My E85 experience - BASE LS3 MNL
 

Hello Everyone,

I have just successfully installed E85 tune and I'm excited to start sharing my experience with the forum (MPG, drive-ability, Power,....) I am glad to say that so far I'm in love with the new found power. The car drives exactly the same as stock aside for when I get on the throttle :cool:.

I did find that with my last detail I didn't need to clean the tail pipes very much compared to when I was on 93 pump gas... which is normally black after a full tank of gas. Another thing that I find really amusing is the looks I get when filling up with E85 :lol: I have yet to get any comments but, I'm sure that will come sooner than later.

Drive ability - Same
Highway MPG - 22 to 23 when going 65mph in cruse.
Smell - AWESOME
Power - very noticiable gain

As time goes on I will report any details. I'm going to take point on gas milage moving forward. On my next fill up I will record how long I can go from Full to Empty.

** Picuture of first fill up**

http://image.exct.net/lib/feee1d7676620d/m/1/photo.JPG

**Picture of dyno graph of HP gain**

Stock run on mild tune Vs. Stock E85 run
http://image.exct.net/lib/feee1d7676...tteE85Test.jpg

not to bring down your hype, but you got the car tuned. so thats an easy 20-25rwhp in itself. then you gained about 10-20rwhp on e85(still good). your injectors are prolly close to being maxed out as well. So when/if you do bolt ons you will need injectors as well if you plan on staying with e85....e85 does wonders for F/I not so much for N/A.
this is a good option for people who don't want bolt ons, but want more power.

what was the duty cycle of your injectors anyway, on e85?

I'm glad someone did it though and glad you posted.

Very nice gains.

Thanks for the input! I am at a 90% duty cycle right now. I have room for headers,Throttle body, and Intake Manifold at least. I think I will only want headers though. I can get close to 450whp before having to upgrade the fuel system from what my tuner is telling me. I promise I will find out and post those gains as well. I might upgrade the headers this summer however I'm not sure.

To clarify, you said "stock run on mild tune" so were you tuned before or not, as your baseline 93oct numbers look bone stock (as in no tune).


However, you're making AWESOME power for bone stock other than E85 + tune, those are typical numbers from an intake/ and full exhaust, dyno tuned LS3.


my tuner has been wanting to try E85 on mine and I'd love to see the results, maybe I'll have to call him up soon.

So there were no upgrades to the fuel system?

Very impressive gains.

20-25rwhp would be on the very high side of what a stock car can pick up with a tune. That's probably 50-75% higher than what is normally picked up from tuning.

yea, I can't wait to see the numbers! let us no if the injectors hold.


idk man my car was sooooooooo pig rich that 20rwhp may have been possible.

Either way, im curious to see the results with bolt ons. :cheers:

I'm shocked. I'm at 425/425 with bolt ons and can't help but wonder where I'd be with E85 now. Do most gas stations carry it? I've never really noticed.

Are there downsides to E85?

If I got the same gains, Id be at 470/477! Who needs a cam

Impressive! :thumbs:

I'm doing this once more stations are near me.

No, most do not carry E85

The biggest downside by far is availability of E85, only thing that's kept me away, it's available at most Kroger's here in DFW, TX, so it's not tooooo bad, but still few and far between comparatively.

I never go on road trips though, I already have full exhaust/intake, it would be so sick to make like 440rwhp just going to E85, I make around 425rwhp/415rwtq now. But, it's already 100 degrees here so the heat is going to make it tough with IAT's going through the roof.

The only down side I have found are bellow.

1. Finding E85 within a reasonable distance
2. Burns about 25% faster however, is normally offset by cost being cheaper.


To the post above - The car on the first run was on a very mild 93 octane tune so it wasn't completely baseline stock tune although, very close.


My car is 100% stock with no fuel system upgrades. It really is remarkable how the car drives... I cant tell any difference at all with drive-ability other than WOT. The entire RPM range is much stronger and can be felt dramatically. If anyone is interested please feel free to PM me.

I will update how the car runs next Friday.

holy torque batman!

:thumbs:

I get a little sideways shifting into third now :rock:

Unfortunately I think I'd have to upgrade injectors at this point to run E85...maybe someday :P

You are rocking a lot of mods. Is it hard to upgrade injectors?

Shouldn't be. I just would need to figure out which injectors properly fit the FAST 90 I have and then see if the stock pump canl handle it or if I'd need to go to a BAP

Gotcha. If it's affordable it might be worth the upgrade.

I personally think E85 is a very worth while mod. The only concern for anyone considering is availability of E85 in your area. In GA we have 14 stations and all are 20+ miles from me other than 1 that is in a direction I never travel. I'm itching to see what my H/C setup will do on E85 but I'm not driving out of my way to fill up on a regular basis. I also use the car for long trips so that becomes a drawback in my case as well.

Although boosted, the GTR guys are lovin' E85. I've heard in those applications they spool much faster and the tq gains are nuts.

For now I'm stuck with little ole 93 and envious of you MW folks in this regard. :toetap::D

How's the cold start up? I switched over to E85 on my supercharged CTS-V (50whp gain) and it caused a few problems in the fuel siphon and it took at least a second of cranking to start up when the engine was cold, even in the summer.

I already have 57lb injectors and a z06 pump assembly since the previous owner was going to switch to E85, it's readily available in MN and IA, I doubt I'll ever take the car on a trip where I absolutely can't get e85 so I'm still considering this mod. It's essentially free horsepower for me at this point, just a quick tune up for the new fuel.