Quote:
Originally Posted by mike_b
E85 does make some nice gains. It has a much higher knock threshold than 93. It lowers EGTs. But that's about the only good thing I could say about it.
To start flex fuel setups are not cheap. The delicious one is $600. It's fine on an NA car, but if you go boosted then you start needing a bigger fuel pump, bigger injectors, etc. The cost starts to mount up.
Then there is the maintenance consideration. Ethanol is hell on fuel tanks, fuel systems, engine oil, etc. It is reactive with many materials and it draws water in very easily. You really should do more frequent oil changes, especially if your car sits a lot.
Your fuel economy goes to shit and the range you can go on a single tank is miserable.
If you do a straight e85 tune now you are always looking for an e85 pump like a junkie searching for a fix. If you do flex fuel it's a bit better, but you will still be craving that corn juice all the time.
For my taste I would rather put the money towards a nice FI kit and not deal with the hassle of E85.
|
I suppose it depends on what you use the car for. I use my BRZ as a weekend car. I wouldn't DD on E85 simply because of the lack of range. I cant imagine how short the range would be while running FI. Maybe 150milea from a tank? However I do have e85 available at multiple stations in my area...
I feel you on the cost to properly run a Ecutek flex fuel i cant quite bring my self to spend $1600 + a laptop to flash from...yet. But it does offer a safer tune with greater margin for error FI or not. A conservative E85 tune is probably cheaper than a blown engine but not by much when you add up everything involved as you mentioned. Haha
As for the fuel system and E85 these cars have been running it for 7 years without issue. Carbon built up with gas vs E85 was night and day when I popped off my IM. The intake ports look brand new while running E85. Usually run E85 in the warmer months and 93 in the colder months where the car usually just sits in the garage.
But if I could make the same power or close enough without the corn, yah I wouldn't bother with it. Smells good tho.��