There are countless c6 vettes running flex fuel and even more running straight e85 all the time. If people were having problems with ethanol eating up the system, people would start finding out. How many years will it take of e85 corrosion, if any will it take to beome a problem? Who knows. No the system is not designed for e85, BUT yes it works fine so far for most people. If it ain't broke don't fix it. If you are that worried then a full e85 compatible fuel system is what you should do. Otherwise, fill her with corn and rock on.

 

I am trying to understand how you can be so negative when you PMed me wanting to discuss the system after you saw that I deleted the how-to.

30 days is considered the shelf life of ethanol. It is very hygroscopic and consequently absorbs water, which is what people want to avoid. I tell people to run one full tank of gasoline through once a month, and if the car will not be driven, then they should run gasoline through it and store it with gasoline in the tank. This is based on recommendations from Injector Dynamics. There is no concrete data on what kind of increased life expectancy there is from doing this. Systems are in their infancy relatively speaking. However, plenty of people have been running strictly E85 for five years without issue. The cars that I've converted to true flex fuel haven't had problems either, although many end up getting upgraded pumps because whatever they are doing surpasses the capacity of the factory pump.

There's no rubber that disintegrates away anymore. That was the biggest concern in the past. Now it's a matter of ethanol's reaction with aluminum components (like the fuel level sender for example which can suffer from accelerated corrosion in ethanol). Nobody has numbers on how long systems last because not enough time has passed. There are common sense tasks that are known to prolong the life expectancy of components under the abuse of ethanol though.

If you're worried, don't do it. Simple as that.

 

Dave,

My rhetoric on forums is often interpreted as being much more negative than it actually is - my goal in this discussion is to provide information for the better of the community. I honestly am very excited about the possibilities with E85 - but after seeing what happened in the GTR community I have been much more cautious about jumping into it on another platform.

Asking for data is, I believe, the best way to continue the discussion. You are unlikely able to provide enough data to account for the broad use across the ZR1 community, but your reply here definitely helps.

At the end of the day, all modifications increase the risk of some failure - pulleys, tuning, etc. I have been modifying cars for a long time and realize the risks. I just wanted to know how much time and effort has gone into the E85 setups available because in my mind - risks associated from the lack of R&D are silly and preventable.

Rubber parts were never an issue with E85 in the GTRs - what wound up being problematic were things like OEM paper filters that broke down with E85 use, inconsistent levels of ethanol in E85 branded fuels (I know that isn't an issue with ZR1s and flexfuel sensors), fuel pumps that were simply never tested for E85 use and wound up having failures attributed to E85, etc. I stand to gain little personally from bringing this discussion out - on the contrary I think you proving your expertise and disclosing some of the data you have seen stands to benefit you a lot more than me (with no disrespect meant by that statement)

I, and I am sure many fellow ZR1 owners, would love an extra relatively worry free 25-50rwhp from E85 if I knew what to buy and what we had to do to minimize the potential for any failures/issues.

 

You seem to have your mind made up. If you want long term data on the cars running flex fuel with both E10 and higher levels on stock fuel systems you will simply have to wait. As of this point, there is only about 1 year since these types of systems have been installed or less. I have done quite a few so far in various Gen IV GM vehicles and have not had any failures as of yet. Most customers tend to run pump gas unless they plan to go out an play which will undoubtedly help prolong the life of any components they may or may not have been rated for E85, compared to running high levels of ethanol at all times. The ZR1 is one of the few cars that can make big power with only an injector upgrade as other platforms simply run out of pump.

 

I now have the flex system in my ZR1 .... I love it.... I tend to keep 93 in it until I'm going to play with the car. KP racing in Houston did my conversion with Dave's flex system... We gained 56 rwhp on E85.... The only negative side I can find at all is it's a little harder to cold start than 93... But don't misunderstand it only takes a few extra turns of the motor to fire then it runs perfectly

 

Congrats on your car Rob, it's running extremely well.

 

Thank buddy... Not as well as your! Lol

 

That's the exact "side effect" I have experienced with my 2010 ZR1. Kinda glad to hear I'm not the only one.

Otherwise car runs great, and when doing a hot start it fires right up just like when it has pump 93 in the tank.

 

My really struggled to start when temps dropped so I turned up the heat in the shop LOL

 

My mind is not really relevant - notice below the replies talking about their experiences - cold starts, etc. That is great feedback. GTRs had the same issue, and it pushed tuners to find a solution. This isn't personal, this is just to promote dialogue. Any experiences people want to share will only make this flex fuel system better for everyone.

There are tables that the various tuning platform providers were able to modify to help with cold starts on E85. Maybe this is possible with the ZR1 as well. The injectors also played a role.

Do you know the difference in mapping between an OEM Flexfuel vehicle, and what the ZR1 is capable of being programmed for, as it pertains to cold starts?

 

Poor cold starts are 100% tuning related.

I'll snap a video of the four digit power F1X 444ci Z06 I tuned. It starts right up cold on ethanol as with every other flex fuel car I've done.

 

Agreed. My car had horrible starting issues on previous tune. Lund Racing fixed that.

 

Oh yeah, definitely. Have worked on cold starts with other cars with my tuner. We just haven't been able to get together since I did the flex fuel conversion.

 

256/264 cam.

 

that cam sounds amazing, did you or Chad spec it?

 

PatG did for the setup.

 

My car starts normally under all conditions.