I have been contemplating purchasing a CAI with XCal2 loaded with performance programs for 87, 89 and 93 octane.

My question is, at least here back east, the gas pumps have stickers that state the fuel can contain “up to” 10% ethanol. Assuming the fuel does indeed contain 10% ethanol do the turners account for the possibilities that fuel may have up to 10% ethanol or is it just back east that has ethanol added to the fuel?

I don’t know much about how ethanol may affect the A/F ratios and wouldn’t want to chance having a performance tune and then the ethanol causing a lean condition or contribute to “knock”.

Anyone know, or how about any of the tuners out there?

 

yup it does, makes it slower

where in nh you live?

 

At 10% it is not enough to matter. I run E85 in my motorcycle, I love the smell of a bike on ethanol.

 

The fuel effectivly is a lower octane in my expirience. I had to have brenspeed send me a 93 "jersey" tune for the car to run right on all 93 fuels with the 10% ethanol. On his normal 93 tune, certain brands would ping pretty bad under WOT. Nothing that a little race gas or concentrate doesent fix, but not something I run all the time.

 

Thanks for the information and I don't have any intentions of adding other things to the fuel to get it to run right. So when I go to order the tunes I will let them know I want tunes to accommodate the 10% ethanol and I would imagine if I were to get fuel with no ethanol the tune would just be a bit more rich then normal.

 

Not richer than normal. Just a little more octane than needed, no harm done. Brenspeed asked me what state I was in and what gas was availible. He sent me 3 tunes with the intake. 93 jersey for 10% ethanol, 93 normal, and 87 or 89 in case I ever need it.


His standard 93 tune worked great on Amoco, but on sunoco it pinged. Then I tried exxon and it pinged a little. So I went back to the jersey tune which runs great on any 93 I find around here. If I want to play I load the hotter tune, and splash the tank with some race fuel or booster.

 

If you run E85 in a non-FFV vehicle, it will run VERY lean. The stoich AFR for gas is ~14.6:1. The stoich AFR for E85-E100 is about 9-10:1!!!

 

They are talking about blended gas with 10%, not E85.
It is used as an oxygenator to replace MTBE.
The gas pumps can tell you if it is used, take a look next time you fill up.

 

Yes I know but I thought I'd add this tidbit. The 05-up GTs appear to have some settings available to use E85 (changing the Stoich AFR and spark based on % ethanol) but it isn't complete or operational, and I'm not sure if the hardware is compatible (hoses, etc...) I suspect Ford thought about making a flex fuel Mustang GT.

MI is required to use E10 blended gas. I've been using E10 for the past 4 years.

 

When I had my car for just a couple of weeks, I took a road trip across Nebraska. Here in Colorado, I had been burning 87 octane. Going across Nebraska, I ran 89 otane ethanol blend. The car is still bone stock.

I don't know if it was the octane difference, the ethanol, or the lower altitude, but the car ran amazingly well whenever I nailed it! The first time I hit it getting back on the freeway after filling up, I was like, "DAYUM! this must be like what these guys are talking about when they get a tune!" It even SOUNDED better!

Trouble was, on every tank, even ones where I kept my foot entirely out of it and just cruised at 85 mph, I got 3 mpg less while running the ethanol than I did running 87.

 

While E10 won't affect things TOO much, the trend when going to greater concentrations of ethanol is that your stoich AFR becomes richer and richer (stoich is 9:1 for E85-E100). You're burning more fuel to do the same amount of work. Ethanol has 2/3 the energy content of gasoline.

 

Slightly less mpg's with ethanol blends, and the greater performance you felt is most likely due to the altitude change. A few thousand feet can make a HUGE difference in performance.

 

Then I'm going to have to come down to the plains more come summertime!!! I live at 6000', and work at 8000', but the car was AWESOME when I was nailing it down there!

 

Englishtown, NJ is at about 60' ASL... You can get some fast times on that track!