Fuel Switching To Corn?

[sneaky98gt]

It's not always horsepower - often it is throttle response, idle quality, drive ability, off-boost or tip-in power, power under the curve, etc. Granted, it's not always a huge difference that you can boast about your peak HP in your signature on your favorite car forum to get all the high schoolers with bolt ons to adore you, but if you have a built motor/power adder/fuel system/etc,etc,etc build (read = $$$) and you are not willing to invest certain moneys to protect your investment, you're a fool.

I'll preface this by saying that I know very little about E85 and such, and I'm asking these questions to learn, not to be a jerk or anything.

I guess I'll ask the same question again. The difference in those things you mentioned, is it significant? Going from E-0 to E-10 doesn't seem to negatively hurt every car on the road (including 'performance' cars) except in maybe fuel mileage. I suppose going from E-85 to E-75 may not be comparable to going from E-10 to E-0, but I don't know that for sure.

As for the octane rating that you mentioned in post #16 above, the reading I've done suggests that the difference in actual octane (which is small anyways) doesn't make much significant difference in the knock protection; it's the cooling effects of the ethanol that do that, and E70 is every bit as good at that as E85. The difference in effective octane is, at most, a degree or so of max timing on a high horsepower setup. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Modular2v]

if you throw e85 in on a 91 tune then you would have serious problems. yes the e85 will satisfy the octane requirement but it will need alot more e85 flowing...... i would imagine the results of just throwing e85 in there without a tune would be catastrophic

 

[95PGTTech]

I'll preface this by saying that I know very little about E85 and such, and I'm asking these questions to learn, not to be a jerk or anything.

I guess I'll ask the same question again. The difference in those things you mentioned, is it significant? Going from E-0 to E-10 doesn't seem to negatively hurt every car on the road (including 'performance' cars) except in maybe fuel mileage. I suppose going from E-85 to E-75 may not be comparable to going from E-10 to E-0, but I don't know that for sure.

As for the octane rating that you mentioned in post #16 above, the reading I've done suggests that the difference in actual octane (which is small anyways) doesn't make much significant difference in the knock protection; it's the cooling effects of the ethanol that do that, and E70 is every bit as good at that as E85. The difference in effective octane is, at most, a degree or so of max timing on a high horsepower setup. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not so much worried about the total timing as I am how fat or lean it runs (as I stated from my experience about a half a point). The difference in those mentioned is car to car - some are dramatic, some it's almost nil. The point being when you have this kind of money in a setup and you make changes, $500 for a dyno/tune is chump change. Even if you spend the time and money getting the car on the trailer and the day there just to find out very little changes were needed, it's cheap insurance in the grand scheme of things. It's part of the expense of owning a heavily modified car. Don't want to retune? Get yourself some 55 gallon drums and either store the E85 all year for your own consumption or read the many sources online for mixing 93 octane pump or VP16 with the E70 if that is all that is available when you need to purchase.