I have owned many turbo cars. Some fully tuned on E85 and some I've used a mix of around 70% to 30%. (70 being 92 octane and 30 being E85).
My question is, is my 2002 mini cooper S capable of running a 70 to 30 mix or an 80 to 20 mix? Now keep in mind for those of you that don't know; The 'E' stands for Ethenol fuel. Which has an octane rating of about 100-105.

 

With a custom tune and bigger injectors, yes...it has been done...
Issue is you cannot change maps for different mixes without parking car to change the ecu software to match your fuel mix to one you made on a dyno.....so if you go to a standalone ecu or ALWAYS run the same mix, you can do it...
Issue is stock injectors are hard pressed with e10....never mind stronger...they are actually undersized for the stock cars or very close to getting maxed out...
Biggest issue...engine parts are $$...so a "accident" gets $$$$ to fix....

 

I'm not looking to push more fuel (say for more boost). Just to have the mix of about E42 or E38 to burn a little cooler and a little faster. Do you know the duty cycle of stock injectors?

 

So our fuel systems are only designed to run max E10? Maybe fine to run a low mix for a while. But long term is probably gonna cause $$$ problems down the road.. okay. I think I got the answer..

man these cars are so sensitive haha..my eagle talon looooooooooved the E85 mix..go figure.

 

Anytime you run ethanol products you need to increase the amount of fuel sprayed due to ethanol being a less efficient fuel. IE if you have 200 hp gas engine it will take ~15% more fuel to make that exact same horsepower with ethanol. So if you want to add any significant amount of E to your car you really need a custom tune and injectors. If your car was bone stock the factory injectors might be able to keep up if the tune was right but what would be the point of a custom tune with stock power levels.

 

The Cooper S fuel issue has been kicked around ad nauseum for years. The result of deviating from recommended fuel is parts replacement at the owner's expense.
Three pages to help steer clear of damaged engine parts:
http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html


http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5vA...U1k/edit?pli=1

 

BMW is already saying their cars cannot run on E15 which is what some states/boards/politicians or someone are pushing for... It's going to get ugly down the road once they do start putting more ethanol in. Will be worse then the good ole days of Leaded and Unleaded taking over, I believe...

 

I wish everybody including those politicians and bureaucrats could see Louis Black expound on the idiocy of turning "FOOD INTO FUEL!!"

 

Funny thing is...
Fertilizers are pertrolum based....
Tractor fuel...note..it is an DIRTY OFF ROAD MOTOR...LOTS OF POLUTION...
Then transporting both....AND add the destruction of areas to farm, water use, run off...
Amazing ethanol is still in wide use...you are littetly helping a person STARVE so you can drive...
Can I add a car burning ethanol actually ploutes MORE that one with clean gasoline... And the ethanol distribution is done by barge and truck...again, less efficient... And FUEL is consumed...pipelines are efficient, but ethanol corrodes them...so it is not transported that way....
Ethanol has it place...Brazil with sugarcane found a way (excess sugar cause we use corn syrup now).....and in performance cars, yes, it can be great...but in most cars...the fact it is corrosive, and needs to be pumped at higher volumes to get the same btu's cause issues...
End rant...

 

Every car should be a race car....but alas, in 20-30 years we will all be racing in killowatts

 

Might be interesting ...100% tq from start...
If the market says a product is good...and it makes sense...great.
My general rant was just cause the policy's of ethanol are pretty crazy.....Really distorts the market...
In turbo cars set up to run...it CAN do neat stuff...SABB a few years ago was showing it off..
But sabb was the ONLY non us car maker dabbling in ethanol to my knowledge...without sbbdizies....it makes little sense anywhere in the world...