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The E85 Science: “Straight gasoline doesn’t contain any oxygen and is combusted with oxygen from the atmosphere,” explains Zachary Santner, technical specialist with Sunoco Race Fuels. Ethanol, on the other hand, contains about 34% oxygen by weight. “Using ethanol, E85, as a fuel can increase the power output because more oxygen is available …
Towards the roads end!
Happy that my local pumps are typically 75% E which is pretty nice as I have gotten as low as 55%. The GM/Conti sensor reads real-time ethanol content out on your standard cheap-o obd scanner.
Look for some more E85 talk in the October issue. Something I learned while talking with Zach: The gasoline component of E85 can vary, too. So E85 could contain 49% 83-octane or 15% 100-octane.
This is why you don't really want an E85 tune if you don't have an E85 sensor. You'll get away with most of the time probably but you won't really be able to take full advantage.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Even the OEM sensorless ethanol content detection schemes do not work very well.
I put 2gal on top of the 93 in my turbo tercel for a bit of hot weather insurance at the last autoX and was surprised how noticeably quicker the car was on the drive home. Not radical by anymeans...but it was enough to notice it was just "happier" and ran out the upper gears with more gusto then ever before.
Keith Tanner said:This is why you don't really want an E85 tune if you don't have an E85 sensor. You'll get away with most of the time probably but you won't really be able to take full advantage.
Or tune for and buy racing fuel so you get a known ethanol content and the quality of the remaining gas is (supposedly) better too.
E30 tunes are popular with the FiST, but that means mixing E85 with pump gas to achieve 30% Ethanol. Every time you fill up, you have to test the fuel and mix accordingly. The extra power sounds nice, but I don't want to set up a chem lab every time I need gas. I wish the ethanol content was a constant so you could mix easily. Apparently, up to E50 is OK, but over that you don't make more power and you have to upgrade the fuel system.
I ran E85 on the ND without an E85 sensor. I checked a few local stations and found Murphys and Kroger were generally between 80-90%. After I found a couple that were good I would check them before filling up the first couple times, once I felt safe that they were pretty consistent I only checked them every few months, or when the weather changed. The consensus around me is Kroger and Murphys are always good, but the other places are all over. The local racing group has seen as low as 30 or 40% from other stations.
Speaking of E85, any specific questions for our fuel engineer friend at Sunoco?
does it help or hurt a regular engine if you put in a gallon or 2 of E85 per tank ?
will it clean out the injectors or get carbon off the valves or anything good :)
or will it do nasty things ?
this is on a 2005 Chevy 4.8 V8
Thanks
In reply to californiamilleghia :
engines that run e85 generally have less carbon build up than normal gasoline. If mixing a little in to normal gas will help clean i have no idea because pump gas is already about e10 anyways.
David S. Wallens said:Speaking of E85, any specific questions for our fuel engineer friend at Sunoco?
Why is C-85 not as good as Ignite Red and can they fix it? 
Opti said:In reply to californiamilleghia :
engines that run e85 generally have less carbon build up than normal gasoline. If mixing a little in to normal gas will help clean i have no idea because pump gas is already about e10 anyways.
A counterexample is anything that requires 2 stroke oil. People with turbo rotaries have found that alcohol-compatible two stroke oil leaves lots of thick tarry deposits all over everything, even after a short period of time. I would imagine that actual two strokes would be even worse, since they require 4-6 times as much oil mixed in the fuel.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I have no doubt, as far as im concerned rotaries are sorcery, and not reliable sorcery, so I want no part of them, and I dont care enough about my 2 stroke weed eater to actually check anything to see if what im putting in is causing damage.
In reply to Opti :
You'd run E85 in one of those? Neat, although I'd prefer C16. The C stands for Candygas 
E85 exhaust makes me gag. Exposure sensitivity after I got the mother of all hangovers from tearing down an E85-fed drag engine without wearing gloves, so I had direct skin contact with all the nasties for a couple hours. Apparently the combustion by-products are the same as the ones that give you a hangover after your body processes too much ethanol. What is weird is, the smell of uncombusted E85 also makes me sick, but I can smell E50 water just fine.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Not intentionally, but truthfully its a weedeater so if it goes vroom, i wouldnt think twice about it, but I was speaking more hypothetically, If mine ran on it, I wouldnt never care enough to check it.
When I was running E85 in the ND I kept a 5 gallon jug of E85 around for emergencies and after the move i got it mixed up and have no idea what jug it was, so it probably went into one of my small gas engines.
There are Bluetooth ethanol sensors out now that are easy to install on most any vehicle to real-time monitor your E-blends. The key to extracting to most from the added ethanol is tuning. I've found that two of my EcoBoost Fords can run E-50 (blended with 93 pump gas) with no changes to the fuel system other than fuel pump tuning. When I adjusted the Timing, Load, and Torque etc in my Raptor to full advantage of the 50% ethanol content it went from a 13.1@103 to 12.7@108. No changes other than the fuel and tune.
In reply to Opti :
That's one thing that Zach at Sunoco has stressed to me: Sadly, not all E85 is really E85. On a normal street car, you’re likely fine. But on something tuned to use all of the ethanol, now you can run into problems.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I have an E85 tester. I checked the station by my work and the station by my house a couple times, when I got good results each time, I never checked them again. ND was tuned for E85, but I dont know how aggressive the tune was and its an NA car. I did see some stations all the way down to 50 or 60, but the good ones were between 80 and 90 every time i tested them.
Ive always had good results from Murphys or Kroger
In reply to Opti :
Just curious, which kind of tester are you using?
Just the container you put a little water and fuel in and shake it.
Got it on amazon
In reply to Opti :
Cool. I have discussed those with Zach at Sunoco because I wondered how he would measure ethanol content in the lab. Turns out it's a bit more involved (and way, way more expensive). Then there are some electronic devices that can measure e-content. So, future test on these devices?
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