E85Forum.com

wagram · Joined: 13 Feb 2011 Posts: 3

Hi, I'm living in france and get a V8 5.2 of 1997, need to know if I can put E85 instead of E95-E10 (new in france) cause one cost 0.85 € and the other around 1.50€ ?
If yes (what I thought) do I have to make any change : I get irridium spark plugs......Thanks for help

hotrod · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado

Welcome to the board wagram --

Could you give us a little more information, as your first post leaves me puzzled.

You live in France so I understand English is probably not your first language which certainly makes it difficult for you.

You mention you have --- "a V8 5.2 of 1997"
But you do not mention which car brand the engine is. It would help if you could tell us which manufacturer the car was made by.

You mention that in France there is currently a new fuel E95-E10.

This is confusing. Here in the U.S. E10 is a blend of 10% ethanol with 90% gasoline.
E95 over here would be a blend of 95% ethanol with just the minimum 5% gasoline blended to make it not subject to beverage alcohol taxes.

Here in America many of the newer cars will run mixtures of E85 and standard E10 gasoline with no modifications. Some tolerate up to 30% E85 and some higher blends without making any changes.

The best method to find out if that will work for you is to run some tests.

Start low with just 2 or 3 gallons of E85 mixed with your gasoline and see how the car behaves. If it performs normally, after a week of driving, you can increase the blend slightly. Keep doing that until you notice changes in how the car starts (cold starts will be more difficult) or a warning light on the dash telling you something is wrong.

Here in America we call that a check engine light. There is a code generated by the engine management system that you can have read by a professional to see what the reason is for the check engine light.

If it has an error message that reads something like "mixture too lean", that means you have reached the highest blend of E85 you can run in your car without making changes.

I use E85 blends in 3 of my cars, one is converted to run on E85 only the other two have never been changed from their stock configuration. One will accept about 30% E85 mixed with gasoline and the other will accept about 50% E85 with gasoline, but only when the weather is warm. In cold weather I use straight gasoline E10 in both.

Without knowing exactly what brand of car you drive, I would guess you can probably run a mixture of 20% to 30 % E85 blended with your gasoline.

European cars may behave a bit differently than cars built for the American market since we have been using ethanol blended gasoline for years in some areas of the country.

Go slowly and test as I describe above, but realize this is something you are doing at your own risk, and you need to be willing to accept dealing with some minor problems as you learn what you can and cannot do with your car. Watch closely for any problems like fuel line leaks, as some European market cars may not have ethanol compatible fuel lines.

Larry

wagram · Joined: 13 Feb 2011 Posts: 3

My Car is a Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 5.2.

Yes it's the E10 you get in USA.

Actually I get a Honda Civic 1.6 LSi of 2002 which get 70% of E85 and no check engine and it runs find except sometimes seems to get some "holes" when pushnig the right pedal......

hotrod · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado

The basic rule of thumb for converting American market cars to run on E85 is you need to increase fuel flow by about 30% over stock.

The easiest way to do that if they are available is to install fuel injectors rated at 1.3x the fuel flow of the stock injectors.

If that is not easy to do, then you have to investigate other options like piggy back systems that modify the injector pulse width or having someone reflash the engine management computer to change the fuel map. You can also increase fuel flow some by changing the fuel pressure with an aftermarket adjustable fuel pressure regulator.

There are several threads here on this forum where these modifications are discussed in detail, I suggest you do a search and read some of those threads.

Larry

wagram · Joined: 13 Feb 2011 Posts: 3

look again and some one ask me to put 35lb injectors ......and get a great new for grand Cherokee no need to reprogram fuel injection the system learn it by himself....