E85 on boosted miata?

[Turblowdmiata]

Picked up some new rc750 injectors and a megasquirt here soon

im looking at going to 12lbs of boost after it all in and going with e85 (as far as I know stock internals and gt2554 on a 1.6)

what are some pros and cons? What's needed? who can tune? Opinions?

im a broke 19 year old kid building a car on budget and I haven't learned everything yet

[wizzurp]

If you are broke and don't know what you are doing it will most likely not end well. You have plenty of injector and ecu for it to work. Make sure you have a quality fuel pump and enough maf resolution. If you don't know what you are doing and don't want to learn, pay someone to tune it, but like you said you are broke so that won't end well. Benefits of e85 are lower combustion temp, ability to run more timing, and more resistance to knock. Downsides are shitty fuel economy (more fuel required to make the same power) fuel saturation in oil, and its a pita to go long distances without planning or having a second map available to switch to for pump. 12psi on that turbo with a decent intercooler isn't difficult to tune for and to keep conservative. I have precision 680's and made 230 on 14psi with a t25/ethanol with a dinky ass intercooler/ horrible iats. Plenty of people around here will tune ms if you want to pay.

[rmonheim]

im a broke 19 year old kid building a car on budget

I know the feeling...

[wizzurp]

Is your car white with a bunch of stickers on the windshield?

[Robert]

If you are broke and don't know what you are doing it will most likely not end well.

+1
Don’t do it unless you are prepared to replace the motor and/or the trans. Not saying you will blow the motor or trans but a lot of people do when they go FI. If you have a backup car then go for it.

[slowchildmiata]

+1
Don’t do it unless you are prepared to replace the motor and/or the trans. Not saying you will blow the motor or trans but a lot of people do when they go FI. If you have a backup car then go for it.

THIS x10000!!! Shit WILL break especially if you go cheap.

[jrj512]

What's that saying... Cheap, fast, and reliable -- pick two.

[slowchildmiata]

What's that saying... Cheap, fast, and reliable -- pick two.

I'm not allowed to pick any?

[Turblowdmiata]

I didn't entirely build the car it's a pieced together kit with decent parts that i traded a stock auto civic i payed 800$ for with a blown head gasket and fixed

wizzurp yes it's the one with the stickers on it
it

motor still has 165-180lbs across the board not worried about the motor but I do have another one I'm working on building sitting in my shop I'm aware of the demand for fuel and am prepared to drop the 255 pump into it but I have never built a car for e85 but I've heard some good things about it but tuning for me is something I've never done and will probably pay someone to tune it for me or find a base map and tweak it a bit

[Turblowdmiata]

I've been doing side jobs today (fixing others cars) and will hopefully have enough for a mega squirt here soon I need to take these piggybacks out of my car I do appreciate the responses though I'm debating in e85 or not at the moment

[Rob®]

I got 130 miles per tank at most with E85 in my car. Be prepared for that. If you take trips, plan accordingly.

12psi from a GT25R is nothing. Your motor will be fine, assuming your tune is halfway decent. You'll have enough injector for sure. Get a Walbro 255 pump: your stock one is old at this point, don't risk it. And, if you get a real E85 tune, you'll be pushing a stocker to the higher bounds of its comfy point.

You'd need two tunes if you go E85: pump and E85. You will, just accept it. That's twice the tuning cost, just FYI. Unless you have a hookup, that's probably more than you will pay for the MS, especially if you get it secondhand (side note: this is why my LINK is not so badly priced -it already has a 1.6 pump and E85 tune on it). If you run around on just a basemap, especially on E85, you are silly.

[wizzurp]

Ok, I saw your car the other evening at the meet off 121, I think you were looking at mine too, black na off on the side. Basic tuning in a nutshell with a normal wideband isn't real hard, conservative wot keep it around 12.5 and under 13:1, idle/cruising around 16-17:1 on ethanol. Start with a stock timing map, get your fuel map situated and then you can dick with the timing. Only bad thing about our motors is a lack of knock sensor so no knock retard/enrich map to fall back on. If you knock you knock and you should be listening. Keep iat's under 130 if you can. It's not rocket science but its also not the most simple thing to do. I tuned a good bit of mine on the road and the rest on a load bearing dyno, I have an aem ems though. You will need a 255 or a 190 for sure, you shouldn't have the stock pump in currently anyways. If you want to learn I can show you around my ems sometime, concept for the ms is the same, just a different interface. Look up boost compensation tuning and that is my method, think safc on crack.

[wizzurp]

Lol, I get 150-170 a tank on ethanol! Yeah it sucks but the car smells better than on pump!

[Turblowdmiata]

Yes sir I saw yours there didn't realize that was yours hah though it was yellow?

Only getting about 180 miles out of a tank on 93 I'm running too rich maybe 10.5-11 far under boost but in piggy backs I might ask you about your maps and may ask for your help will go with a basemap and maybe tweak it a bit as needed I'm paying a guy 60$ to wire in my ms sensors and help me set up a map and will probably look for some advice from someone on goon to e85

[Turblowdmiata]

Also not sure what fuel pump I dought it's stock there's no way it would still be working but ill probably pull it soon to check

[wizzurp]

Your back bumper tells the whole story. Yes, front end was yellow, I sprayed it black a month or so back to match. Are you going to speed density or keeping the maf? I'm sd with a gm 3 bar map and a gm iat.

[Turblowdmiata]

Deleting the airflow meter and yes already planned on the 3bar and gm iat you need it for mega squirt I'm not sure about anything else

[wizzurp]

I'm gearing up to make mine go fast here soon >:}

[Turblowdmiata]

Haha it looks good! What are the plans?

at this point I'm just I'm just trying to get it tuned and running well so I can go from 8 to 12 lbs

[wizzurp]

You will pick up a good bit just getting a decent tune, it's clearly rich as shit. I'm going to a much larger turbo, some bigger injectors, new intercooler, external gate, etc.