allballz57 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 With the rising price of gas these days,and the fact that I just put 97 dollars in my tank today.Does anyone know if it is possible to convert our older trucks to E-85?I know you need bigger injectors to run it but what else do you need?Sure would be nice to be able to choose without going out and buying a new ride.I am sure plenty of guys on here would be willing to try the conversion if we figured it out!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allballz57 Posted May 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 I found this for anyone who is interested,looks like it is all in the tuning! http://www.makemycare85.com/00-05_gm_trucks.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detjoe Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 do older truck have the required 'space' in the PCM to add this tuning? E85 is like premium?? I would like to run it....just so I get get the flex fuel sticker:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 With your 60# injectors you could pull it off. The trick there though is to install the parts from an E85 equipped truck so that way if you didn't run the E85 (such as a damn fuel station near you being out of it) you could still run premium. Other than that you could just set your truck up to run only E85 rather easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drako Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 (edited) hmmm This is interesting, now will a e85 be just as quick as running premium. edit: e85 is rated at 100 octane, I am curious as to the tuning prospects of this. Not that it really matters to me there isnt even a e85 station in my whole state Edited May 23, 2007 by Drako (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 From what I understand you need to basically upsize the entire fuel system, then retune the PCM. Don't forget the in-tank fuel pump, the fuel pumps in E85 vehicles are larger capacity. Tuning-wise I am guessing (speaking from EFILive here) you just reprogram the stochiometric ratio, change it from 14.7:1 (gasoline) to whatever the desired ratio is for E85, it'll be lower but I don't know the exact number. Just remember that even though E85 fuel might be cheaper to purchase you will be using more of it (like propane) so it'll be interesting to see the actual operating costs per mile. Mr. P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonj87 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 OMG.. would this really work? if someone wanted to help me do it. id buy the stuff and be the test vehicle.. zippy.. what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 OMG.. would this really work?if someone wanted to help me do it. id buy the stuff and be the test vehicle.. zippy.. what do you think? In theory, sure. In practicality, it's probably not worth the expense. Figure new fuel pump, larger injectors, and tuning software just for starters, that alone is (my wild-assed guess) $1200 and then you're going to have to put in at least 40+ hours labor + tuning, probably double that unless you could buy a tune from someone who's already done this and even then you'll be massaging it into shape. For all the cost & labor involved to the average joe it's money ahead to just trade-in the truck. But we're not average joes. Mr. P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonj87 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 In theory, sure. In practicality, it's probably not worth the expense. Figure new fuel pump, larger injectors, and tuning software just for starters, that alone is (my wild-assed guess) $1200 and then you're going to have to put in at least 40+ hours labor + tuning, probably double that unless you could buy a tune from someone who's already done this and even then you'll be massaging it into shape. For all the cost & labor involved to the average joe it's money ahead to just trade-in the truck. But we're not average joes. Mr. P. well, i was planning on larger injectors anyhoo, so i take that cost out (allballz may still have me covered on that), and the fuel pump is just an extra for my future procharger plans, so i still consider that a wash on this experiment..and frank or zippy can retune.. i dont HAVE to buy the tuning software.. if its something that wont damage the engine, and is reversible, id certainly be the one to try it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonj87 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 my quick conversation with thier customer service.. Michael: What else do I need for my 2003 silverado SS to run E85? can it cause permennant damage? Customer Support: nothing else is needed your fuel system is already set up to handle it. no permanent damage Michael: so i just buy the 500 dollar kit, and install it? Customer Support: thats correct Michael: wow.. Michael: just plug and play right? Customer Support: yes Michael: i dont need to reprogram the PCM? Customer Support: takes less than an hour to install Customer Support: no, the kit takes care of that Michael: how does it take care of the PCM? im curious Customer Support: it makes changes to your cars computer as you use E85 Customer Support: it plugs into the computer Michael: but then i can burn regular fuel to? Customer Support: yes Michael: can i burn e85 and regular fuel at the same time? Customer Support: yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 The only hard part about setting your truck up for the E85 is the lack of the alcahol fuel sensor. Without that you'd be setting your truck up to run either gas or E85, but not be able to switch back and forth like a flex fuel vehicle such as mine. You could fairly easily add the E85 parts to your truck to be able to make it sense which fuel is running through the fuel lines, but it would cost a bit. If you have E85 stations near you, it would be great to run only the E85, especially with boost. E85 not only runs cooler, but it's also 105 octane. If you do some searching over at LS1Tech, you'll find quite a bit on people running it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 The only hard part about setting your truck up for the E85 is the lack of the alcahol fuel sensor. ...Yeah I forgot about that, without it you'd have to have 2 tunes, one dedicated to gas operation and the other dedicated to fueling with E85. Mr. P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonj87 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 so we hook up a switch to change tunes.. like the tow haul button Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS_bnoon_SS Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 (edited) so we hook up a switch to change tunes.. like the tow haul button No, the tow/haul button only changes shift points & pressure in the trans, no engine tuning can be changed by that button. I have run my SS on pure E85 a couple of times with altered tunes to see what would happen. Basically, the truck can handle the changes just fine to run E85 all of the time, but you've got to know how to log fuel and pay attention to the O2's pretty good too (wideband would be very nice here). You also have to pay attention to where your local E85 stations are. Here in Iowa, the price difference is even greater than most other states because Iowa doesn't tax the E85 nearly as hard as regular gas (because it's already good for Iowa's economy to buy crop based fuels). One thing that would help full time E85 on these trucks is higher compression (for NA anyway, boosted would like it just fine). With the 103-105 octane rating of E85 around here, it's just burning to slow at only 10:1 compression. I would like to see 11.5 or so to get the full benefit out of the slower burning fuel. A set of ported large valve 5.3 heads would work nice... I'll wait a few years for E85 to spread a little farther into the mainstream before going back to full E85 tune though. Just to scary to be caught without a laptop to retune in a bind... either that, or keep a few bottles of "White Lightning" in the bed! Edited May 23, 2007 by SS_bnoon_SS (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonj87 Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 cant you program the tow\haul button to do anything you want? like switch tunes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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