Has anyone tried running E85 in their MM's? If so, what did you do to get it to run optimally?
E85 here is $1.99. Super runs from $3.30-$3.50. From what I've read, E85 is approx. 100-102 Octane. Super at altitude (5000 ft. + ASL) is 91. It stands to reason that there's a bit of a performance gain to be had by switching fuels, not to mention, a fill would be a bit cheaper.
The rub is the difference in the AF ratio. Pump crud is between 11-12:1, whereas alky fuels are between 7-9:1.
My car's not a daily driver, so the decline in fuel efficiency isn't a big deal. But with the difference in air-fuel ratio, just dumping a tank full into the car and romping on the pedal kinda concerns me. I'm hoping that the AF ratio can be changed by a simple change in programming and maybe optimized by larger injectors, and even further enhanced by installing colder plugs, but my knowledge base ends here and I'm a die hard member of the measure five times, cut once club.
Aside from a JLT air intake and a chip tune from the Xcalibrator2 programmer I bought from Lidio, my car is stock. I don't have the dough right now to install 4.10's, buy a real torque converter, and put in a high-flow exhaust, like I plan to, so in the meantime, I figured E85 might be a cheap thing to screw around with. Plus, it's cold, there's a ton of mag-chloride and sand on my favorite roads, and I've plum run out of projects (aside from the honey-do list) to keep me busy.
Any thoughts from the engine builder types?