Is our fuel system even compatible with 100% ethanol? I could be wrong, but don't a lot of cars have to replace or upgrade many of the components in their fuel systems because the seals that are made for gasoline basically get eaten away by ethanol? Like fuel lines, seals, pumps, etc - a lot of these that are fine for gasoline won't be for straight ethanol. Or at least that used to be the case. My buddy in his GTR just went through that I think...

 

I highly doubt it. I was using e85 in my 335i and I replaced the lines with braided as e85 kills the fuel lines, and had to upgrade my pump to an e85 one from FUEL IT

 

Based on the picture, this looks to be similar to a meth injection kit in terms of plug and play w injection pre throttle bodies and control via the dme?

 

V6 is a free upgrade for current Eurocharged owners right?

 

They have a reflash fee now, even if you bought when there was the free lifetime reflashes.

 

I believe the fee is $30, can someone confirm this?

 

Great question - and I'm glad it came up

First thing to point out is that while most will be running "E85", an important takeaway is that "E85" is simply a marketing term (meant to indicate 85% Ethanol)... most "E85" is only in truth only between about 51%, and 81%... with the remainder being regular 91/93 octane gasoline. In fact 100% would be hard to ignite on a street car... so unless you are committed to running an E98 or something exotic like "Ignite Red" (which is, you guessed it, 90% + race fuel) you won't be getting close to 100% realistically.

The W204 platform has been equipped with Flex Fuel from the factory (C300's obviously not many in the USA, but very common overseas, i.e. Brazil), this means that having Ethanol safe components would be a necessity. Also, many current vehicles, including the W205 C63s have an Ethanol sensor from the factory in these countries.

A friend literally just sent me this picture yesterday, just to give you an idea of what fuel manufacturers have to say about it.

One thing to note is that special consideration must be made when thinking about the fuel delivery capacity of a given system. Its known that the BMW's that you are talking about are pretty tapped out when it comes to the fuel delivery, and that's why larger injectors, bigger pumps are required. Incompatibility with the fuel isn't an issue. To be honest, the fuel you have in your car RIGHT NOW (except for that one smart alec with race gas) has a MINIMUM of 9% Ethanol in it... in most cases its more, up to 14-15%...

With all that being said, we have personally run Ethanol for years on an E55, and its been in the C63 for months with no issues. It is also in several BMW's, including an M3 which has had the original prototype for two years. (including a stint where it sat in the garage for 4 months with e75 (75%) in the tank. That car still runs perfectly.

It's clear that auto manufacturers have known about Ethanol for a long time, and since fuel has had Ethanol in it since the early 90's, it certainly makes sense that the fuel systems they put in their cars would be compatible with it.

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but there has been A TON of mis-information circulated about Ethanol for years, mostly because of the threat to profits of oil companies... it is not in their best interest to support anything that cuts into them... quite the opposite - it would be opposed heavily. Ill leave it at that

Thanks!

P.S. BLKROKT - I see your car sees some track duty - how would you like to lower your engine and oil temps by about 30 degrees? Ethanol WILL do that for you easily. With combustion temperatures 300+ degrees cooler than gasoline, it puts far less strain on the oil, the cooling system, and the engine as a whole... Just food for thought

 

Negative - While it can be considered "plug-n-play" it uses the stock fuel system and injectors, no injectors are added. Good question

 

I see. So, in canada where finding e85 is like coming accross a unicorn, this may not be an option for us in Ontario?

 

You can always buy it in drums/5gal pails and mix it yourself!

E85 being supplied at fuel stations (or not, as is your case) is usually due to the local demand. If you want to see more E85 become available, get all your buddies together, and talk to a local gas station owner, or start a FB page for it or something. I know it's available in Toronto, we have a kit headed up right now to be installed on a car at the Eurocharged there

 

Really. Im in the gta and as far as i know the closest station is 2 hrs away. I'll look into it.

 

Don't most people get worse gas mileage with e85? I don't care about mileage but with the small tank, I'm already filling up every other day. I can't imagine filling up every day. I do like power though...

 

Another GREAT question!

We have been compiling data on that subject exactly! The test car is getting about 330-350 miles per tank, and reports getting about 20MPG while driving normally, and down to 12MPG when he is beating it... Fuel cost has to be taken into consideration here, if you are buying 91/93oct - Ill just use myself as an example... E85 costs me $1.79/gallon, 91/93 is at about $2.62/gallon... So for example's sake, lets say I had to make a 1000 mile trip, and driving hard on E85, getting 12MPG, we'll burn about 83.3gallons, 83.3x1.79 = $149.16 in fuel costs for the trip using Ethanol. Now the same trip on 91/93oct - we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say 20MPG driving hard, which gives us a fuel usage of 50 gallons... 50x2.62= $131, so using this example, you spend about $18.16 more using Ethanol (use your own MPG to calculate for yourself). So in WORST CASE scenario, at $18.16 per 1k miles, and well just say 12K a year, you spend $220 more dollars to have WAY more power, a cleaner, less stressed engine, more fun, plus the SMELL! Burning Ethanol smells great

Thanks for the question

 

Too bad E85 not an option for me in HK!

 

Great news!

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Ethanol-Fuel

Easy...lol

 

Any options for M157 motors to run E85?

 

Not currently, the M157 is a direct injected motor so will require a different system. It's on the Horizon though!
The M157 vehicles have a ton of potential as it is. We offer tune/downpipes/turbos that can massively increase the power.

efiftyfizzle - what do you have done to you car now?

 

What about issues with cold start? I know some people have issues with cold starts on e85 in ofher platforms.

 

Great question - One of the reasons we have a kit being installed in Canada... doesn't always get cold enough in Texas to prove out such things

I will say that with Ignite Red 90% (other 10% is racing fuel) in the tank of the E55 (and 2 step colder plugs) that car has ZERO cold start problems. Tough to say, as the coldest cold start I have tried in only about 50 degrees... C63 test car has reported no cold start concerns, but the same temps apply since he only about 20 miles away.

Once we get some Canada weather testing in, we'll let you know!

The headers should be on the C63 in the next couple of weeks, so get excited for the numbers coming out of that car.. We will be trying to run it at the track before the weather turns on us as well to get some good fast passes in

Keep coming up with and asking these great questions, we want to be as thorough as we can before it goes full production! Obviously WE are very confident in it, see the results (as do our guinea pigs ). All we can really do is keep piling miles on the cars, getting great dyno/track results to show it off !

Thanks

 

I have just a tune right now, but I don't really see the big gains in upgraded turbos as far as track times. The software really limits these cars.

 

Yes. Yes. Yes.

What will be the cost to go from V5 to V6? And approximate cost of the E85 Flex kit?

Just got V5 from you guys 3 months ago and has made me love the car 10x as much!

 

My car has 74k on it. I'd imagine I'd have to replace the fuel filter shortly after starting to run ethanol as I've heard it cleans out any gunk that's estabilished itself and eventually clogs the filter. I heard that's a PIA to replace on the C63. Not sure I want to deal with that.

 

Wow very excited about this flex fuel thing. Never knew so much was to gain on an na car. Now the big question what is the cost estimate for it????? I really hope it's reasonable please. Also when do you think we could see this for sale as a final product??

 

Eurocharged this appears to be the flex system you are using correct? Are you rebranding it then? http://www.advancedfueldynamics.com/#
cost looks to be 999 on there site?

 

This is why we can't have nice things

Why don't you calm down a little bit and hold off on the detective work Sherlock and let them make the announcement when they're ready?