[pgtr13]

Hello everyone. Was hoping to get everyones thoughts on alternative fuels. I am thinking about upgrading my 2013 GTR to either E85 or to 100 octane. Whats everyones thoughts, pro's, con's etc on this topic? Currently I am modded with downpipe, y pipe, exhaust, BOV, 1000 cc injectors, accessport, custom tune, and big MAF intake. In the very new future I will be upgrading my intercooler, intercooler pipe, bigger turbos, and fuel management system.

Appreciate any feedback on this..

 

[audioenvy]

If you have E85 nearby, it's a no-brainer.

 

[cAszilla]

I run E85 and love it! Cheap, Clean & smells yummie too.

You will notice it's a slightly harder start in mornings or if its cold. If you have cold winters Lucas Oil makes an E85 Stabilizer that will help with the hard starts. Besides that I love it, where else are you going to get 105 octane for less than regular gas

 

[[email protected]]

I run E85 and love it! Cheap, Clean & smells yummie too.

You will notice it's a slightly harder start in mornings or if its cold. If you have cold winters Lucas Oil makes an E85 Stabilizer that will help with the hard starts. Besides that I love it, where else are you going to get 105 octane for less than regular gas

That Cold start issue can be solved with changes in cranking timing/fuel. Ecutek can do that today, or Cobb should be able to in the future.

Race gas performance for a very reasonable price.

E85 is the best thing to happen to performance tuning in the past 10 years. It is truly a game changer. Its very good stuff.

 

[pgtr13]

How hard is E85 to use? I hear that you have to drive your car till its completely dry of gas before you can fill up with E85. If i do have 91 remaining in the tank and i add E85 is it going to cause problems? And what about the other way around? If i am about to run out of E85 and there is no station around am i able to use 91?

 

[heacuva]

E85 if available. 100oct if E85 is not available or inconvenient to get. Methanol will do the job if previous 2 isn't an option.

 

[audioenvy]

How hard is E85 to use? I hear that you have to drive your car till its completely dry of gas before you can fill up with E85. If i do have 91 remaining in the tank and i add E85 is it going to cause problems? And what about the other way around? If i am about to run out of E85 and there is no station around am i able to use 91?

I've switched back and forth a couple of times. I run it as close to empty as I can and then fill the tank with the other fuel. As a precaution, I don't go WOT until I've cycled through a full tank.

A better approach would be to keep a couple of empty plastic five gallon drums in the trunk and when you get low on gas, fill the drums instead of the tank and then keep driving until you run out or get down to where the range displayed shows as "--" and then fill the tank from the drums.

 

[pgtr13]

Dumb question... What is WOT

 

[faresuae]

Dumb question... What is WOT

Wide Open Throttle

 

[audioenvy]

Dumb question... What is WOT

Wide Open Throttle

 

[mr chaz tsai]

Dumb question... What is WOT

Wide Open Throttle

+1 on E85. Made the switch earlier this month, and couldn't be happier! Car has a much smoother power band along with more HP/TQ, but it does get much less MPG. Still worth it

 

[Cavalier777]

E85 if available. 100oct if E85 is not available or inconvenient to get. Methanol will do the job if previous 2 isn't an option.

every big shop i mention MeOH to says the added system volatility isn't worth the meth system.

 

[junkbox]

If it matters to you, maybe not, I hear your MPG will be horrible running on E85... but results are intense.

 

[vtknight]

I know many other non-R35's use Meth injection. I wondered about this before I even bought my car so I did some research on it.

At the time there was NO major tuning house that used it on the R35. That, I felt, was an important statistic.

 

['Trust']

I've switched back and forth a couple of times. I run it as close to empty as I can and then fill the tank with the other fuel. As a precaution, I don't go WOT until I've cycled through a full tank.

A better approach would be to keep a couple of empty plastic five gallon drums in the trunk and when you get low on gas, fill the drums instead of the tank and then keep driving until you run out or get down to where the range displayed shows as "--" and then fill the tank from the drums.

That's probably the best way to do it without a content analyzer. On mine, I'll run it until it's as empty as I think I'm going to get it, then I put E100 in it to balance it out, and my content analyzer still reads E75ish, I have to keep cycling to get to E85, takes about another 1/2 tank of E100. Even draining the car from the return into a bucket until the car dies leaves 5% gas in there.

 

['Trust']

I know many other non-R35's use Meth injection. I wondered about this before I even bought my car so I did some research on it.

At the time there was NO major tuning house that used it on the R35. That, I felt, was an important statistic.

With E85 being more and more available, theres not really a point to running meth/water injection. It serves 2 main purposes; 1. Cool air charge, 2. Increase octane (adding water obviously increases the fuels resistance to burn). These cars have sufficient intercoolers, and as are the aftermarket ones so point 1 is kinda moot, so the main benefit would be increased octane. E85 takes care of both, although it doesn't cool the air charge it does lower combustion chamber temps which is obviously related to it's higher octane. No point in meth on a ethanol fuel car IMO.

It helps to remember the origin of meth injection, primarily used on airplanes in WWI to increase power and lower temps, keeping in mind those are non intercooled planes running on less than ideal fuel by today's standards.

 

[DAN K.]

Great discussion. I am also interested about this topic. I am lucky to have a Sunoco E85 station about 10 minutes away from my home.
I still have to research or analyze the quality. I read in a past thread that E85 in the cold or northern states usually cut there fuel with some type additive to help with cold weather starts. The summer months of June , July , August are your best bet to get the closest to 85%. ( I'm in Pa.)

E100 is a great idea to compensate for the fuel mixture.

I'm attracted to E85 because of the massive amounts of torque it can produce. I recall Jason's Switzer E1K dyno chart when it was finished. He was almost hitting 1000 lbs of torque at around 4500 rpms. ( good lord). Great stuff.

What are your guys opinion about how corrosive E85 is? Do you believe the R35 fuel lines can handle E85 without having some type of corrosive pattern. Also the plasma sprayed bores is an area of concern.

Also , I believe the use of E85 will greatly reduce the black carbon build up on the back of our cars or exhaust tips. Is this correct?

I will discuss more in detail with Neil at Switzer performance, but that E1K is calling my name. Lol.

Power is too addicting. Lol.

 

['Trust']

This is a quote I made from our local forum; may be of some help:

[QUOTE='Trust';78763]I'm sure all you E-thugs know this, but I was doing a little research (after briefly talking to Kong yesterday about this) and E85 has seasonal blend changes that would affect it's stoich, here is some info:

Key (Ethanol/Hydrocarbons): Class 1 (85/15) is the summer blend; Class 2 (80/20) is the transition blend utilized in the spring and fall; and Class 3 (75/25) is the winter blend.

Chart from the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

I'm not sure how much this would affect stoich and tuning because the fuel is so cool (temp) and such a high octane. Worth mentioning I think, and I'm sure Rob has much more input than I.

Some distributors use the following:

Season Minimum With Blend
Spring (March-May) 74% 76.6%
Summer (Jun-Aug) 79% 81.1%
Fall (Sept-Nov) 74% 76.6%
Winter (Dec-Feb) 70% 73%

So in the winter it can be as low as E70.[/QUOTE]

Luckily our main E station is owned by an enthusiast so he makes sure it's always at least E85, and E98.

 

[audioenvy]

This is a quote I made from our local forum; may be of some help:

Wow, that is really good to know. Looks like I need to buy one of those testers.

 

[DAN K.]

This is a quote I made from our local forum; may be of some help:

Luckily our main E station is owned by an enthusiast so he makes sure it's always at least E85, and E98.

Trust,

thanks for the information.