Long Term E85/OFT Update
 

Car: 2014 BRZ Limited 6MT

Currently approaching 50K miles of daily driving, and autocross abuse.
Driven every day, through all conditions. Currently on 205/50/17 snows. :)


Within The first 500 miles it was flashed with the OFT E85 map ,and then later the OFH was added. First winter switched back to 93 map, but last and this one, stayed on E85 with tweaked maps, thanks to the great community.
It even started this morning when it was 5f out on the first crank.


Just wanted to provide an update to those on the fence regarding long term reliability. This car is driven VERY hard. "Shift light" is seen god knows how many time a day. Firm believer in never lugging, especially something with this type of chain drive. Always at 3krpm or more, will downshift into 5th onto highway below 70. Fresh 0W20 and a filter every 3k, and that's about it.

Starts up every morning, takes a beating and is more fun than it should be for what it costs.

Happy miles and happy holidays everyone.:burnrubber:

Good to hear!

I only had OFT with E85 and a gruppe s header in a few days and man is it fun. The car drives so much nicer now. So smooth. Yeah, it is a little loud and obnoxious when you pull hard but sounds like a race car and has some juice to back up the noise now. I'm glad I did it. It is a good boost and very cost effective to boot. My only issue is I have to refuel on 93 a little next time because I have to bring the car in for fuel pump swap under warranty. So I'll have to flash back etc. Kind a bummed about it but I'll only put a few gallons of 93 in and go straight back to e85.

I heard reviews of being able to smell the corn. I do not smell it all. I'm pretty funny when it comes to smells too. Don't even notice no cat.

I just ordered an OFT for my 2016 BRZ. Should be here friday. I was debating on wether or not I should go E85. I think my biggest issue is that there are only two stations close to me. I think the next closest is over 100miles away.

just bring the tablet with you when you travel far. no worries

Not worth it if e85 station are far away. You will be smashing the gas pedal and will run out of juice.

Luckily, there's one right by my office, and one about 5min from my house. Those are the only two in my area. I think I'm gonna give it a go for a couple months to see if it's a hassle.

Ran 30k on e85, no problems other than cold starting at times

Same here, I'm about 25K on corn + e85 + Phantom ESC (about 235 WHP & 210 TQ). No issues in the fuel system besides a little cold start cranking whatsoever. Daily driven. Purchased but haven't yet installed the OpenFlash Flex Fuel Kit even though I really don't need it for anything but long drives. The standard OFT tune is pretty flexible in itself (handling e50-e90).

My buddy has run e85 + OFT + ESC for 70k+ miles, same results. No fuel system issues.

I think it's safe to say these cars are good to go if you want to run e85 on an OFT long term.

I've heard E85 is more likely to deposit gunk on the injectors. Anything you guys do to prevent that from happening?

Red line it

Run 1 full tank of good pump gas every 3-5k miles.

There has been quite a few guys who have pulled port injectors after 10,s of thousands of km on e85 ,to go turbo etc. No evidence of gumming or gunk on injectors or intakes, in fact most seem cleaner than guys on petrol.

injectors from brz\86 after 30k on e85

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=36

Thanks guys, that's great to hear!

Why? Ethanol is a natural solvent and the gunk is probably it picking up deposits from normal fuel with all the additives it contains. I've got a picture on one of my posts of my injectors after 7000 km pure E85 and they looked immaculate.

My Perrin catback has only seen ethanol and even that has literally no black deposits

Ethanol is awesome!

The one tankful was done as a precaution for a $30K investment not rated to run as a FFV, not an ideology. I'm very happy with the way my car has run and held up on e85 if I didn't make that clear enough.

Do a Google search for "E85 black beard" or "E85 black goo". Theories state that its because E85 is stored in stations' old diesel tanks and the black beard is the E85 degrading the lining of the old diesel tanks. Again just speculation. Regardless, E85 black goo is definitely a real thing. I ran E85 on my DSM for about 30k and my injectors were nearly completely covered.

Best practice is to run one tank of 93 every few fill ups as stated before. I plan on doing one tank of pure 93 to use up the remaining E85, one 93 with Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner, and one final tank of pure 93 to use up the rest of the Techron.

Hate to bump old threads but e85 has made me appreciate this car more than ever. Imo 93 in the south Florida heat makes my car feel like shit, especially with ac on.

Since Lantana set a precedent, I'll necro bump this thread too.

When you guys run a tank of 91 every now and again, do you flash back to a 91 tune or just mix that tank with the old tank (not a complete fill up- like fill up when you have a half tank of E85 left)

I've switched to 100% e85...and I don't plan to switch back honestly.
However, don't mix fuels if you don't have a flex fuel kit. If you're on e85, and want to run a tank of 93, then run it all the way down, fill with 93, and flash the 93 tune.

When I installed headers, I switched to E85. It was great great except for the mileage. I drive almost 100 miles a day and I have only found 1 pump close to where I live. Nothing close around work. I did have a little trouble with some cold starts (30F), but there is a noticeable difference in power between the 2 fuels (E85 and 93). Wish there were more pumps, I would use it more often.

I'm runing down my last tank of 93 then I'm switching to E85 this week. The only problem is that there's only 2 stations close to my commute to work or where I drive. None near my home (at all!) and several way out f the way. But I'm going for it, I'll just have to stop and fill up twice a week.

I'm not going to run a tank of 93 every month and re-flash. But I do plan to start using a bottle of 2 stroke oil in my fuel every few tanks.

Thorntons has had consistent, and high content e85 in our neck of the woods, I use theirs exclusively. for what its worth, I did a UOA after my first full e85 oil change interval (7000 miles on the tune total at the time) and it came back great.

thats interesting considering it was recommended to change slightly sooner @ like 5k mi. ive only ran a tank or two when first got my tablet w/o header. im waiting for premium prices to go thru the roof or have access to easier oil changes (apartment life) before committing to e85.

7000 miles on the tune total, changed oil at 5

thanks for clearing that up.

This thread is useless until someome tear down the engine after had run at least 50k miles and inspect tolerances etc

yeah.....no one is going to do that. If its running well, making good power, and used oil is coming back without excessive wear products/degredation, then im going to call it good.

There's a Thorntons on the way home from work, it's hwere I'll get my E85 most of the time. the other place is a Speedway.

I can't find the thread (I saw it yesterday too, I drove myself nuts trying to find it!) buut someone did an engine break down after extended E85 use. He said the engine looked great. I think he broke it down to rebuild due to engine miles.

I remember. Also im interested on how, if any carbon build up appear on valves. I guess for peace of mind you can run 1 tank of petrol once a month

I'm going to run a bottle of 2 cycle oil every now and again for lubrication. E85 is an alcohol blend, it won't build up carbon (ethanol is used commonly for an injector cleaner) but it won't lubricate as well either.

I don't understand how carbon builds up on the valves on our cars in the first place as the port injection would basically spray them down constantly