While E85 DEFINITELY made more power, don't go into it blind.

Issues:
- availability of fuel. This becomes a bigger deal when travelling or going to the track (be prepared to bring jerry cans everywhere). This is a huge deal if you ever wanted to go on an NTEC cruise.
- fuel economy. Going 140 miles on a tank sucks.
- surge tank becomes a much bigger need and can cause some frustration
- aftermarket injectors are always a compromise (great @ high volume, sucky at idle or around town is the biggest complaint I've seen) -- you've already noticed this.

I personally feel that the switch to E85 was the beginning of the end in my Evo ownership. It made a TON of power and all the little annoying things started to pop up. Tuning is harder/different. E% changes (although you see this with pump gas quality too). Stuff begins to break more often because of the extra power (300 @ the crank to 500@ the crank will do that), but this includes brakes, tires, diffs, clutches, etc. IMNSHO once you convert to E85 you're pretty much sitting on a bit of a time bomb on the block. Be prepared to, at some point, either ventilate and rebuild or rebuilt simply to beef up. Especially if you're thrashing it (ie. racing).

 

Did you build your motor prior to making the switch to E85? I have been on the fence about switching over to E85 for awhile now for many reasons (relibility being the main deciding point) but I have had a built motor for years. I've heard of a few issues that some have had with blowing their motor after switching to E85 but I don't know the ratio of blown built motors to blown stock motors (don't know if that should make a difference or not really but one would think it would be a factor with the large increase of power).

 

I was hesitant as well about going to e85 on the stock block. Now that it will be built I'm good with running it but only for autox. Street and track will all be on 93.

 

I was just the opposite: I only ran e85 on the street, and left 93 octane for the track (remembering that I do only road courses, and no AutoX).

 

All very good points, I think the hassle would out weigh the benefit. There is always meth injection, maybe later.

 

Cancelled the order, too many PM's from people reinforcing the PITA factor.

 

No! Much worse than e85. I lived with (suffered with is more like it) meth injection for a couple years. Would under no circumstances recommend it to someone who has e85 available.

 

If you're going to do any kind of porting to the exhaust/intake manifold or the throttle body, I would still get the fuel pump. When Kracka and I did all of the above, Calvin was running out of fuel and the simplest solution was to run a Walbro 255. If you wanted to run E85 later, all you would need is bigger injectors. Might be worth it from that perspective.

 

IMO, with a bigger turbo, you're going to want bigger injectors and fuel pump, even for 93 (and then a surge tank because you'll be starving all the time, especially if you're on rcomps). By then you might as well go E85.

It's really all about what you want to put up with.

edit: For me, I realized that I much prefer to drive, 100% every time, rather than constantly be tinkering and/or spending money.

 

Stock turbo, cams and internals. I was building to the SCCA BSP class and NASA TT-S class, so I was limited in the mods I could do. Well in TT-S I could do more, but $$ limited that.

 

Thank you for having us on your list.

If you have any questions, please ask. I'm available on EvoM and quite a few other forums, as well as, facebook and Skype and AIM.

We try our best to make sure we are available to our patrons and the community... that is the main reason I'm on the forums and other online venues.

Our DW300 series pump has been a great product for us this year, and our EvoX injectors have been doing well, also.

 

I would run it on the street if there was a station close to me. The closest one is still 20mins away from my house. I don't need gobs of power to go to work, plus I would be filling up every other day since I do 100miles a day.

 

I have no plans on porting any of those items without also building the motor and drivetrain.

On getting a bigger turbo, I am probably a few years out from that, at least I hope so, if the block goes I will upgrade but until then I am not going to mess with it.

I was really only looking for that little extra, porting the manifolds doesn't yield enough for me to consider. I need to just accept that for my setup 360-370lb-ft is enough. That extra 20-40lb from e85 isn't going to produce enough results for me to wager daily driveability and reliability. To be honest I will probably notice more of a difference in performance from upgraded sway bars and a launch worthy clutch.

 

Don't drive Jeremy's car then... because the extra ooomph at the lower RPMs is appreciable on E85 around town. Porsche being a **** next to you? Break yo neck fooo and he's gone. Especially with the quick spool of the stock turbo.

But what's the use of the extra power if every time you press the go pedal you're worried that you're gonna BOOM something? Safe >>> max powah.

 

Believe me I took your comments and opinion very seriously. Yeah, the extra 20 lb-ft may be nice and holding it longer but with the blend changes and the fact of carrying fuel in the trunk are what did it in for me. I find it hard enough to find a Shell station sometimes much less e85 stations. I looked around and it is a 20min round trip drive for me to go get e85 and return home. That sucks *****, not to mention with my kid in the car, I am not going to carry raw fuel in the trunk. Next thing you know I am sitting at the gas station with my chemistry set trying to figure out if the blend is e70, e73, e80, or 85.