e85 concerns
 

I have a 13my frs with cpbs and oft. Currently on 93 tune. Gas station nearby has e85 however the disclaimer on pump says ethanol minimum of 51percent. Is it safe to run e85 tune without a flex fuel set-up?

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53477

Shiv@openflash says that the off the shelf tunes are good for e50 and up

Thank you for that info. Im 3k miles on brand new warrantied long block and don't want to take too many chances.

I would buy an E tester and test it on a regular basis.

This has proven to be cheap and effective:

https://www.amazon.com/E-85-Fuel-Sam...rds=e85+tester

That's about the equivalent of saying you can run E45 and lower on the 91 octane tune.

No. Just no. Just because you *can* does not mean you *should*. You *can* run 87 octane; doesn't mean you should.

Very true words !!

E50 is probably pushing the boundaries of the standard OFT tune for E85 (its actually done on about 70% or so. (ie where your fuel trims will be lowest.

If you want to run it id suggest you set up the following Tune alerts on the OFT

These alerts will get the OFT to beep and flash if you get excessive knock , or run lean or get excessively high LTFT

Ive actually run these tunes down to E50 on purpose and logged and it was fine, i did dilute the E85 with 98 ron petrol though.

Some example tuning Alerts

These are pretty useful to alert you to problems with your car
suggested settings for tuning alerts.

before setting up the alerts you need to select all the parapeters used by alerts to be logged by OFT


You can have three Alerts and each alert can consist of 4 parameters configured to trigger alarm if All (AND) or one (OR) condition is met.


Alert A (over temperature)
Coolant Temp > 207 F
Oil Temp > 250 F
Select OR at bottom of screen

Alert B ( knock alert & Fuel Trim alert)

For E85 suggest -1 for Petrol may -2
FLKC < -1
Knock Correction < -1
IAM < 0.9
LTFT > +10
LTFT < -10

Select OR at bottom of screen


I set the fuel trim alert as Im on E85 and it will alert me to excessive fuel trims due ethanol content changes or someone accidentally filling up with petrol, it will also alert you of exhaust or intake leaks.

If any of the alerts trip the OFT screen will flash and the alarm beeper will sound untill the parameter goes back inside the alert range.
The parameter that tripped the alert will flash on the logging screen. Once set the alerts are constantly monitored in the background when oft is plugged into obd port.



Alert C running lean alert
you might have to tweak AFR for petrol/E85 try 13 for E85 12.5 Petrol
RPM > 5000
Engine Load > 1
AFR > 13
Select AND at bottom of screen

You will need Template 8.2 of later and OFM version 1.21.0 or later


But the OFT guys now have flex fuel tuning and a flex kit if you want to go that way with OFT.

If your local E85 is always low like E50-70 then you could make some minor adjustments to tune to compensate.

A Flex system is best given the wide margins for ethanol content in usa, but with a little care and monitoring you can use the inbuilt alerts in the oft to warn you of problems as above.