DIY Visconti Flex Fuel kit for E85
 

This special DIY is sponsored by Visconti Tuning.

Flex Fuel kit link!

Installation video

Flex fuel V2 kit install video here!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AQzr6UnjKM"]Visconti Flex Fuel V2 Kit[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTYgDTAnMU&hd=1"]Visconti Flex Fuel kit for FRS and BRZ install video - YouTube[/ame]


Updated parts install click here.



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Before starting the installation of this kit know that you'll be working with the main fuel line under the hood of the car. This line will be pressurized and runs the risk of spraying fuel out when removing the line. To try and negate this issue we suggest the following.

Remove fuse 34 from under the hood. This is a 20 A fuse that disables the fuel injection system. Turn the car over a few times, it should not start. Then remove the fuel cap to try and release any built up pressure. Put the fuel cap back on and at this point you can now disconnect the battery to start the installation.

Start by looking at the picture below. The fuel line you will be removing is located closest to the hot side of the AC system.

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Put some towels under the fuel lines to protect it from spilled fuel. Again, there may be pressurized fuel in this line so be careful.

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Insert the fuel disconnection tool into the fitting. The tool needs to go underneath the yellow/green plastic of the connector. Be careful not to break the fragile tool when sliding it over the fuel fitting.

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The fuel fitting should pop off with relative ease. Carefully pull the fuel fitting off and then remove the special tool.

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Disconnect the fuel line from the plastic hook.

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There is a single screw holding the fuel line to the metal piping. We were able to turn it by hand with a philips bit. You can also use long needle nose pliers to turn the screw. It's very tight in this area so be careful and take your time.

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The hose was on the metal piping quite good so we took a blade and cut the hose from the end up until it popped off. You may be able to wrestle the hose off of the fitting without doing so.

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Push the fuel hose included with the kit that has a clamp down onto the metal fitting. Try and get as much onto the fitting as you can and then tighten it down.

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Using a 5/8's and 11/16's wrench tighten up the fittings.

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Put the clear blue plastic piece onto the metal fitting. It will slide in and click when fully engaged.

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Push the metal fitting into the plastic piece. It will be difficult to push on and twisting will help it seat.

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These photo just shows the route we took for the added fuel hose.

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At this point with all connections tightened down you can reconnect your battery, replace fuse 34, and start the car to check for leaks. Once you've determined there are no leaks disconnect the battery again.

Now you need to get the loom and 3 wires into the cabin. There is a nipple on the drivers side grommet, simply cut off the end and you have an unrestricted path into the dash.

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Now the difficult part. Connecting the ECU cable is a real pain. It's located under the passenger side dash. You will need to remove the glove box, and part of the dash section that surrounds the glove box. You can get away with simply pulling the dash surround out a bit as we did in the photos. You are going to find that the cables you need to get to are slanted at an angle towards you. The connector you need is the bottom most, however you will need to remove the top two to access it.

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This photo shows the three connections. Again, you are going to be plugging into the bottom most connector.

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Once you have it connected reconnect all the cables. This is the most difficult thing to take photos of but we did our best.

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This is what you'll be doing once you get everything connected properly.

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Included with the kit is a long white wire. That wire will be connected to the black break out connector on that green harness. It needs to go from the passenger side to the drivers. You will need to work it under the dash over to the fuse box. There is no way to document this with photos. We used a stiff wire to poke its way over and then pull it through. This white wire connects to the black wire on the ecu cable, and then connects to the WHITE BLUE cable on the E85 display.

On the drivers side things are a lot less complicated. Brown is ground, so you will need to connect the brown from the engine bay to the brown on the E85 gauge and then a third brown (included in the kit) to a ground point on the car. The next is orange which is 12v. Connect the orange from the engine bay to the orange on the E85 display and then tap a 12v source under the dash. You can use an add a fuse or tap from a harness.

The two other wires on the E85 display ARE NOT USED.

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Now that you have everything connected reconnect your battery, flash the flex fuel tune, and you will be good to go.

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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yWjNRDVRVeA"]Visconti Flex Fuel kit for Scion FRS and Subaru BRZ - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks for the amazing write up! I'm going to get started on mine this afternoon, which I wouldn't have been able to do without your help. How much time should I budget for this job?

It took us around 4 hours and we documented everything. With fuel system installs take your time and recheck everything. It's really not that bad of installation, the ECU harness being the worst of it.

Thanks, I've dealt with installs involving the fuel system in the past and was amazed that you guys only had a few drops of gas come out. I figured the ECU would be the toughest part of the install. With my gargantuan hands, I always dread anything that involves digging into dash panels.

Definitely agree about the ECU harness being the worst part. It's just awkward to get to.

You'll need to remove the two plugs closest to you to even get at the third (which is the one you'll use with pass-through cable).

Drop me a line if you have any issues!

I cannot believe that only a couple drops of fuel came out. I was explaining to @post_break about how much fuel we were going to see when we pulled the line. I pulled it and... nothing. Anticlimactic in the best way possible.

Pull the fuel pump fuse, turn the car over a few times and you're golden!

So the fuel line you disconnected and looped withe the fuel reader. What is its factory purpose

It's Fuel Hose No. 2 according to the manual. It's the Cylinder Injection side, also per the manual.

oh ok thank you im looking for the fuel schematic Im trying to build a fuel return system for the car

Video of the E85 unit working:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yWjNRDVRVeA"]Visconti Flex Fuel kit for Scion FRS and Subaru BRZ - YouTube[/ame]

Great job on the write up. Should save me some time. Kind of wishing I got the additional ecu cable now lol

Sent from a hamburger

Honestly, I don't know how you could tap that cable from in there. There's so little room and the 4 cables are loomed together. If you can spare the $150, I'd certainly recommend it. I suppose you could use one of those vamp taps but I didn't want to worry about something coming loose or, worse yet, damaging such an important ECU harness.

We're going to be adding some more pictures later this week when @post_break's kit comes in. We'll go over which wire to tap for those who didn't order the ECU harness. We'll also show which cables can be tapped on the driver's side for 12v/ground. We started to lose light and couldn't get a good picture of which wires were tapped on that side.

From what I've seen, you would probably be better off just ordering the pass-thru harness and putting the installation on hold until you get it. If the ECU part is that difficult even with the harness, I can't imagine trying to splice into wires in that area and keeping a solid connection.

I thought it was 200. 150 is a little better.

Sent from a hamburger

I got tied up today so I wasn't able to start my installation, but I'm going to knock it out tomorrow night and take some photos. Are there any particular steps that anyone would like more pictures of?

Thanks for putting this DIY together

If anyone need a ECU Harness, please call / txt me today

-John

So who's going to be the first one to put it on the dyno with a full tank of E85? :D

Awesome guide! Thanks for putting this together!

I'm waiting to hear back from @Visconti about running anything over E50. He had mentioned there may be a cold start issue that needs to be ironed out. After I get an updated tune, I'll kick it up to E85 and get with @Chris@Phastek to setup a dyno session. It's hot as hell out but it'll give some conservative numbers. :)

Do you have to have this to run e85

This still doesn't address the disintegrating fuel pump filter inside the tank when using E85, right?

So with this kit you can switch back and forth between E85 and 91 at anytime?

There is no more switching with this kit. It detects the ethanol % and adjusts automatically. Now you dont have to run the tank empty to change fuel. Instead just add the other fuel.

Sent from a hamburger

I've only seen one car with this problem

Dont know of any of cars having this issue

John

Did you have to get a different fuel filter for e85

I installed John's E85-compatible fuel pump a few months back when I purchased his E85 tune. I've not messed with the fuel filter. I am going to investigate putting an inline fuel filter under the hood since the hoses John provides have the fittings. Perhaps @Visconti can chime in on whether it's OK to use those lines for that purpose.

ya sorry not switching tunes i mean ya you can go fill up with 93 and then when i run across an E85 station i can fill up and when ever i need gas i can always put in 93 without any problems?

You are correct.

Sent from a hamburger

Yep. The ethanol content analyzer is sending EC levels to the ECU many, many times a second. This can be verified using the ECUtek software. Pretty cool to watch -- down to the hundredth of a percentage.

That's how you get away with indiscriminate fueling. E85, 93, it doesn't matter. Just put it in. :D

Just finished installing most of the kit here, just have to run power and ground at this point. I wanted to point out that for the ECU portion. You can disconnect the two 10mm bolts there and the main ECU assembly will come free allowing for slightly easier access to those tricky plugs.

Thanks for the info, we'll try to detail that in the video install guide coming soon.

Where did you tap into 12v for power? I have all of the cabling done except for 12v power. I can't wait to fire it up!

I ended up tapping into the radio fuse in the fuse box for 12v and used one of the bolts behind the kickpanel for ground. I just flashed the tune, so as soon as the ECU is done doing some learning, I'm heading out to grab some E85! Sure, it may be nearly 2:30am and I have to be up in a few hours for work, but this is much more important right now!

Hey I wanna see this when you get it running.

It's up and running now. :burnrubber:

Finally got back home just after 3am after filling up with some E85. There's only 2 stations around me that carry it and of course the first one was closed. I put in 3 gallons of E85 just after my fuel light came on and then topped it off with 93 octane. By the time I got back home I was running right at E30. I thought it would be higher than that, but I suspect that the ethanol content of the E85 that I got was lower since the sign on the pump stated that it had a minimum ethanol content of 51%. I'm going to try the other station and see if it has a higher percentage.

The car with this tune runs absolutely fantastic! I can definitely feel more torque in the lower RPMs and it just seems to have more power all around...and that's before I even added the E85! @Visconti thanks for yet another amazing tune, I can't wait to see how it runs on pure E85!

It really is a great tune. I noticed the same thing you noticed... even on pump gas, it feels better all around.

Congrats on the install! Now, do some logging and send it over to John. ;)

I plan on doing some logging tonight, although I don't know how useful it will be since I'm running STG2 without a header and I don't want to waste John's time. I thought that my P&L header would've been here by the time I got the tune, but no dice. Hopefully it'll come in next week so that I can see what kind of difference that makes. I'll be out of town until next Monday anyways, so I suppose a bit more waiting won't kill me, although I'm really going to miss driving my car until then!

I haven't heard of this either. Do you have a source thread where this is discussed?

It's all speculation for now. Until we get more miles on more filters we won't know for sure that E85 is causing this.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37814