Minnesota Focus Owners Club

Not sure about this so it may be a dumb question.....Can you tune SVT's to run E85? I know I would need bigger injectors but would I need anything else besides a tune?

Thanks in advance!

ThatOneBigKid wrote:Not sure about this so it may be a dumb question.....Can you tune SVT's to run E85? I know I would need bigger injectors but would I need anything else besides a tune?

Thanks in advance!

pretty sure u can make any car run on e85 just not sure whats needed exactly

That's what i figured....I know with the Mitsu 4G63 motor all you need is bigger injectors and a tune. I wasn't sure if it would be the same for the SVT.

I think you would need to upgrade the fuel lines because of the corrosiveness of e85 (contains for alcohol). And then a tune and, ya, probably fuel injectors but would see if after the tune as the stock ones may be able to push more fuel.

Ugh. SOO many uninformed people.

1) E-85 isn't corrosive because of the alcohol, it's because the alcohol absorbs water, and water is corrosive.
2) Most newer model cars have a plastic tank. These hold up the best!
3) For the most part the common fuel lines will hold up. But the aluminum hard lines won't be perfect. Stainless is much preferred but spendy. Also consider all the connectors from flex to hard lines.
4) Most fuel pumps will fail with E-85 if not designed for it.

E-85 can be run time to time with no ill effect, but if it is run strictly for a longer period of time, it WILL do damage to a stock vehicle not equipped for it.

Do some legitimate research on things like fuel selection, don't go off what people on a forum say.....

Also, every O-ring and seal in the fuel system would need to be regularly checked during these periods.

Miller wrote:Ugh. SOO many uninformed people.

1) E-85 isn't corrosive because of the alcohol, it's because the alcohol absorbs water, and water is corrosive.
2) Most newer model cars have a plastic tank. These hold up the best!
3) For the most part the common fuel lines will hold up. But the aluminum hard lines won't be perfect. Stainless is much preferred but spendy. Also consider all the connectors from flex to hard lines.
4) Most fuel pumps will fail with E-85 if not designed for it.

E-85 can be run time to time with no ill effect, but if it is run strictly for a longer period of time, it WILL do damage to a stock vehicle not equipped for it.

Do some legitimate research on things like fuel selection, don't go off what people on a forum say.....

ur kind of a prick....just saying and if were not supposed to go off what people say on a forum..haha then y the f would we listen to u...haha way to contradict youself...hahaha

It's not contradicting yourself. I don't think you should go off just what I say. I've seen first hand what different mixtures of ethanol and fuel do to just fuel pumps in as short of periods as a few hundred hours of cycle time. At school hear we are huge into studying ethanol and it is one of our main focuses of the Automotive Engineering Technology dept.

I just get annoyed with "I think it's just bigger injectors and a tune" that is so ridiculously prevalent in forums.

Miller wrote:It's not contradicting yourself. I don't think you should go off just what I say. I've seen first hand what different mixtures of ethanol and fuel do to just fuel pumps in as short of periods as a few hundred hours of cycle time. At school hear we are huge into studying ethanol and it is one of our main focuses of the Automotive Engineering Technology dept.

I just get annoyed with "I think it's just bigger injectors and a tune" that is so ridiculously prevalent in forums.

i dont even know where to start or end on this one...so i wont

Ya not sure where to start myself but... so by fuel lines i did mean the rubber ones, my bad i did not clarify. So if the water is corrosive then yes e85 is still corrosive so it's not due to alcohol but water.. if the seals need to be changed also then there you go, something else to change( ie more dough). Ethanal creates less power(layman's term by the way for energy) so to get the same performance yes you may need bigger infectors, or at least turn the stockers up, and then a tune to modify the a/f so it is not to rich( or one could say lean). But you will not know until it is dyno'd to see which way,or what, needs to be done. So yes, a lot needs to be done to make the car run on e85 and yes it will run on e85 without mods but i assumed the question pertained to having the car "run" reliably and close to factory specs/performance.

Todays cars can handle e85 without a problem. All fuel systems are designed with ethanol in mind (most fuels contain 10%). the only weak link is the steel fuel line itself, which really isn't much of a weak link, regular gas also absorbs water and it runs through the same line. the only thing with the fuel system is you may find yourself needing to change filters more often.
fuel pump is good to go (plastic) and orings (neoprene) are also.

on a stock motor with no mods the stock injectors will be good, altho close to their limit. if having a performance tune done, then up the injector size. It's always a good rule of thumb to up them for good insurance, some engines react differently to a different type of fuel.

Ask yourself this, everyone, how does/could water get into the fuel?
Odds are by researching the answer to that question you'll find that most any OBD-0 or newer vehicle can be switched over to Ethanol based fuel with little trouble.
*hint: pay attention to the EVAP system

The term you're looking for is 'Galvanic Corrosion'. It's a corrosion process that takes place when electricity comes in contact with dissimilar metals. Gasoline does not conduct electricity while Alcohol does, thus Galvanic Corrosion can be an issue if the fuel system parts are not all the same type of metal. It is not an instant death situation though. It's a slow build-up over time and will vary based on the state of charge of the Ethanol.
Water has nothing to do with failures FYI.

Sorta good read, http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article ... ymore.aspx

And all the current Ethanol facts I've been able to put together, http://www.ricekiller.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82298

Another term you may with to use for research is 'gasohol'. Only reason I knew of it was because my grandfather was a big supporter of it and had all sorts of info on it. Sadly I was too young to keep any of it after he passed away (20 some odd years ago).

I figured I'd put my 2 cents in here, since I'm the only one that I know of thats been running a Zetec for 3 years on PURELY E85 (40,0000 miles)
Almost NO regular gas (E10)

My motor is almost completely stock except for the retune for E85 (with diablo chip and tune from HiTech Motorsport)

Here are my findings in my ongoing zetec/ethanol experimentation:

E85 definitely outperforms gas in regards to power

Gas mileage is about 10% less

E85 naysayers are FUD spreaders

Problems:
My car is not perfect, it has some mystery symptoms, I don't know if they are from E85 or just because it is a Focus.

Mystery problem 1: sporadic coolant leek ( I can't see how this is possibly E85 related; but it is a mystery)
Mystery problem 2: Car will die at low idle completely at random. This started this summer, so it could be vapor lock, or the fuel pump is getting eaten away, or e85 is clogging up fuel filter with junk the ethanol is eating. Car will restart with no problem.
Mystery problem 3: Often get a "O2 sensor stuck lean" error code. I've changed the O2 sensors multiple times to no avail.

Either way, It took over 2 years for E85 to cause any problems. My car has almost a 100,000 hooned miles on it. The problems are more likely from hoonage than E85.

Full disclosure: the few mods I have done to the motor are: Larger diameter header, high performance cat, minor intake mods