I guess I am the only one having major issues with E85. I have toasted two engines now from having missfires on E85. I first bent a stock evo 8 rod. I then built a eagle rod engine for car that suffered the same fate. Neither engine has any sign of detonation. very conservative tunes with EGT not exceeding 750. A/F in the low to mid 11s.

My take on what is happening. If you have a misfire with e85 the exhaust stroke will be pushing an ignitable mixture. at TDC on exhaust stroke there is that darn wasted spark. This ignites the mixture. Since ethanol burns slow and long the burning mixture continues till the new A/F charge enters. The piston traveling up the bore toward firing stroke is met with already expanding fire. With the crank pushing rod up and fire pushing piston down and the rod being at an unfavorable position you have the perfect senario to bend a rod.

I have very quiet exhaust on car and very perceptive tuning ears. So I caught both engines before a rod was thrown out side of block. I believe others who have blown motors on E85 may be having misfires as well. But just arent aware of this prignition condition that results. No rod is sacred. Rods arent designed to be strong in the position that causes this bending force.

I am bailing on the E85 dream for now. I am building a new block for car and I am going to return to 93/alky injection. I found an unbelievable alky injection pump. Will make a new thread on that.

 

thread on alky pump plz

 

its in the alky section

 

What's up with all these blown engines lately?

Sorry about your misfortune dude. Good luck going back to good old 93OCT.

 

this is ANOTHER reason why I don't want to run E85

 

Although the EGT will go up, don't you think you would have been better of running it a bit leaner, for misfire's sake?

 

My EGT is at 800 at idle, and 10-12 between light/loaded (uphill) cruising, how are yours so low? I am still dialing in my A/F at WOT and it is at 12.5 during spool and 12.2-12.0 through until redline. I occasionally get a 12.6 or so spike that I am ironing out. Are you running stock turbo?

I think I am getting misfires at idle, or it could just be due to my afr's bouncing with my FIC 1450's.

-Will

 

Dang dude! I threw a rod only after having my car E85 tuned for eight days. And you're going to keep that 73HTA Green, right?

 

Long time no see 94AWDcoupe!! Sorry to hear that, and I always LOVE reading your takes on engines, you have soooo much to offer this site.

 

You're absolutely certain you have a functional knock sensor?

 

Gotta ask.... sure you didn't pass MBT with the timing? That's a killer on E85 because it won't knock first.

 

I've heard a few mentioned cases of audible knock on E-85 and logs indicated nothing in the counts. Maybe that happened?

 

E85 won't knock, you'll just push parts. If the headgasket is strong enough (as it is on evo's) you'll start to push rods. I pushed a car wayyyy past MBT but luckily it was a 1g DSM (stock motor) so the stock headbolts lifted and it started pissing coolant.

OP, whats your timing curve look at and at what boost/power level?

Again, I'll reiterate. May as well ground the knock sensor on E85, it doesn't work in my experience. The reason why is the car actually won't detonate before MBT like pump gas or most race gases. So you push it past MBT, start doing too much negative work, bam something wants out.

 

Because Meth is so much safer.

While this def. means E85 isn't as safe as even I believed to run I still think its safer then meth.

I've been on E85 for a year and drive my car hard at times and been ok thus far.

 

You are running E85 a bit rich, it will misfire from that.

I've been running E85 for two years straight in my personal Evo 8, stock motor, no issues, over 20,000 miles on straight E85, 365 days a year. 412 whp / 400 wtq on our Mustang dyno.

I've tuned over 40 Evos so far on E85 with no engine issues from E85. A handful of them are driven on circuits as well, which is bloody hell on the car..

I'm not an engine builder but those photos almost look like the motor could have been running past MBT. What kind of timing where you running?

- bryan