Hi guys Been cruising my VL around with its new setup,for about a month now, running E85 and cant really complain but i do have a few questions.... On cold starts, after sitting idle for a few minutes i notice water drippng out of one of my exhaust flanges under the car, not much maybe only 10 droplets max.. also a bit steamy out of the exhaust. Only happens after a dead cold start, and the water is definantley not coming from my cooling system. Also i noticed approx 50mL of what looks to be water in my catch can, smelt like metho though Any ideas? Has it anything to do with the hydroscopic qualities of ethanol, anyone experience similar things?

Yeah man mines the same... makes steam out of the exhaust, but like you've mentioned I think its due to the amout of water in the fuel... comes out hot, cools down, etc etc.. Doesn't last for long... I also only get a small amount of water in the bottom of my catch can, put this down to condensation... its pretty insignificant.. but yeh take the oil filler cap off and smell inside your rocker cover too... haha Ethanol... it's actually not too bad... I've been running it for over a year now, and doing lots of monitoring of general things which have in the past been raised as reasons not to get on this gear... but still nothing of concern... filters are sweet, pumps are sweet, lines and fittings, no corrosion, plugs are always clean... cant fault the stuff Peace Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Yeah thanks for that, eases my mind I cant fault the stuff either, i originally set my car up for methanol, so all my lines, fittings are sweet. I love the smell of the stuff! Cheers for that

Same. Water out of exhaust cold start BUT NO BLACK SH*T Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Ethanol will combust to form water (in gaseous form).

Quote: Originally Posted by exchaser [View Post] Yeah man mines the same... makes steam out of the exhaust, but like you've mentioned I think its due to the amout of water in the fuel... comes out hot, cools down, etc etc.. Doesn't last for long... I also only get a small amount of water in the bottom of my catch can, put this down to condensation... its pretty insignificant.. but yeh take the oil filler cap off and smell inside your rocker cover too... haha Ethanol... it's actually not too bad... I've been running it for over a year now, and doing lots of monitoring of general things which have in the past been raised as reasons not to get on this gear... but still nothing of concern... filters are sweet, pumps are sweet, lines and fittings, no corrosion, plugs are always clean... cant fault the stuff Peace Couldnt agree more I've been using it for almost 2 years and mine has all the same concerns.absolutely love the stuff lol Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Like Stu said, water is a byproduct of combusting alcohol.

probably dont need to post but yep mine is the same... been running it for almost 2 years now... all sweet.

How often do you guys change your oil running e85?

I change mine in the same intervals as I used to running pump, which is still probably more than your average joe, but cheap insurance when ur making about 500rwhp with a n/a bottom end haha Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by exchaser [View Post] I change mine in the same intervals as I used to running pump, which is still probably more than your average joe, but cheap insurance when ur making about 500rwhp with a n/a bottom end haha yeah i was just thinking along the line of it messing up the oil like a methanol car dose. Thats excellent power man what boost did you make that on ? Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Yeah, like the others have said, the water is a result of burning the fuel. Quick chemistry lesson - a hydrocarbon fuel like petrol or a carbohydrate like alcohol has carbon & hydrogen. (Okay, so the alcohol has oxygen too, but anyway...) The carbon burns with oxygen to make CO2 and the hydrogen burns with oxygen to make H20. Carbon dioxide and water. Normally you can't see the water portion because it is very hot and so an invisible vapour but on a cold day you can see the water droplets (looks like steam) choofing out the pipe if the pipe etc is still cold and cools off the exhaust gases enough.

mine does 500.4rwhp on 28psi to compare

30psi..... I've heard of a few people using a bit of upper cylinder head lubricant in their mix too.... And then there are soon to be biofuel specific oils. But at the moment I'm still just changing as I used too, I'm not really noticing any milky oil or signs of the oil thinning to suggest it weakens the oil as you lose some past the rings.

Someone on supraforums.com, ran a test with his oil and E85, got it lab tested and it didn't seem to break it down at all cheers darren

what gains would you expect over using 98... say if you made 300rwkw on 98 what would e85 go?

how long is a piece of string?? Is it true that the stuff we are getting is the (lower grade e85) and not the real stuff? I hope so, that means there is only better fuel to come

it just means you can screw more into your set-up. the fuel wont make the power, it just allows you to run more timing/boost etc etc like race fuel does... if you have a good tuner it will do wonders... im quite impressed with that mines achieved for a relatively basic set-up

Quote: Originally Posted by 7FOUR7 [View Post] how long is a piece of string?? Is it true that the stuff we are getting is the (lower grade e85) and not the real stuff? I hope so, that means there is only better fuel to come anyone?

Quote: Originally Posted by 7FOUR7 [View Post] anyone? Doesnt really matter man the stuff we got is awesome as is and the results speak for themselves. Ive been running e flex in mine and it still runs awesome. If something better does come here then im sure people using e 85 will lap it up