E85 fuel

Hello everyone,

I have some inquiries regarding E85 fuel. Could it be used for daily turbo charged cars?, does it require a separate fuel system or the factory system can do the job?, On what air to fuel ratio could it produce max horsepower for turbocharged engines? And is it worth switching from normal fuel to E85 ( will it have a huge difference on the engine temp and horsepower)?

Thanks

Hello. Not an expert by any means but I'll help with your question. It can be used for a daily driving. You can use the factory fuel system but keep in mind it E85 uses more so need to make sure fuel system components are up to the task such as fuel pump and injectors. Depending on your vehicle they may offer a flex fuel kit for your application or if stand alone should have built in features. Their has been a big debate over the years about E85 being corrosive on factory components so that may be something to look into as well. Air fuel ratio will not affect the power. HPA has good course that explains air fuel ratio and how it affects tuning that I would look into. E85 is a good fuel to make extra power. I would purchase a Ethanol content gauge to make sure you're getting consistent blend. Not familiar with your location of living but one thing to consider on a daily driver is their enough E85 stations for you to fill up if needed. Hope this helps.

E85 is a great fuel and particularly on turbocharged cars it can provide massive gains in power. The downsides however are that you need around 35-40% more E85 to make the same power you made on gasoline. It is also hydroscopic which means it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere. This can cause corrosion to your fuel system components. This is more of a problem in humid climates and it's not advisable to leave the car sitting with E85 in the tank for extended periods if you aren't using it.

E85 has a stoichiometric AFR of 9.8:1 vs 14.7:1 for pump gas. Most tuners seem to ignore this pretty important aspect and leave their wideband meter set with a stoichiometric AFR of 14.7:1 regardless what fuel they use, which brings in some confusion if you're discussing AFR values so for this reason I like to refer to mixture targets in units of lambda. In this respect E85 works with very similar lambda targets to petrol - ).88-0.92 is a good place to start for an N/A engine, and 0.78-0.82 for a turbocharged engine.