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i see, interesting...when i pulled my factory injectors for 600cc's when switching to e85, my factory injectors came out clean. when i pulled my 600cc's for new factory injectors the injectors did have some build up. nothing like yours though. surprisingly not much on the internet in regards to gunk build up due to e85.
i'm guessing that E85 being alcohol and alcohol being a solvent, wherever it is sprayed will stay cleaned. surrounding area's without a direct spray of e85 possibly becomes magnet to build up and gunk. just throwing out guesses here.
Well, here is what I did just so everyone is clear. I filled a 40mL vial with E85 and blew it dry with nitrogen gas and mild heating (about 150*F). After there was no fuel left, I placed it under high vacuum to remove any remaining volatiles for about an hour. I was left with a clear sticky residue that smelled bad - like nasty frying oil. I dissolved this sample in the NMR solvent and analyzed it and it IS the same goo that was on the injector. There was smaller amounts of some other stuff in it as well, but the same peaks I saw in the black goo were in this residue. The black goo IS coming from the E85. It isn't naturally black, though. I suspect it just has soot mixed in with it that is giving it the color.
So the next challenge is figuring out why is this crap in our fuel, and if it is in everyone's fuel (particularly people who aren't having this problem).
I found this out recently when I attempted to remove the gum deposits on my injector tips and intake valves with ethanol - no dice. With gasoline however, it cleaned up fairly easily. If putting gasoline through it from time to time does a good job of cleaning any buildup, that's a cheap remedy.
I had my injectors flow tested to gauge the effect of the gum around the tips. The performance of the injectors was unaffected, so that is good news.
As all available evidence indicates, the occurrence of the gum deposits seem to be vendor specific. I dispensed 2 gal of E85 from the suspect vendor, poured it into a bucket, and let it evaporate. As of now, there is less than 1/2 gallon remaining, and the liquid has gone from virtually clear to that dark amber tint characteristic of the gum. I'll post a photo when only the resin remains. Meanwhile, Drifto gets his E85 from a different vendor, and his engine seems to be clean.
supposedly how the e85 is produced affects things as well from what the forums are stating. cane sugar based e85 has a different level of varnish or gunk than corn based e85
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