I just got my car tuned 2 months ago and lately, regardless of the weather here, my car still has trouble starting up. It seems like it takes me 4-5 times or so to get it starting. Is this just from E-85 itself or do I have other issues going on here?

I have been reading through a few threads and I have seen that this is a common issue but weather here is approximately 85 degrees. Still having a trouble with cranking up the motor.

Any help?

 

There is a cranking Ipw adder that should be adjusted on e85 cars to help startup. This helps a lot

 

What % ethanol is your E85?

 

70% ethanol.

 

Can I get some more info on this?

Thanks man much appreciated!

 

The IPW Cranking Adder table allows you to easily change the amount of fuel injected when cranking. Typical values are often too high for larger injectors -- especially with alternative fuels.

Does the engine start more easily if you give it some throttle? If so, then you are probably injecting too much fuel and need to lower the adder values.

d

 

The E70 should help unless you are losing most of your pressure immediately on the shutdown of a hot engine and boiling in the rails (due to the 1/2# to 1# or so higher vapor pressure of E70 vs E85). I would discard that as a very remote issue for now as it is very rare and also takes fuel line routing past a lot of hot components. For curiousity sake- your fuel pressure at crank on the rail and after cool down might be worth checking though it you haven't already checked.

E70 will be considerably richer for your open loop cold enrichment but E85 (83.3% ethanol) would normally be better for hot weather power and lower volatility. I wonder how your tuner handled this part of your tune?

I think you are on the right track with the other guys- but you know- sometimes other stuff happens.

 

+1....My tuner added the table which corrected the problem.........Peace

 

You might have it backwards here. E70 or e85 is harder to ignite so actually more fuel is dumped in to aid in starting the engine.

 

It often isn't the fuel itself, but the bigger injectors that everybody installs. Going from 550s to 1050s, I had to significantly reduce the adder values to get it to catch when warm starting. There was way too much fuel for either gasoline or E85.

d

 

This may be a stupid question, but installing bigger injectors reduces your fuel economy or does it not matter? I seem to be going through gas much quicker then my 91 octane and stock injector set up. Is it just E-85 as a whole or can it be the injectors as well?

 

I cannot answer for your specific car/situation- but your ECU in closed loop will cut the fuel from this larger injector down to reach stoich. You WILL use more fuel, in part because you will have a bit more power "so let's have fun using it" but mostly because of the lower energy density of a gallon of E85. For Example; While the BTU content of E85 blends will typically be at 27% less a factory FFV will usually consume either side of 125% of gas mpg (really this is .8 X mpg of gas). Example- a 30 mpg (on gas) Impala FFV will run at 24 mpg (30x0.8=24). The AFR requirements are more critical in a performance engine and will dictate this mpg spread. As a general rule of thumb a factory FFV will use at least 5% less btu/mile running E85 and provide 3-5% more HP even though they are optimized for gasoline- not E85. Sounds wierd?- hint- less energy is lost thru waste heat while running E85 vs gasoline. My S10 FFV is better yet- the small 4 cylinder heats up faster, goes to closed loop faster, and typically runs at 0.83 to 0.88 the mpg on E85 that it does on gas- depending on operating cycle.

 

Definetly know your stuff man ^

Thanks for answering my question. Even though I could barely understand haha.

 

It is the E85, it will consume more feul to maintain similar gasoline AFR by approx 30%