Donzo7

Just as the thread states what are the pros and cons of adding E 85 to my ZR1 and how much is the overall cost to do so? Thanks

polyol

Cost is pretty minimal, ensure you have enough fuel and a tune from what I understand.

One is the availability, captain obvious stuff I know.

Storage with E85 is more challenging.

Cold start is usually more of a pain.

Donzo7

I have E 85 2 miles from my house and I live in Florida so cold starts probably not an issue. Will my stock fuel pump have to be upgraded on a bolt on 700 whp car? I know I'll need larger injectors.

VetteVinnie

I'm running FlexFuel. During the summer months, I run E85 exclusively unless I plan to take longer trips, then I just fill up with 93 on route. During winter months and rainy season where the sits more, I keep 93 in it. I'm told by my tuner to run a tank of 93 through it every few tanks anyway just to keep things clean, so this strategy works. Plus, when it's wet and cool, that extra power is wasted anyway since the tires just spin, so I'm fine with 93 until the weather heats back up.

As for cold start, it's fine except it will turn over a few more times before starting relative to 93.



EDIT: Side note, I'm pretty sure mine still has the stock fuel pump, but it does have larger injectors.

Donzo7

Thanks for your input. Any idea what the cost of the part and labor might be? I know it would have to be retuned.

VetteVinnie

It will probably need to be tuned twice since you have a table for 93 (which becomes the low octane table) and for E85. When I had cats put on my car, they had to retune the car. A few weeks later when I put 93 in it, there was some hesitation while the engine was below operating temperature, so they had to adjust the 93 tune as well after I burned off the E85.

As for costs, mine came to me already modified with the conversion. They installed headers on the car at the same time. Whitehead Motorsports did my conversion if you wanted to give them a call and get a quote (even though you probably won't be shipping the car to Texas). I'm guessing $1500ish? The kit itself is $300. Then injectors and misc parts plus dyno time for both fuel types.

Donzo7

Thanks I appreciate it.

GX427

Order a dsx aux fuel pump my buddies zr1 makes 970whp on boost only e85 and 1300+whp on nitrous with ms109 nozzle spray on top of e85

Donzo7

So are there any negatives of running E 85 ?

GX427

Availability of it not all stations have it? Can’t let it sit for longer than 3 months? That’s about it

Jayfabs

I would love to see that car put on an other dyno.

Donzo7

[QUOTE=GX427;1602386073]Availability of it not all stations have it? Can’t let it sit for longer than 3 months? That’s about

Donzo7

Thanks...

Rokket

I have had no issues with E85 sitting longer than 3 months. It could be due to how the blends change seansonally. I only get it in the warmer months.

GX427

Me too

EvanZR1

The only ones I really see are:

• Having to fill up way more often.
• Slow start. This isn't really a big deal, you just learn to expect it. And it really only happens when it sits for more than a day or so.
• E85 doesn't have any detergents/conditioners and is harder on the fuel system. You'll want to run top tier 93 (something with a good additive package) through it once every month or two. Alternately, you could use a bottle of Techron every month or so as it's compatible with E85.

Other than those issues, I honestly don't see any negatives. The car makes about 640rwhp on 93 and 700rwhp on E85, so there's a noticeable gain on it, but I can easily run 93 with no issue if I'm somewhere E85 isn't available. On top of that, E85 has higher octane rating and burns cooler, so it's very beneficial on boosted applications like the ZR1.

EvanZR1

Actually, looks like would be even better for E85 as an additive. Claims to help slow start as well, I'm going to run some the next fill up and see if it helps.

Whoop

I keep Boostane Premium around for two reasons. One, when I can't find e85 and had to fill up with 93 I can boost the octane and two, I use it as a cleaning and stability agent with e85. I used it on a non e85 supercharged GS with good results for many years. A half of can will get 93 to around 99/100 octane. For e85 I only add about a 1/5 of a can. The cans are about $20 so about $4 per tank.

BOOSTane Professional and Premium can be blended with E85, and it will give added benefits to the fuel.
Add stability to ethanol hygroscopic nature
Increase E85 effective octane number
Proprietary chelated carrier
Anti-corrosion against ethanol
Cleaning agents
Anti-carbon build up

Donzo7

Thank you...

phils C5 vette

I've thought about adding E85 to my ZR1, but I optioned against it. My car sits to much and I dont want E85 sitting in my systems for a month before the next drive.

Outside that, You will have longer cold starts but more often hot starts are much harder and the vehicle goes very rich and is a little unstable at start up. Cruising with a cam can have a surges if the tuner added advance down low. If he added advance just to WOT, low end surging is less.

WOT is always fun with the extra advance and will make more power.