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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 F10 Technical Topics Engine, Transmission, Exhaust, Drivetrain, ECU Software Modifications E85 Mix for higher octane?
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      01-19-2016, 12:53 AM   #1
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E85 Mix for higher octane?

I live in California and the highest octane at the pump is 91.

I usually mix 100 octane ($9/gal) + 91 to achieve higher octane.

I read somewhere that FenixMike uses a E85 + 91 mix in AZ to achieve higher octane. Which is very cost effective compared to 100/91 mix

I know they're myths that E85 corrodes parts of the fuel system, etc. but there are no facts to prove this in modern cars of the past 10 years. I'm also not trying to achieve a 50/50 mix or anything like that. I'm looking at maybe a 30/70 to reach 93 octane on the daily (actually 40/60 since pump gas contains up to 10% ethanol)

I'm also aware of the Toluene/Oil/Pump gas method to achieve higher octane but that's not cost effective nor worth the hassle.

Anyone else do the E85 + 91 mix or maybe FenixMike can shed some light on this more.
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      01-19-2016, 03:02 PM   #2
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I put in 6 gallons and the rest 91. I've had increase of performance and no check engine lights. I tried to push that limit and put 8 gallons and got the error. I experimented starting from 4 gallons and went up a gallon on each refill. Mpg's are crap as expected wth e85 mixes.
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      01-19-2016, 03:46 PM   #3
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So you should be around 96 Octane with that mix assuming you fill up with around 1 gallon left in the tank so that would leave a remaining 17 to be filled.

(FUEL Octane x # of Gallons) + (FUEL Octane x # of Gallons) Divided By Total Number of Gallons = Combined Fuel Octane

(105*6)+(91x11)/17=95.9
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      01-19-2016, 04:19 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BCK2BLN
So you should be around 96 Octane with that mix assuming you fill up with around 1 gallon left in the tank so that would leave a remaining 17 to be filled.

(FUEL Octane x # of Gallons) + (FUEL Octane x # of Gallons) Divided By Total Number of Gallons = Combined Fuel Octane

(105*6)+(91x11)/17=95.9
Roughly. I usually fill up when the warning goes off around 30 miles left. I've come to uncover that I have about 2 gallons left when this light goes off. Awesome math by the way.

My formula looks more like
(105*6)+(91*10)/16=96.25

But given I have 2 gallons in the tank it's more like:
(105*6)+(91*12)/18=95.6

So yeah roughly 95 octane. So like I said anything above 6 gallons of e85 mixed with 91 on oem hardware you'll throw errors. So 95 is about the highest when mixing that fuel combo on oem setup. I'm sure it will allow for higher when using toluene / race fuel / Torco.
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      01-23-2016, 02:28 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bmw doubles View Post
Roughly. I usually fill up when the warning goes off around 30 miles left. I've come to uncover that I have about 2 gallons left when this light goes off. Awesome math by the way.

My formula looks more like
(105*6)+(91*10)/16=96.25

But given I have 2 gallons in the tank it's more like:
(105*6)+(91*12)/18=95.6

So yeah roughly 95 octane. So like I said anything above 6 gallons of e85 mixed with 91 on oem hardware you'll throw errors. So 95 is about the highest when mixing that fuel combo on oem setup. I'm sure it will allow for higher when using toluene / race fuel / Torco.
Have you been able to dyno with and without E85 in the tank to see the gains?
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      01-23-2016, 05:16 PM   #6
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No, but if my rump-dyno was to guess it feels like a 10-15whp gain in mid to high range
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      01-23-2016, 07:03 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bmw doubles View Post
No, but if my rump-dyno was to guess it feels like a 10-15whp gain in mid to high range
What about with Torco?
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      01-23-2016, 07:45 PM   #8
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Torco has not gone down, yet.
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      01-26-2016, 11:17 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bmw doubles View Post
Torco has not gone down, yet.
Ebay sells for $20-22 for 20oz
I bought 6 for $120 i think
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      03-27-2019, 01:40 PM   #10
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old thread/
Can you run that e85 mixture without changing anything with the fuel system? lines or pumps?
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      03-27-2019, 01:47 PM   #11
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It depends if you have PWG or EWG... but PWG you can put more e85 mix... Looks like you have EWG so probably e20 is the max you could go... on stock pump
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      04-03-2019, 10:12 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SLVSRFR View Post
I live in California and the highest octane at the pump is 91.

I usually mix 100 octane ($9/gal) + 91 to achieve higher octane.

I read somewhere that FenixMike uses a E85 + 91 mix in AZ to achieve higher octane. Which is very cost effective compared to 100/91 mix

I know they're myths that E85 corrodes parts of the fuel system, etc. but there are no facts to prove this in modern cars of the past 10 years. I'm also not trying to achieve a 50/50 mix or anything like that. I'm looking at maybe a 30/70 to reach 93 octane on the daily (actually 40/60 since pump gas contains up to 10% ethanol)

I'm also aware of the Toluene/Oil/Pump gas method to achieve higher octane but that's not cost effective nor worth the hassle.

Anyone else do the E85 + 91 mix or maybe FenixMike can shed some light on this more.
Do your research, there are stations in SoCal where you are located with race fuel at the pumps...
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      04-04-2019, 11:45 AM   #13
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What about possibly running maybe E30 on a BMS stage 1? I'm still fairly new to the n55 platform. I come from a highly modified ms3 that was tuned for e85. I'm not as familiar with cars dumping in e85 that are not tuned for it.
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      04-05-2019, 04:08 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NinetyEight740 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by SLVSRFR View Post
I live in California and the highest octane at the pump is 91.

I usually mix 100 octane ($9/gal) + 91 to achieve higher octane.

I read somewhere that FenixMike uses a E85 + 91 mix in AZ to achieve higher octane. Which is very cost effective compared to 100/91 mix

I know they're myths that E85 corrodes parts of the fuel system, etc. but there are no facts to prove this in modern cars of the past 10 years. I'm also not trying to achieve a 50/50 mix or anything like that. I'm looking at maybe a 30/70 to reach 93 octane on the daily (actually 40/60 since pump gas contains up to 10% ethanol)

I'm also aware of the Toluene/Oil/Pump gas method to achieve higher octane but that's not cost effective nor worth the hassle.

Anyone else do the E85 + 91 mix or maybe FenixMike can shed some light on this more.
Do your research, there are stations in SoCal where you are located with race fuel at the pumps...
The second line of the post you quoted of my original post states that I originally mixed race fuel...(100 octane at $9 a gallon).

So I was already aware of that and was asking other members at the time their experience running E85 because it's cheaper than race fuel and the results are the same.
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      04-06-2019, 11:56 AM   #15
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I put 4 gallons E85 and rest 91 octane to achieve 93 octane. I just flashed to BM3 93 2H, car is much more responsive and burbles are massive.
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