How cold can you start E85?

[EyesofThunder]

Well, my 94 Fleetwood LT1 has sat for 6 months now with a 3/4tank of summer blend E85. Took around 30 revs of the engine, but in 20F weather, she still started up and idled just fine.

Gotta love a well tuned E85 engine! And that engine has 250K miles on it! Untouched!

 

[novaderrik]

one of my friends runs nothing but E85 in his 2000-ish Chrysler minivan, and it starts right up for him at -20.
he also reports that his mileage is the same as with gas.

 

[MrMNTTA]

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/e8...262-e85-cold-starts-how-cold-starting-up.html

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/e85-technical-forum/252351-cold-start-problems-e85.html

Here's just a couple other threads about cold starting

 

[EyesofThunder]

I generally switch back to gas below 50F or so, mpg losses start to grow with the colder temps. Generally down to 13 mpg, from 15-17. This is a 10:1 iron headed LT1.

I was surprised that it started at all at 19-20F the other day, and that is after sitting for several months without starting at all, and I have summer blend in the tank.

As for E70, yes, I talked about them going down to E70 in the winter several years ago. I have found here, in Northern IL that my LTFT's never changed for the 9-10 months out of the year I had E85 in the tank. If they DID go to E70, your LTFT's would change drastically. They never did.

So I am thinking that now with modern E85 fuel creation they aren't needing to go with E70 (I honestly, even up north here have NEVER seen E70), that they can keep it still at E85. Remember, E85 is not 85% alky and 15 gasoline. It is 85% alky and 15% chemicals to make the fuel have a RVP as close to that of gas they can. It is NOT std pump gas, it is a special gas that has a very high RVP, in the effort to bring up the overall mixture to a RVP around 10 psi or so.

Guide to Federal and State Summer RVP Standards for Conventional Gas Only | Gasoline Fuels | US EPA
ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/solar.renewables/alt_over.pdf#page=58

 

[bsdlinux]

I have found that going to a 9 to 1 ratio helps alot below 40 degrees. At that temp I doubt you'll see a performance loss from the gas in there.

 

[EyesofThunder]

I let stock GM AFR over temp take care of it, no problems. Scales the AFR across the board perfectly. So I have GM factory drivability when cold and I don't have to fuss with changing anything else, just timing and injector flow rates, everything else then is scaled across the board perfectly.