A gas station down the street from me just started selling e85 and I've heard a lot of good things about using it in your car. Theres nothing in my owners manual about it so I'm assuming I cant just top off my tank with it. What all has to be done to my car for me to safely use it? Do you need to be tuned or is there more to be done?

 

If your owners manual does not mention it

and your fuel filler door does not mention it



Do NOT use it!



It is a big-deal selling point for some customers, so they make sure to mention when it can be used.

 

e85 has a race gas level octane rating and..... surprise, ethanol. Which is corrosive as f*ck.

So yeah... there you go.

 

I just had to change out my injector seals to run it, as the stock ones will deteriorate. You WILL need a dedicated tune for it as its stoich is much lower than gasoline



The positives are higher octane(105 iirc) to be able to pull more timing and it's cheaper per gallon



The negatives are awful gas mileage, and you'll need to upgrade the fuel system sooner if you want big power as compared to regular unleaded fuel.



It beats paying 10$/gallon for 110 race gas.



A lot of people will run a blend of both 93/E85 to achieve the higher octane without sacrificing gas mileage substantially.

 

Just get a tune for 93 octane. Changing all the stuff to be able to run e85 would cost more than just getting a tune for 93.

 

The problem with E85 and tunes is the fuel isn't alwasy 85%. You really need a fuel/alcohol sensor to do it rught.

 

Agreed. My AFRs very quite a bit depending where I get E85 and what time of year I get it. Looking at upgrading my ems to handle flex fuel sensors and also have on board knock control. E85 is pretty awesome fuel if you have the money to invest and do it right.