E85 Fuel in any car

[Matthew]

on YouTube there is a video titled “E85 Ethanol Does not harm Non-FlexFueled Engines” and i was wondering if there is truth behind this. There is also a video on how Diesel in a gas engine dont harm it and vice versa that putting the right gas back in fixes any issues misfueling can cause.

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[Lorrin Barth]

I frequent a forum where many members run E85 in their cars. These are turbocharged cars and they do it to avoid knock. The cars do not come from the maker as flex fuel. So, what does one have to do to run E85 in these cars? The answer is three things: a larger capacity fuel pump, larger capacity fuel injectors and the ECU requires reprogramming. So, it is not so simple. BTW, one of the things you want in an ECU remapped for E85 is a fuel map for gasoline that you can toggle to for when you find yourself in a location with no E85.

Does E85 cause problems in these cars? Sometimes. The vehicles can be hard to start in cold weather. E85 from certain sources contains something that plugs fuel injectors. If a cylinder runs lean you can lose that cylinder. And finally, some tuners have allowed too much timing in a E85 tune, over stressing the rods in the engine.

I know of one car enthusiast who grows his own corn and got a license from the federal government to distill it for his car.

[Author]

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