The band aid fix is an occasional tank of 93. Previous to this, the car saw about 4000 miles of just E85. All from exit 23 (same supplier as Albany area).
My tuner is giving me a safe 93 tune, and I’m going to drive the car to work and back (140 miles) once a month on 93 octane.
‘something’ happens to the E85 when it’s at the station. We just don’t know what. A chemist was able to replicate it with E85 from a station, but not directly from the fuel mfg.
Back in CA I had a set of injectors do the same thing, since then I make every third tank 93 when I am running e85. The first time I saw it I was pulling apart my engine after it melted the #2 piston.
I will check my injectors when I get back to the house. I will post pics as well. The have had E85 ran thru for over 5k now. I hope they look a little better.
Is this a biproduct of the fuel itself or possibly the fuel mixing with bypass gasses in the intake from PCV? If its only on the tip then its probably safe to keep running them.
IDK how good or bad they are for a high perf vehicle, but would running some sort of cleaner/octane booster every tank, every other/thrid tank help rather then throwing in 93?
Any speculation if this is an application-specific issue, something with that station or just an inevitable long-term e85 drawback? Looking into this briefly tonight, its coming up in mostly boosted engines (and mostly dsm’s at that, although that probably has more to do with the widespread e85 usage in that community). Could the cycle of going from boost/higher charge temps to off-boost/cooler charge be bringing crap out of suspension and almost “baking” it to the tips?
FWIW, I did about 2000 miles last year on e85, mostly from the Cumby Farms on 146, injectors were spotless last month when I popped them out of the throttlebodies (obvious NA engine here)