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The Official Unofficial E85 Ethanol Thread
- Thread starter Stage2Sasquatch
- Start date
gn4rwhals
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Detroit, MI
I'm interested to see what JB tuning does with the GTI in general...... The JB1 is insane for just a PNP.
George already had me running an E85 mix to cool down my timing, if it can modify fuel to support more E85 mixes its gonna be awesome.
George already had me running an E85 mix to cool down my timing, if it can modify fuel to support more E85 mixes its gonna be awesome.
Stage2Sasquatch
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Walled Lake Michigan
Well we do know that BMS has tested a E35 mix with no issues so it can at least take that much. I suppose we'll find out when APR comes out with their stuff. As much as I disagree with some of the things APR has done in the past, I gotta say they do their homework. If their kit comes out and doesn't replace the seals than we know the stock ones are up to the task. Very interested to see how this will play out.
Like Gn4rwhals said, the increase you will get will be from the timing cleanup. Now you are in Texas so chances are in the summer your car is actually pulling a good bit of timing out. Ethanol will decrease or eliminate the timing pull (if you have any) and make extra power that way. The only way to know if it is pulling timing is by logging. A lot of ethanol blend testing is all about logging because it could be different for everyone based on car, location, and quality of fuel.
Goingnowherefast, I think I've seen you mention you're already running E85 on another thread, and if I understand correctly we're running a pretty similar setup (mostly stock, JB1), do you have any other mods to run E85 safely or are you just in the testing phase right now? I assume we're getting pretty similar quality of fuel, and I'm very interested in this idea.
Stage2Sasquatch
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Walled Lake Michigan
So I'm currently running about an E20 mix. So that's mostly 93 octane with a few gallons of E85 thrown in there. No fueling specific mods and the car is handling it just fine. Keep in mind that every car sold in the US past 2004 is required to be safe for some amounts of ethanol use. This is because gas in many places around the world are starting to actually have ethanol in it to lower emissions and reduce fossil fuel use. So most of you running regular gas are actually running close to E10. This means that the fuel systems are 100% safe for small amounts of ethanol and most likely completely safe for full ethanol (But the ECU is the limiting factor when talking about full E85 use). I took a quick look at my logs early on and the car seems very happy when running E20 with zero timing pull. The beauty of E85 is it is EVERYWHERE near us. I can't go down my road without passing three E85 stations lol. I'll update more in the summer when there's actually a reason to be running more power unlike now when I'm on snow tires with our salt stained roads haha
No problem at all. You can log through the JB1 but I've never done it since I have Vagcom. Tell us how it goes when you get it figured out.
Mk7VW
Banned
- Location
- Somewhere, USA
By running E85 and 91 octane, can I run the 93 octane tune or do i run the software APR releases with a certain amount of E85 and 91 fuel mixed?
gn4rwhals
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Detroit, MI
I would stick to the 91 tune if you are going to try it, the small amount of E85 may not increase the octane enough to handle the 93 tune.
Mk7VW
Banned
- Location
- Somewhere, USA
So the benefit of running a little E85 will just help it from detonation with the 91 tune? From what I read on a mustang forum, wouldn't the car lean out with E85 and no tune?
Stage2Sasquatch
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Walled Lake Michigan
Looking forward to seeing what he says. Good to hear it sounds like logging with the JB1 is pretty easy.
For Mustangs they are right. We have MUCH more advanced ECU's which will account for the fuel loss and adapt for it. Basically the high octane rating and knock resistance + Extra cooling of E85 will clean up any timing pull you have and therefore allow you to make more power.
Mk7VW
Banned
- Location
- Somewhere, USA
Awesome. I wonder how many gallons of e85 I should mix with 91..
Yeah I'm still on stock Pirelli's until spring and it's awfully tough to utilize any power at all even when it's not wet. Have you noticed any gains (given the bad road conditions) running the E20 mix?
Stage2Sasquatch
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Walled Lake Michigan
I think our tank is 13.2 gallons.
So what you do to get say E20 would be to let the car get below half a tank of gas. Go to an E85 station, put it 2 gallons of E85, then fill the rest up with regular 91/93 octane. You now have E20.
Keep in mind your next tanks will have E20 in is so use a calculator like "E85 Mix Calculator". Easy as that, no witchcraft, no tricks. Just more power with very little work.
Yeah I'm on winters and it's impossible to hook at all haha. Luckily I have Hankook RS3's ready to go on in the summer. Truthfully, I can't feel a difference from my butt dyno. The logs indicate that it should be running better. Those who will feel it from the seat of their pants are the guys that bump up their JB1 boost with the ethanol mix. I'll be doing more testing in the summer when I can actually use the power but I bet if you increase the boost in JB1 with the ethanol mix you will definitely feel a increase in power.
gn4rwhals
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Detroit, MI
My only concern with the E85 use is over time will it gum up the fuel filter or injectors?