Why are we mixing water into 55g barrels of E85 again?

 

No one is mixing water into E85 however in an unprotected system, the E85 pulls the water and gets contaminated. The fuel literally just pulls the moisture out of the air.

 

During the chilly weather (IAT = 0°C, Coolant temp = 4°C) starting has become a little harder than last year, most likely due to diminishing compression.

Adding a fair amount of fuel, something on the order of 30%-35%, on start and post start has helped a lot. As always, this is just my data point.

 

Funny, this post is one year after the last one!

It's a bit chilly outside. This AM the coolant temp was 32°F and the ambient air temp was 27°F.

With the previous enrichment (30%-35%) it still took a LOT of cranking to make it fire in cold weather. It was a minute+ of cranking when it was in the 30's last week.

This morning I raised the coolant temp enrichment to 100%(double the starting fuel rate) and it fired within 3-4 seconds then idled on its own. This is after sitting for a couple days so it was cold saturated.

Right after it started, the afr's were in the mid 10's. Some of the Subaru guys go even richer but this seems to work ok for me.

Crank the fuel up!

(sporting a full size Optima doesn't hurt either)

 

Yep, only fuel vapor ignites. When you spray fuel into a cold engine only a certain percentage turns into vapor. Thats why even with normal gas you're injecting a bunch extra fuel, E85 has a higher vapor pressure than normal gas so an even lower percentage turns into vapor therefore you need a whole bunch more wet fuel injected to create enough vapor to start.

Keep adding fuel to the priming pulse until it stop starting any better (or you run out of fuel to add), then keep adding to the cranking pulse width until it stop starting better.

 

You could do that, or you could mix about a gallon of regular pump gas into a tank of e85 and it will drastically improve startup and cold weather operation.

 

So turn E70 into about E60?

 

Its e85 year round here....No idea how it is whatever rock you live under, but its a tip I picked up from a bunch of high hp evo guys here who do that, and I was surprised with the results (on an evo). Haven't tried it on a miata. They do this every winter.

 

Damn you southerners we've been down to e70 for months and it doesnt go back till april-ish. Kind of makes the first couple races hard if the car normally runs e85. Either got to store it over the winter or ship it in.

 

Where do you live? What is the temp outside right now?!

This list is probably old:
E85 Mustangs.com - Regional Fuel Chart by state

I would consider mixing in 93 if I had a flex fuel setup and was willing to turn the power down, which I am not! I firmly believe that E85 is the only reason my motor is still together.

 

I'm in Northern CA
Its in the mid/low 30's in the mornings here right now.

I've talked to a few folks around here that test on a regular basis that told me it hasn't changed here, but who knows.

Are you running a FLAT OUT timing map? Cause if you're not I don't think it would hurt your car

 

Changed to these settings over the weekend and E85 (maybe E70 in CO right now) fired right up at 22F:

 

Just guessing that I'm conservative but I can't take the chance. (hate to keep repeating this but I think it's pertinent information) It's a stock 1996 motor with 225k+ miles on it making ~330whp. The pin was pulled on this grenade years ago.

Thanks for posting this great information. 22°F is probably warm for you CO guys!

 

Nice, thanks for posting those. I'm going to try to start my car tonight.