It was -5 degrees Fahrenheit in my part of Minnesota today and my car started great! I took a little video of the event for anybody who is interested. Nothing exciting just the car starting up and idling. But some solid proof you can basically run e85 all year if properly tuned.

Winter blend of e85 in our area is currently ~70% ethanol.

Mods:
2006 IX
FIC 1050cc injectors
Walbro 255
3" TBE

More setup information:
Car is using OEM sized battery
Currently using Denso IKH24 plugs gapped at .21

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcgejK5IDs0

Below are my settings from EcuFlash that I believe are related to this success.



Enjoy!

 

Thats great. It was 24 degrees where I am a few days ago and it seemed like it took forever to start

 

Good to hear! There Is gonna be a lot of e 85 hate in the up coming months


-Em

 

I thought e85 is much harder to wake it up in cold weather. No?

 

I had no issues with start-up yesterday or today it was 7 degrees out and lower with wind chill.

I just make sure its fully warmed up before I set off

 

Just enrich your crank table and your good if you are havin issues.

 

Would you mind posting a pic of your IPW adder table and the primer table.

Mine are posted here. See item #3. However, I'm in Tucson, where we think 45*F is cold.

 

Very nice. My E85 starts up with 0 issues down to about 15F so far.

However, my first subzero night came yesterday and my car wouldn't start during the day. Well, I got it started, but with a lot of trouble. I'm sure I can tune it in, but just never had the chance yet, since the temps haven't been this cold yet.

It would be nice to share you settings for future reference.

What I have done so far is simply up the cranking IPW. Also, I have cut half of the low coolant temp timing retard. I think I am going to completely remove that in my next round of tuning, though.

 

I have updated the first post with a screen capture of some of my settings, I did not see a "primer table" in my map in EcuFlash but IPW table and some others are shown.

FWIW I have the cold start ignition retard completely disabled.

I will try and grab an evoscan log from the car today and update the first post with it...

 

My garage always stays above 20F, but I noticed this past week it was below 0 F on my drive into work and I park outside. I was worried about leaving it all day because the high was supposed to be ~5 degrees. I went out after a few hours and fired it up and let it idle for a bit so it would hold enough heat to start after work.

I had no issues either time, but I'm wondering if I do run into a time away from home where it doesn't start, are their any tricks to make it fire (like a can of Ether in the old days)?? Last year it hit -25 here in January! I don't have anywhere that I could plug in a block heater either.

 

That's good to hear that it started up fine for you. This is my first winter on E85 and I was a bit worried about what I read previously. I was thinking of getting flashed back to the pump gas tune, but would like to just keep it on this map. Plus, losing 40 hp isn't something I would like to get used to after driving it with E85. I hope I can run it all year round in Minnesota too.

 

Good to know e85 can be done all year long with proper tuning. I am thinking of switching over soon

 

So is there any 'heat in a can' type solution that I could carry for emergencies? No problems yet, but I'd like to have a back up plan since it'll be the first full winter for an X on E85.

 

Never tried it, but any typical "hard-start" spray in a can should work in a pinch. However, there are E85 users on this forum living in some VERY cold climes and their EVO is starting AOK. You should be good to go.

I think a good battery and close-gapped fresh plugs would certainly contribute to start-up on E85 in the cold.

 

Still a little "Corn Fused" =)......I live in the ever so boring and mild So.Cal.......It was probably 50F this morning & it took me 6 short stints of attempted starting before she fired......Is the cold start ECU table the good fix? Where would you spray this fix?.......My main concern is the injector gunk crappola.........Peace