E85 USERS!!! Please read, interesting stuff!

[robispec]

Originally Posted by SmsAlSuwaidi

It's really hard to mess with anything in any car and think it won't do anything
to the car reliability wise; even a simple catback increases the chance of failure

in our shop we cal this knocking over dominos you tip the first one over and you don't know when the final chain reaction will stop!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZKNX58iQA"]Falling Dominoes 2 - For Mathematical Modelling Class - YouTube[/ame]

[TemeCal]

Originally Posted by brichard0625

i think most of us just trusted the phrase "it will not mess up anything in the car" and purchased anyway....Most of knew we were taking a risk but I did not think it would happen so early in the game...it is what it is..we all learn from our mistakes! Im just hoping i didnt do any or just light damage and my car will be fine

Unfortunately, your tuner (and we all know who it is), has been touting E85 as completely safe and not harmful for months now. He arrogantly claims to be an expert with E85, and in my opinion, sells the crap out of stuff because people blindly trust him.

I'll admit, I'd run E85 if I had it nearby. However, I would only do it after thorough testing has been done and we fully understand the implications. Huge thanks to @robispec for all his work, his findings, and sharing the info. He is a true professional, and is someone I fully trust.

[Jesse]

Yikes

[GTM_Challenge]

Originally Posted by Carwhisperer

It was only a matter of time. Didn't surprise me at all when I got Cel P0351 then performance loss, then the "Firecracker" noise come from my engine bay. All while on e85, Is it related? Could be.. not 100% positive.

We are 100% stock on 93 pump gas with an CEL P0351 code while on track.

[Lonewolf]

I love how the aholes at the EPA say that E15 will be fine for all newer cars without doing extensive research and observation over several years.

Threads like this only add fuel to the fire that ethanol content above 10% (which I already despise) is not kind to many stock fuel systems...

Granted E85 is on a whole different level than E15, but I can foresee the problems E15 could trigger over time (5-6 years) in many fuel systems...

[FR-S Matt]

Ya, mad props to @robispec. Going above and beyond and saving people a lot of money down the road.

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by TemeCal

Unfortunately, your tuner (and we all know who it is), has been touting E85 as completely safe and not harmful for months now. He arrogantly claims to be an expert with E85, and in my opinion, sells the crap out of stuff because people blindly trust him.

I'll admit, I'd run E85 if I had it nearby. However, I would only do it after thorough testing has been done and we fully understand the implications. Huge thanks to @robispec for all his work, his findings, and sharing the info. He is a true professional, and is someone I fully trust.

it is what it is...sucks that robispec is the first person to investigate this myth..Its just has me thinking about how many other people have this problem and dont even know...just crossing my fingers that robispec comes up with a solution..until then i will be going back to pumpgas for now

[Area86]

Well i guess i will try and attempt to check mine. How low does the tank have to be before i can check? I have about a 1/4 tank left and ill be switching back to pump. I would like to check before filling back up. I have never messed with a fuel tank before so not sure of the difficulty level of checking this will be for me. Also what type a damage can happen if the filter has been disintegrated?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Allch Chcar]

Figures that it turned out to be a non-replaceable filter sealed with the fuel pump. I expected something to fail eventually. Unlike domestic manufactures that build their US market cars cars to be safe for E85 as they change over all their lines to flexfuel, Subaru doesn't build a single FFV for the US market. So there's bound to be a hiccup.

The rest of you need to stop with the "I told you so" crap. It's way too soon to know if it's solely an E85 problem or if it's simply a bad filter design that showed up faster with E85. Might be smart to find a few high mileage FRS/BRZ and check their sumps to make sure it's not a USDM problem. If it's going to fail on E85 it'll happen on E10 eventually. If it's not Ethanol safe, it's not safe.

[Don@Accelerated]

So what exactly had you prematurely cutting the filter open. Maybe I missed the initial problem.

For the sake of argument I went and cut my factory filter housing up. I have 4k+ only E85 Miles basically. I have no signs of any degredation to the filter. Now it is true that over time the paper gasket will now allow heavy enough flow for the E85. I haven't run into that scenario yet. It can't be a sitting issue either because mine sat the entire winter here. I wasn't able to put many miles on it.

Have you been/or ever have used an octane booster in the car? Fuel Supplement Additive? It looks crystaline in that picture. E85 is not going to cause that.

I have pictures of my filter and it looks nothing like yours, and doesn't show the slightest sign of any issues yet. My car sat all winter with

Lets discuss further

[Carwhisperer]

Originally Posted by GTM_Challenge

We are 100% stock on 93 pump gas with an CEL P0351 code while on track.

Hey awesome I was in N going about 2mph picking up my son from school when I got the code thrown at me. Whats the build date for your 86?

[SmsAlSuwaidi]

@Don@Accelerated


Thank you for putting the time to check your fuel tank, shows that e85 isn't that deadly

[Frostyman]

Originally Posted by Don@Accelerated

For the sake of argument I went and cut my factory filter housing up.

Love this guy. lol

[industrial]

Wow this is an unexpected development. I figured running e85 would leave it's mark on the fuel filter but this is a bit much. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. I imagine just running a different type of filter (assuming we can find one that fits) will solve this problem. FODing out the fuel system is going to keep people up that have put e85 through their car. That's an expensive system to start replacing things out of pocket.