Subaru BRZ With e85 Flex Fuel Kit Not Starting In Cold

[morswestford]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, OK, that's even easier.

If your kit is like the one in the picture, just spray the starter fluid on the that dry cylindrical air cleaner ...... or the opening wherever the engine is getting it's air from. Spray for about 2 seconds for starters, then up the dose if necessary.

This shouldn't be all that hard. Maybe you should ask a friend to help you ....


humfrz

yes it it exactly like that. il try it, ill spray a for a few seconds on it and hope it works.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by morswestford

yes it it exactly like that. il try it, ill spray a for a few seconds on it and hope it works.

If the engine fires and then dies, you may have a friend give it a shot while you are turning it over.

Keep us posted.


humfrz

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

NO, NO, NO, NO
Give it ONE shot. If it starts great if it doesn't or quits don't keep spraying. Ether will strip the oil off the cylinders in a hurry if it isn't fully burnet up. Could get away with it in the sloppy old engines but could cause some serious issues on these. Also not sure what it would do to the MAF sensor on these cars.

You may have a point. I didn't literally mean to empty the can into the intake ....

As far as the MAF ...... maybe it will just give it a good cleaning ......

(stupid new engines)



humfrz

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Soloside

Damnit humfrz, you left me flaccid at the end.

Sorry about that ....... there was no "rest of the story". Her husband had just set up his medical practice in the small town we lived in and I went to him as a family physician.

Now, one does NOT want to be messen around with a neighbor girl, that her husband is giving you shots and pills .......


humfrz

[morswestford]

Originally Posted by humfrz

If the engine fires and then dies, you may have a friend give it a shot while you are turning it over.

Keep us posted.


humfrz

i talked with my mechanic yesterday about it and he recommended i don't do that because it could potentially damage the air cleaner. he thinks it could be the injectors or the flex fuel sensor. i may have to tow it to the shop.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by morswestford

i talked with my mechanic yesterday about it and he recommended i don't do that because it could potentially damage the air cleaner. he thinks it could be the injectors or the flex fuel sensor. i may have to tow it to the shop.

Well, OK.

I fail to understand how ether is going to damage the air cleaner ...... but there is an outside chance that it could damage the MAF sensor. However, that compound is so volatile, it doesn't stay anywhere long.

Best you follow the advice of your mechanic.

I hope you get it running soon. Keep us posted.


humfrz

(mumble-mumble-mumble .... when you mess with the engine, it can mess with you)

[reeves]

Originally Posted by morswestford

Today i went and filled my tank with 6 gallons of regular gasoline (87 octane). The rest of my tank has e85, so it's 50% regular gas and 50% e85. Omega Fuels recommended me to dillute the e85 with regular gasoline and that's exactly what I did.

It still doesn't start.

Also the ethanol content anylyzer only went down from e88 to 83. So i'm not sure how accurate that is since half of my engine is regular gas. That seems to be way off. Shouldnt it be way below 80 by now? Strange.

It might take a few miles of driving before the Ethanol analyzer shows the correct %.

I've started my 75% Ethanol BRZ in 42-degree weather once (on the original E85 tune that didn't account for cold starts):
1) I cranked the car 10 times like you, gave up, went inside
2) Came back out 10 minutes later, did several more cranks (didn''t step on the gas pedal this time)
3) By now I figured the engine was flooded, so I waited ~30 minutes, came back out, turned the ignition to ON... waited for 2 minutes, then cranked the engine. It almost fired up, I step on the gas a bit, then cranked it again a few more times before it finally fired up.

The joy of using corn juice..

[ajcarson11]

My honest feeling here OP: If you're going to tow it to a mechanic... why not just try to get it into a warm garage first? or something? You probably just need to get it fired up in a warm place, burn off some of the ethanol in the lines, and get to a more stable ethanol mixture so that things will start in the cold winter.

Or maybe there's a warm day coming up where you live, this week?

E88 is just a high percentage of ethanol... not that strange that it won't start in really cold weather. If you can get it started and driving for a bit you can burn it down to E55 or whatever mixture you end up with given the 93 you added.

[morswestford]

Originally Posted by ajcarson11

My honest feeling here OP: If you're going to tow it to a mechanic... why not just try to get it into a warm garage first? or something? You probably just need to get it fired up in a warm place, burn off some of the ethanol in the lines, and get to a more stable ethanol mixture so that things will start in the cold winter.

Or maybe there's a warm day coming up where you live, this week?

E88 is just a high percentage of ethanol... not that strange that it won't start in really cold weather. If you can get it started and driving for a bit you can burn it down to E55 or whatever mixture you end up with given the 93 you added.

I don't have a warm garage to take it to unless it's the mechanics shop.

There is no warm weather coming to Philly this week. The wind chill right now is like 10 degrees.

Anyways Omega Fuels, the station i got the e85 from suggested I use a siphon pump and siphon out a few gallons of gas. Then put in injector cleaner in the tank. And see if that helps or not. he also mentioned the problem may be the flex fuel sensor itself.

I'm going to try that today. Maybe the injectors are the issue. Who knows. if the injector cleaner doesn't do anything, then ill just tow it to a shop for further investigation.

[Khánh]

Originally Posted by morswestford

I don't have a warm garage to take it to unless it's the mechanics shop.

There is no warm weather coming to Philly this week. The wind chill right now is like 10 degrees.

Anyways Omega Fuels, the station i got the e85 from suggested I use a siphon pump and siphon out a few gallons of gas. Then put in injector cleaner in the tank. And see if that helps or not. he also mentioned the problem may be the flex fuel sensor itself.

I'm going to try that today. Maybe the injectors are the issue. Who knows. if the injector cleaner doesn't do anything, then ill just tow it to a shop for further investigation.

did motoeast reply to you? did you get your car started yet? I'm looking to get flex fuel and wondering if they have good customer service

[reeves]

Originally Posted by morswestford

Anyways Omega Fuels, the station i got the e85 from suggested I use a siphon pump and siphon out a few gallons of gas. Then put in injector cleaner in the tank. And see if that helps or not. he also mentioned the problem may be the flex fuel sensor itself.

I'm going to try that today. Maybe the injectors are the issue. Who knows. if the injector cleaner doesn't do anything, then ill just tow it to a shop for further investigation.

Just make sure you use a E85-friendly injector cleaner. I'm no expert, and I've never used it with E85.. but others have said that regular injector cleaner and E85 might not mix well.

And unless that gas station attendant is an E85 tuner, I'd take his advice with a grain of salt.... and maybe some butter. But that's just me.

[ajcarson11]

Started my BRZ with moto-east flex fuel kit and tune on E77 today at 28degrees. Fired up first time, no struggle.

[Soloside]

top of the line customer service in my opinion.


But then again, I may be biased.

@Moto-Phil can probably chime in here.

[-Phil]

For reference I myself have not gotten a call or email about this.
-Phil