Our E85 can cause injector black tar..(pics inside)

Pulled the injectors on the Evo today to send out for cleaning, didn’t expect to see this-

The AF ratio was fine, plugs looked great etc.

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.

Holy shit. Same sort of thing happens to bio diesel when it sits.

Interesting

ive seen a few cars that developed this over time. dont rly know why exactly tho

‘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.

Yikes, good thing you pulled them now. I’ve never seen this personally, though have never really messed with many e85 cars.

I post the ‘before’ cleaning flow numbers to see how ‘bad’ they are clogged. Most people say that it does not affect WOT much, just starting/cruise…?

Lol, yeah I wouldn’t put money on that :lol

I know, but so far the wideband agrees.

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.

gotta run some butter through them to clean up the corn.

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.

My tuner said to run a tank of 93 every third fill up for this reason.

My tuner said no such thing.

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?

I’m going to try something this year that ‘should help’.

The injectors got sent out for cleaning today. I’ll post the before/after flow numbers as soon as I get them.

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)

If anyone doesnt want to be bothered with switching tunes this season for the occasional 93/94 tankful, you could experiment with this:
http://www.lucasoil.com/products/display_products.sd?iid=335&catid=8&loc=show&headTitle=%20-%20Safeguard%26%238482%3B%20Ethanol%20Fuel%20Conditioner%20with%20Stabilizers

I love Lucas products. Never even seen that stuff before. I hope it is readily available at local stores.

I was reading that some people just change the tune on the g8’s and run the E85 through them with no problems, Is that a possibility?

Looks like it dude, Advance lists it in stock all over the area. I need oil for the truck anyhow, Ill stop by the CP one today and check it out.