Do e85 cold starts damage engine?

[VitViper]

My car(s) start reliably at freezing temps on E85.

Just takes a little work... lol

[steve99]

Originally Posted by VitViper

My car(s) start reliably at freezing temps on E85.

Just takes a little work... lol

What actual percentage e85, are we talking 90% or arround 70% ??

[VitViper]

Originally Posted by steve99

What actual percentage e85, are we talking 90% or arround 70% ??

80-82% off the flex sensor. Only time I had an issue when the car was on ECUTek is when it sat for a few weeks and I let the battery drain down. In fact, as I recall, it wasn't really all that hard to have the car start reliably every morning last winter -- it's been more work on the MoTeC since I had to start from scratch all over again, lol.

Some advice: all that extra fuel you're dumping in for cold starts during cranking isn't doing anything for you without the proper ignition timing during cranking -- which can be drastically different at high ethanol content than on pump gas.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by VitViper

80-82% off the flex sensor. Only time I had an issue when the car was on ECUTek is when it sat for a few weeks and I let the battery drain down. In fact, as I recall, it wasn't really all that hard to have the car start reliably every morning last winter -- it's been more work on the MoTeC since I had to start from scratch all over again, lol.

Some advice: all that extra fuel you're dumping in for cold starts during cranking isn't doing anything for you without the proper ignition timing during cranking -- which can be drastically different at high ethanol content than on pump gas.

The e85 we have is a stable 90 plus ethanol, so were needing to add some extra . Unfortunatly it never gets below about 5C (about 40f i think) so cannot test below that but its firing first crank with e90+ down to those temps.

I would be pretty confident dropping the e percent down to 80 would see it firing reliably at lower temps, buy will look into the cranking timing

[VitViper]

Heh, E98 is what the race car drinks, starts just fine in 40-45* winter shop temps before we turn the heat on. It's quite cold out here in the winter and I don't have any problems firing cars up on any ethanol content :p

[DAEMANO]

Confirmed (for a while now) adding 1-2 gallons of CA91 to 9 gallons of e85 resolves any cold start issue. Will probably still update the cranking tables sometime or another.

[perry753]

It took me roughly 2 hours yesterday to fiddle with RomRaider and modify the OFT tune with the new cranking values. I was able to start my engine today in 40-50F with 1 crank. I've had to crank 3-5 times the day before. I highly recommend modifying your tune (it's super easy) and save you the troubles.