What's the difference between an E10 (10% ethanol) cabable engine and one that will run on E85?
It would seem that the ethanol compatibility issues (rubber seals, etc.) have been solved in a vehicle that can run on E10. So, is it just a matter of swapping chips in the EFI controller?
You would probably need higher flow injectors as well, as it takes a lot more E85 per unit air...
nate
Generaly you need almost twice the volume of ethanol as gasoline. So you would need an injector about 1.8 time your original injectors flow. Also compatibility issues at 10% are not the same as 85%. Stan Stan
OK. Lets restate the question. How far can one push the mixture with no refits (assuming the system can handle an E10 mix)? Or with a new chip in the EFI controller?
Also, how far can one go in a 'Flex Fuel' engine? This assumes that one might want to vary the mix from straight gasoline up to that maximum mixture from tank to tank?
I've looked into this before and reading through different forums most cars can handle 30-50% E85 just fine. Some cars can even do 100%. The easiest way to modify a FI car to run E85 is to mount an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, preferable one with a pressure gauge. That way you can increase the fuel pressure, by hand, 35-40% allowing 100% E85.
Another way is to reprogram the ECU, however that's really only an option on older cars. I've considered this on my '92 BMW 535, which uses Motronic 1.3, by replacing the stock EPROM with a larger FLASH device with two, or more, firmware programs. That way I can use either fuel and just switch to the appropriate firmware using a switch on the dash.
Ulf
The answer to your question, as you can probably guess, is "it depends." First of all, it varies from car to car how much "headroom" there is in the flow capacity of the injectors. If the injectors are near maxed out on gasoline, they won't work very well on E85. But if they are generously sized and operate at
I saw a show yesterday that said there is an inexpensive sensor in the fuel tank that monitors the ethanol percentage in the GM vehicles in brazil.
Ethanol vehicles are called Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) due to their ability to run on Ethanol (E85), gasoline or any combination of the two fuels.
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