Take a quick peak at the map on http://www.neare85.com/ and it's easy to see why availability is an issue with E85. The vast bulk of the US population is on the east and west coast, yet there are very few locations in these areas that sell E85.

Not only do you need to be able to switch maps for the different fuels, but you also need a fuel system that can handle the increased alcohol content. Since it takes more fuel, the fuel system needs to be capable of delivering substantial more fuel as well (large injectors, pumps, etc. are needed). You burn 30 to 40% more fuel with E85 to cover the same ground. Add in the sparse availability and it's easy to understand why more people aren't using it.

 

We're driving to NY to get it .

 

Care to bring back a tanker load for me? I'd be out of fuel if I drove my car there and back!

Sadly, I don't think we're ever going to see it in CT. Even just one station in central to southern CT would make me happy.

 

Methanol is available eveywhere and you don't need a huge fuel system.

 

I'm aware of the challenges using e85 as i use it primarily in my evo to accomplish 30psi of boost daily driven. I couldn't run that power level on the **** they call 91 octane here.

There are around 2 stations that are really close to me which is why i use it plus a couple more around 20 miles out so its really easy to use here. I just need the map switching bit to handle going out of the city where e85 becomes really tough to find.

 

You do if you're running it straight!

 

Actually you don't and I am..sort of...

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're injecting small qauntities of straight methanol with gas being the main fuel. If you just run straight meth as your only fuel, you're going to need about twice as much... And that's a lot of bottles of Heet!

 

No, it's hardly a top fuel funny car. I'm spraying 100% meth with pump gas. and yes, you need about twice the fuel system for E85 and 100% methanol.

 

I dislike the methanol injection simply because I've seen too many fail safes not function as they should in the Evo community and blow up motors. In the end running e85 wasn't as expensive as I thought it may be. Even though I'm only getting roughly about 15-16mpg out of a tank with the price being lower I found I'm really only spending about 5-10cents more per mile than regular 91 octant, California "premium".

 

What failsafes and what "kits"? Quality kits or home grown stuff?

 

Well the most common that I've seen have been Aquamist. But a quick look into the Evo forums pointed out basically with any kit maker it was possible.

Seems some of the common things ended up being:

1) O-ring swells and restricts fuel going lean
2) The pump stops
3) Failsafe fails to actually drop boost

 

Hey Roadspike,

I come from a vast background in the Evo and Subaru tuning community. The Porshce ECU is a lot more complex than the Evo and the tools required to make the custom flashing is a lot more than the Evo and Subaru stuff.

I also love E-85 and used it in my own personal car for a long time. Here in Phoenix it is available but very spread out and not really that convenient, yet.

I have done a lot of water injection in the past and also prefer E-85, although properly setup water injection systems can work wonders!

Welcome to the board man!

Mitch Mckee

 

Thanks! E85 has been awesome for me as well I'll be pretty interested in EPL if they provide a switchable solution to run pump gas and e85. A friend of mine gave me one of his old 996 turbo ECU's and a cable, he said the tune on it couldn't be used on his car because it didn't pass the checksum or immobilizer.

I would crack this ECU open right now and take a look but i don't have a set of torque screwdrivers here at work

I personally want to dump the rom on this Ecu and get IDA pro to read the binary see what makes the motronic tick.

 

1. In a properly installed AM system, there are no orings that actually contact fluid in an orifice that can restrict flow.

2. If the pump "stops", the flow meter would detect low flow. This would trigger the fail safe.

3. In the 150 AM systems sold by us... I have never seen and or heard of this. What have seen is nurmous shop (not EPL or any of our dealers) that don't fully understand the failsafe "windows".

One of two things usually happens.... 1. The shop gets frustrated and shuts the failsafe off (have seen this at least 5-6 times. 2. The shop doesn't understand the process of setting the windows and set them wrong.

To date, 100% of the problems we have seen with the aquamist systems have been install or set up error.