that people tout about it and that being that it is cleaner. Well, combustion is combustion whether it is gasoline or ethanol and the waste products are water and carbon dioxide. So since you have to burn twice as much to go the same distance, you are still putting out the same amount of emissions. I know that the combustion in an engine is never perfectly complete but catalytic converters take care of everything else not completely burnt. And because ethanol reduces the supply of corn that goes to making food for people and food for most farm animals, it has driven the cost of food WAY up especially in the past 3 or so years. Beef is triple the cost it was 2 years ago. Sorry for the rant but E85 is pure BS.
 
#5 ·
E85 is terrible in nearly every way. Sorry for the rant but E85 is pure BS.
e85 gives more power and burns cooler. its good for performance.. but yea, gas mileage goes way down and it takes away from a food resource.. not a good idea for anything but power

mind you, this car would need to be tuned for e85 most likely, and without spoiling too much, the car may not run full e85 yet (but rather an e50 type mix of 93+e85)
 
#6 · (Edited)
The only place you might see corrosion is in the fuel lines. I have NEVER seen the inside of an engine (including my Tahoe's which ran on E85 for about 3 years/50K) that had corrosion on the engine and I have taken apart more then a few running on different ethanol percentages. When I pulled the heads on my truck to fix a head gasket everything looked brand new with 140K on the clock. There is so little fuel injected into the cylinder at any given time and the fact that it doesn't sit in there that makes engine corrosion an absolutely silly concept due to E85. But Def agree you are never going to save money by going E85 but you can get more power safely out of a E85, just won't be as efficient as you will generally need 20-30% more fuel to achieve the same goals. The big worry with E85 is the fuel lines and the tank in vehicles with a metal tank. Almost all modern vehicles have ethanol resistant equipment now that flex fuel has become popular since it is much easier for a manufacturer to make 1 set of parts for a car and just add electronics for flex fuel. As long as the pump/injectors are up to the task for this car you would just have to tune it for E85 and it should run just fine for a long time.
 
#7 ·
...truly "Flex-Fuel" E85 engines need & use LARGER diameter injectors (~30%?) than those used on regular E0-E10 'gasohol' engines.
 
#9 ·
If you have the fuel system and tuning to support it you won't have a problem. I'd be a bit more concerned with the 1.4 since it has a turbo would be tough to make it run safely on both, but you could still tune for E85
 
#11 ·
I ran a tank of E30-E35 (depending on how much ethanol was actually in the gas since they do have to tell you). The car ran fine. In fact, on a cruise across town at night doing 62 I was able to still achieve 53 mpg (DIC).

However, under load and in the heat, the MPG does drop noticeably. Much more so than with gas. In the end, the cost was about break even, which is where they have kept the price of ethanol, about break even with gas.
 
#21 ·
And the manufacturer and part number for the high flow injectors for the 1.4L engine in the Cruze are???

Hence why I said, I don't see a way to run E85, currently, on the 1.4L Cruze.

The usual "tricks" with the stock components won't work in our engine, GM didn't leave enough head room in the pulse window to push more fuel with the stock sized injectors.

I'm still curious as to why so many people are looking for higher horsepower out of this car. It's not a tuner type car by design. The turbo isn't easily changed, plastic intake pipes, really small intercooler. You'd have to spend a considerable amount of money trying to swap out parts (which means getting someone to make those parts, they don't exist in the aftermarket yet).
 
#20 · (Edited)
...what Wiki says:

"Comparisons to regular gasoline

E85 has an octane rating higher than that of regular gasoline's typical rating of 87, or premium gasoline's 91-93. This allows it to be used in higher-compression engines, which tend to produce more power per unit of displacement than their gasoline counterparts. The Renewable Fuels Foundation states in its Changes in Gasoline IV manual, "There is no requirement to post octane on an E85 dispenser. If a retailer chooses to post octane, they should be aware that the often cited 105 octane is incorrect. This number was derived by using ethanol’s blending octane value in gasoline. This is not the proper way to calculate the octane of E85. Ethanol’s true octane value should be used to calculate E85’s octane value. This results in an octane range of 94-96 (R+M)/2. These calculations have been confirmed by actual-octane engine tests." [6]

Examples of this mis-citation can be found at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association titled "E85 Facts"[7] which cites a range of 100-105, and a document at the Texas State Energy Conservation Office titled "Ethanol"[8], which cites a 113 rating."
 
#23 ·
I would think it would be pretty easy to find a highflow injector that fits the cruze
 
#24 · (Edited)
...three very important points to remember:

1) the ENGINE can be E85 certified...
2) the VEHICLE can be E85 certified...
3) both the ENGINE and VEHICLE can be E85 certified, ie: Flex-Fuel

...ENGINE qualified means the ECU knows how to detect and handle E85 fuel.

...VEHICLE qualified means all the fuel system (tank, pump, filter, etc.) are built to handle ethanol-laced fuel.

...at the moment, GM has not declared the Cruze to be E85 certified or qualified, although certain "parts" have been E85 tested.
 
#25 ·
If you spend your time and do the research instead of just reading what 1 site or publication said, then actually "convert" and use it yourself for a while, you would see the big picture with ethanol.

There are different blends for each time of the year. That's why it is posted as 105 MINIMUM octane at gas stations. It will go from E70 in the winter to E85 in the summer in steps depending on your area. The actual octane may get up to 109-110 but that isn't the biggest benefit. It has much more properties as far as "cooling" and burn that if harnessed correctly, will produce more power than 110 leaded.

There are other ways to convert than raising the pulses, but either way it takes about 30% more demand in fuel and that's something the pump and injectors must keep up with.

One thing E85 will kill completely is knock. These flex fuel cars are getting better in recent years as far as mpg, but they could run a lot more timing than what they are now to bring back some mpg. I doubt the factory will setup a car to do this, just like people go to trifecta and he squeezes out some more mpg out of these cars and then he recommends to stay on 91 octane.

Brazil has been running Ethanol grown on their soil since the 70's. We need to follow suit and stop sending our paychecks to some saudi prince.
 
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