Can I run e15 in my 94 vette? All gas around me is E10. Will the 5% ethanol differnce be worse for my engine or am I good.

 

i run e55 (i blend 93 with e85).

wish i could run higher ethanol for more boost/spark advance

i tune it for this by trickkng the computer into thinking my injectors are smaller than they are

my fuel system is maxed out thats whats stopping me from running all out e85

no issues at all. And ive taken apart the fuel system and filter (cut it open).

that said ive got a walbro 450 l/hr pump and injectors designed for ethanol

 

dont do it. Nothing in these cars was designed to run E10 let alone E15.

Dizwiz24 has his car setup and tuned to run ethanol... thats not an endorsement that all cars can run it.

 

Can a stock lt1 run e15 then?

 

The owner's manual for my 1995 says "Properly blended fuel that is no more than 10% ethanol is fine for your vehicle." I don't know about your 1994, check the manual.
I would not run E15 unless that's all you can get, and then I would also run an ethanol treatment additive.

 

E15 is crappy fuel. Basically 85-86 octane gas mixed with a little ethanol to get the octane rating up to 88-89. It is an alternate fuel for regular 87 unleaded and isn't intended for performance uses or to replace 91-93 unleaded.

Goverment standards state 2001+ vehicles can run e15, all earlier years are supposed to be e10 max. Some manufacurers bumped their standards to e15 in some 2000 and earlier vehicles.

 

how is it crappy fuel?

ethanol is more detonation resistant (its like 104 octane)

The car will be faster (ie. Less chance of detonation and more piston top cooling) with E15 vs 100% octane.
albeit fuel economy might drop 1 mpg or so.

the closed loop integrator and blm will properly adjust themselves automatically based off the o2 sensors -without any special tuning from the OP.

the o2 sensors are looking for leftover oxygen in the gas. The interesting part is that the ratio of leftover oxygen is still the same whether he’s running gasoline, e85, methanol, or any blend of ethanol in between !

the OP could prob run up to 30% ethanol before the computer would be unable to adjust itself to it and then the car would be running ‘lean’.

If its adjusting itself correctly, a scantool should show long term BLM’s lean, but short term BLM’s at 128

if its past the limit of the ECMs ability to adjust - both long term BLM AND short term BLM will show lean.

his 1994 ecm is more advanced (seq fuel injection) than my 1993 and prob can adjust itself moreso

 

Will running e15 degrade anything in my engine if I run it then?

 

In the short-term, probably not but nobody can say for sure. Long-term, it may degrade some of the rubber parts and/or collect more water and/or corrode metal parts of the fuel system. Again, who knows. Ethanol attracts and absorbs water, which can lead to phase separation. Look it up.

 

Are there any conversion kits for the c4? Does the ethanol itself corrode the metal or does the water in the fuel mixture cause corrosion.

 

Diz,
E85 is great. It is also mixed with 85-91 octane depending on the area. Yes e100 is like 113 octane, e85 102-108.. But we are talking about e15. It is literally mixed with some of the lowest grade gas produced in the US. I am not downing ethanol here, I am downing the 85-86 octane gas that composes 85+% of that mixture. If you want to run 87 octane fuel in your vette, go for it. But you get above E10, the ecm can't compute that in older vehicles. Sure, his '94 will run but it will be on the ragged edge and it is no better than pump 87 gas or pump 87 e10. MPGS will also drop, negating any $.05-.10 per gallon savings at the pump.

 

First, check your 1994 owners manual and see what it says about acceptable fuel. I know my 1995 is approved for 10% ethanol but no more. If yours is not, I'd imagine you need to retrofit all of the rubber parts.
I'm not exactly sure about the corrosion but Ethanol is alcohol and I don't think it hurts any metal parts until it starts absorbing water.

 

Ethanol gas destroyed 4 fuel pumps in my Grand sport. It may be because it sits most of the time. The last pump and wiring I installed was COMPLETELY covered in rust after 9 months and one of the terminals corroded off. Racetronix replacement kit with the wiring. Ethanol forms water in gasoline. If you have a WAWA get ethanol free

 

https://iowarfa.org/ethanol-center/e15/e15-facts/

Because as he stated, E15 is not just ethanol. It's a blend of 85% garbage unleaded gasoline and 15% ethanol, which only bumps the final octane rating to 88. E15 and E85 are not the same thing, not even close. And the 85% gasoline in E15 isn't high-octane; it's lower octane than anything you can normally get at a pump. As the person you're trying poorly to debate already said, it's an ethanol-rich alternative to Unleaded 87. As such, it should not be anywhere near a Corvette.

 

if these debates dont exist and everyone agrees /smiles nods - we dont learn anything

i can tell you from taking apart my fuel system - that there wasnt any corrosion inside on my setup running 55% ethanol blended with 93 octane

though im not running a stock pump and all my clamps inside the tank are stainless.

my point is the computer ecm part of it has no problem adjusting for it. (Ive done that experiment and watched my datalogs).

now you got me on the base stock being a blend of 87 octane (not 93 octane)

so i guess you win the debate 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

This thread is about E15. The person you were trying to call out for being an idiot was talking about E15. E15 is not a blend of 87 octane, it's 85% much-less-than-87-octane and 15% ethanol, which brings the final octane number to around 88.

Please understand the thread creator's question and the replies before trying to claim someone doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

Wow didn't think that ethanol would be so highly debated in 2020. Also still have no clue if I can run it in my vette. If I can't run ethanol safely with a stock setup what else besides injectors needs to be changed out.

 

These discussion have been beaten to death, but I will add to it anyway.

I do not like ethanol blend (E10, E15, or E85) in a relatively stock car.

It is true that ethanol or blends can be a very good fuel for high performance uses. Ethanol has a better resistance to detonation that pure gas. However, to make the best use of the ethanol blend, it usually takes some changes like higher compression (including turbos or supercharging) and advanced timing. When a car is set up for ethanol it can be very good.

However, most nearly stock cars are not set up for ethanol blends although many are marketed as flex fuel engines. The result is that there is a reduced performance and a reduced fuel economy because ethanol has less energy than gasoline. For example I have an Impala that states flex fuel. The window sticker EPA mileage ratings are 29 mpg highway with reg gas but only 22 mpg highway with E85 and most cars show similar. In my Corvettes I get better fuel mileage with no ethanol than with ethanol blends. Although I don't have data to show improvement or not in performance (like 1/4 mile times) my feeling is that the ethanol free runs better.

Whether or not E15 can be run in you '94, I think the answer is that E10 can be run, and although the manufacturer recommends against more than E10, I suspect E15 could be used without harm unless some of the soft parts (fuel hoses, gaskets, o-rings, etc) could be damaged from the ethanol. I would recommend against using E15 or E85 unless it is all that is available until you can get E10 or pure gas again.

Good luck.

 

I would not even consider it myself. 10% ethanol does enough damage to the fuel systems of the older engines. I have replaced fuel lines from water induced corrosion at the lowest point in the fuel lines. A few years ago Obama tried getting the Ethanol level higher (15-20%) and every auto manufacturer told the government that they would not warranty repair any vehicle that used more than 10% Ethanol. Eventually the government backed off. Personally I wish there was ZERO Ethanol in the gasoline.

My C3 has 12.25-1 Compression ratio and it wants over 100 octane fuels to make it happy. I use a Snow performance Water/methanol injection system to give me the equivalent of 116 octane simply by squirting windshield washer fluid into my combustion process. Whenever the engine is under a load it will get the water/methanol injected into the fuel system and it doesn't have any issues. I use this on my C3 and it makes the engine detonation proof during the warmer months. In the cooler months I never need the extra protection. This is WITH cast iron heads...

 

Since like all the pumps everywhere I look say "contains up to 10% ethanol" I want to make my engine run ethanol with no problems. Besides the injectors and fuel pump what else needs to be replaced?