Well guys, here are the results of my E-85 conversion and tunning session over at Buschur Racing earlier this week. On the Mustang dyno running 30 psi with a very rich tune and a touch of ignitian timing advance I was able to produce 503 wheel HP and 389 lb ft of torque. This was on "winter blend" E-85 wich is in reality E-70 (70 % ethanol, 30 % gasoline) The next day with no tunning, or boost changes under virtually identical weather conditions I pulled 549 wheel HP 449 wheel torque on the Dynapack AWD dyno at the tunning factory (formerly godspeed) up in Michigan.
For those who don't know my setup, I am running the Buschur Stage 4 setup with AEM EMS, HKS 272 cams, stage 3 ported head, ported throttle body, Ported stock intake manifold, the "Race" version of Buschurs FMIC, along with the GT-35R turbo on the cast manifold with adapter plate to use the garret turbin housing. I am running the 3" Buschur V-Band exhaust with a bullet muffler in place of the cat, and Magneflow muffler in the main muffler location. For the fuel system I have the "double pumper" set up running two standard Walbro pumps feeding the stock fuel rail with stock fuel pressure regulator and 1000 cc injectors. Pistons, rods, and all internals are stock.
Running the "winter blend" E-85 I have about a 25% reduction in fuel milage. Down here in Indiana we apear to be running the "summer blend" all year around, so I am doing some road tunning to re-calibrate the car for the change in fuel with advice from David via phone.
Next post will be dyno sheets from both dyno's and a "chart" made form the dynapack dyno's log file including boost pressure vs HP and torque.
Keith
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EVO 11.53 @ 123.37, Black WRX Wagon 13.62 @ 99.24
And last but not least a HP and torque (both SAE) along with boost (boost is magnified by a factor of 10 to make it show up on the chart) made from the log file on the dynapack dyno.
Keith
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EVO 11.53 @ 123.37, Black WRX Wagon 13.62 @ 99.24
Are there any physical changes that need to be made to the car to run E-85? Any o-rings need to be swapped, fuel lines, things of that nature; or is it just fill up with E-85 and tweak the maps?
+1 - I had the same questions in regards to E-85 re: fuel lines, etc., because we have E-85 up here and a lot of Subies have started to get tuned on it. I would love to be able to switch to E-85 so that I could have the same power as I do already but without needing the alky kit.
I have read of many people running it just like me with no changes other than beefing up the flow capacity of the pumps and injectors. Every car built in the last decade is designed for at least 10% ethanol in the fuel, so all the parts that would rapidly "rot out" in an old school car are now ethanol compatible. If I still had a fuel system warrenty it would be void now though, and I wouldn't really expect it to last 250,000 miles like I would the stock fuel system.... but it would not surprise me at all to run over 100,000 miles without problems. We will just have to see
If you do not have a stand alone capable of doing WOT closed loop feedback in the fuel system you would need at least three maps. One for pump gas, one for "summer blend" E-85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) and one for "winter blend" E-85 (70% ethanol, 30% gasoline). If you live in more southerly areas you would be able to skip the "winter blend" E-85 map.
Keith
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EVO 11.53 @ 123.37, Black WRX Wagon 13.62 @ 99.24
No parts to change; that's a good thing.
It sucks though that E85 is basically unavailable in California. I'd love to get on it. The nearest station to me is 80 miles away and doesn't sell to the public.
I finished up my re-tune on the "summer blend" E-85 today. I am maxing out the injectors at 97% duty cycle on 26 psi of boost running 11.3:1 AF ratio.... but the car feels amazing!
On dry clean pavment with the snow tires I don't get traction until 3rd gear now.... it still pulls like mad even with the wheel spin though
I could "band aid" the fuel situation by running higher fuel pressure, but the car feels great as it is, so I will leave it alone until I get the modification urge again. At that point I will go to some 1600 cc injectors, high lift cams, and a good set of rods and pistons.
Keith
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EVO 11.53 @ 123.37, Black WRX Wagon 13.62 @ 99.24
No parts to change; that's a good thing.
It sucks though that E85 is basically unavailable in California. I'd love to get on it. The nearest station to me is 80 miles away and doesn't sell to the public.
Sounds like NJ, there isn't one single station in the whole bloody state that offers e85.
That's amazing. A friend of mine recently suggested trying it out. I'm just a little concerned about track days (road courses) - I'll have to make sure I have plenty of fuel so that I don't have to worry about there not being a gas station around the track that sells it.
I heard of a lot of people running like 3-4 gallons of E85 with a tank of 91 to just make it a higher octane and such. is that ok to do, does anyone here do that?
Uh no, adding E85 to 91 does not raise your octane like that. E85 requires a COMPLETELY different tune - it cannot just be mixed with gas to raise octane. You can add higher octane gas with lower octane gas, but you can't just add E85 (ethanol) to gas. Anyone doing that is messing up unless they are tuned for it. Are you saying Evos in the RM area are doing that???
where can you get E85 here in Colorado? i thought that there were only 2 stations that sold E85 in the whole state (somewhere outside of Denver?), are there any new ones?
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