E85Forum.com

wndsofchng06 · Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Manassas, VA

Hi all! I am new to the forum. I recently let my trusty diesel suburban go as she was falling apart. I bought a Ram with 5.2 magnum v8. The whole point of the diesel suburban was to start biodiesel. Now I drive a gasser and was hoping to get some idea on the sucess of E85/FF conversion for the dodge 5.2. Anyone have any good information on this? These kits sold online seem too good to be true. Is it really that easy? Is it dependable? I have driven fleet trucks made to run FF/e85 and they seem fine, but I've never seen one aftermarket converted. Please help?

Alcohol · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 634 Location: Central Wisconsin

Winds- do you plan to tow heavy loads or otherwise run wide open throttle?

If not- depending on the the condition and capacity of the fuel pump, filter, and injectors a conversion kit might do just fine. A lot of people run them and have had good luck with them. They basically just lengthen the pulse time based on the normal ECU signal sent. If you plan to tow or the fuel system is marginally adequate for gas then you might be pushing your luck. The kit- by adding to the injector pulse time keeps the PCM happy because it sees the O2 sensor is seeing a stoich condition, thus the PCM never sets a check engine light. If a light for lean code or misfire does come on then you may not have enough fuel flow due to pump size or condition, dirty filter, or severely undersized injector. You should not drive it in that condition.

Most guys on this website changed out fuel injectors instead of going the kit route- plus in some cases they played with fuel pressures and/or remapping the PCM. A high % of the guys on this site are carb'ed.

Over at Planet E85 ; http://e85vehicles.com/e85/index.php several guys went the kit route so if that is the direction you are thinking you could ALSO post there.

In general for starters what I have seen folks do is work slowly upwards from, lets say 25% alc to 35% to 45% until they either see a check engine light or long term fuel trims in the PCM are getting too high- then they quickly add enough gasoline to go back to the previous level that did not set a code. At that point you have a general idea of how well sized the fuel capacities are. Change your in-line fuel filter (if the Ram has had dirty gas in it before or quite a bit of non-ethanol gas before)--now retest the previous level that set the code. If you set a code at 35% alcohol then you may approach this different than if you set a code at 70% alcohol.

Be aware that with either kits or injector upsize cold starts will generally be more of an issue than a factory FFV due to the factory cold start enrichment programing. This may not be a concern if you are in the south and MIGHT be a concern up north. In general the kit mod guys claim decent mpg unlike SOME factory FFV's.

wndsofchng06 · Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Manassas, VA

Thanks! Great info. The truck runs great as is. Lots of pep and never misses a lick. I do tow a boat (~4,000lbs) durring the summer. The kits seem easy enough and I think I'd go that route before trying to adjust PCM's and stuff on my own. My big worry is the rubber parts.....will I be replacing hoses, seals, etc soon after running more ethanol? Also will it generally still pass emissions inspection?

Thanks

MichaelFoster · Joined: 08 Apr 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Los Angeles

I dont know if its possible to convert it. Because I haven't tried it but I heard that there are some who did the same thing.
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