Car wouldn't start... Did a DIY ethanol test
 

So the other day I went to my usually gas station to fill up with E85, and according to my ethanol app I was at E65. After I left I checked my ethanol app while I was driving and it was reading E99 😳 Well I began to notice a big hesitation from lower rpms among other things.

Went to start it the next day, and it was turning over, just not starting. So over the last week I've been going back and forth with delicious tuning trying to figure out what's going on. Even Ecutek was showing E97. The original thought being a bad ethanol sensor, and the gas being much less probable.

Well after I was sent a E85 non flex fuel tune to see if the car would then start, it did not. Which then led me to this DIY ethanol test.

Very simple test for those not familiar with it.

Get a 100ml graduated cylinder.
Fill gas up to the 100ml line.
Add 10ml water and mix.

The water and ethanol stick together leaving a separation line between the gas and water/ethanol. See pic below.

Attachment 153950

It's kind of hard to see, but the separation line is about 2ml above the 100ml line. So 102ml is where my separation line is. From there you just subtract the amount of water that you put into the cylinder, being 10ml.

Which gives me E92 according to this test.

So I'm assuming that's why my car won't start. So now I guess my next step would be to syphon all the gas out and probably just stick in a few gallons of 93 to see if it will start.

Ughhh, still won't start. I syphoned out about 4 gallons of E85 and put he same amount of 93 in. % dropped dramatically according to both my app and ecutek, but still won't start.

I guess I'm back to a faulty ethanol sensor.

Ethanol and gas will separate and if you visit a station which isn't used much; or the tanker filling the station tanks had separated, you can get too much or too little ethanol.

Maybe try Sta-bil fuel stabilizer to try and get the fuel to mix back up?

At this point I will try just about anything.

Upon further inspection, I did find a hose that popped off.

Attachment 153960
Attachment 153961

But still the same story after I reattached it. It would fire up for a split second, then die :mad0259:

Try feathering the throttle when it fires or you possibly have a set of fouled plugs on your hands.

Tried feathering the throttle to no avail... Plugs were also a thought of mine.

Well, FaDuck, Bubba suggests to spray starting fluid into the intake ....... :iono:


humfrz