Quote:
Originally Posted by terboboost
Personally, I would be cautious with "flex fuel". Pure 93 or specific ethanol content is easy to tune, on the other hand, creating a reliable tune for somewhere between 0%-90% ethanol across a range of operating conditions seen in track & street is extremely difficult. Pure speculation, but I would consider your motor blew because of a bad tune at 45% ethanol (in combination with an infinite complexity of external inputs).
Next time, consider running whatever ethanol content is specifically tuned for when you are at the track, and save the "Flex fuel" for street convienance.
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Disagree and agree with you
The thing I agree with you on is that there isn't enough data out there to prove you wrong and say a proper flex fuel tune isn't "perfect" enough for the various conditions, especially on track. But I also can't agree on the fact that there is enough data out there that says otherwise. Everyone who has ever spoken about flex-fuel on this platform has had nothing but positive things to say and as far as I know, most have been trouble free. I have had no issues personally, but I also can't speak for the track. The car has always felt much better when running on ANY ethanol than it does when running on E10 (93).
One thing for sure that could never be disputed is the reliability of a tune, who it came from, how well it was done, etc... I had my car tuned, dyno tuned, retuned, and perfected to my tastes by the end. By two different reputable tuners. Not for absolute max power, but for the simple reason of wanting to make sure it was tuned properly, to the best ability. Who knows if it was worth it. I figured if I go down the rabbit hole of taking my chances on tuning, then not only do I not want to cheap out, but I want extra assurance.
Another thing to keep in mind is flex-fuel is not news for our platform or many others. Flex-fuel has been a thing on OEM vehicles since the late 90's. Though I could be wrong, I don't recall there ever being an issue with any flex-fuel vehicles, minus the standard reliability issues of any typical vehicle.
I understand it's not related to the track as you specifically mention, but my bet would be against the flex-fuel being the specific target of the problem. Could be the luck of the engine and its not so incredible oiling abilities. Could be the tune was just not quite tip-top shape. Could be the oil he used. Could be a small driver error not long before that he didn't think to be much of a big deal, etc. We'll never know unfortunately. All we know is these engines do blow here and there, especially when discussing track. Like with any vehicle, you need to be prepared for it, get back up, and do it again if that's your desire.