Combustion chamber deterioration, im at a loss.

[EATONU]

One issue after another has brought me to a full rebuild, pulled my heads off last night to find a weird corrosion pattern along 6 of 8 cylinders. Looks like a crack but its actually aluminum missing along the edge of the head gasket ring.

I'm pointing at e85 being the cause. But maybe a pump gas guy has seen this ?

 

[Avispa]

I can understand why you'd think E85 might be the cause - the place where the pitting happened is the coldest part of the combustion chamber. I doubt that's what it is, though. It's more likely a not so well sealing head gasket. Had a big block Chevy motor once burn a channel in the head surface between the last two cylinders on the driver's side. They were iron heads and this was in 1988 when there wasn't even ethanol in gasoline, let alone E85. You might be able to save the head if your friendly machinist can weld some metal into the affected area and then resurface the head deck. Back in the day, the head I had to deal with could be replaced cheaper than fixing it, so that's what I did.

Check out the price on both options and then get some good gaskets to avoid this in the future.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Interesting. That looks like the head was splitting apart but I guess it was just aluminum been eroded away from that spot.

 

[EATONU]

Bump. No one has ever seen this??

 

[SlowSVT]

E85 is corrosive to aluminum

 

[MalcolmV8]

E85 is corrosive to aluminum

E85 is a mixture of gasoline and ethanol. Neither of which is corrosive. It is however hygroscopic which means it'll attract moisture when left sitting (like in your gas tank) and that can cause some corrosion. The E85 however isn't corroding anything.
I don't see how that could happen inside a combustion chamber though. There is no E85 in large liquid quantities sitting there.

 

[SlowSVT]

E85 is a mixture of gasoline and ethanol. Neither of which is corrosive. It is however hygroscopic which means it'll attract moisture when left sitting (like in your gas tank) and that can cause some corrosion. The E85 however isn't corroding anything.
I don't see how that could happen inside a combustion chamber though. There is no E85 in large liquid quantities sitting there.

Not like methanol I agree but something tells me E85 played a role in the corrosion taking place at the gasket line in the squench chamber.

 

[Mystic03]

interesting...but you had no other reasons to pull the heads other than irregular scuffs?

 

[c6zhombre]

I would think if E85 was truly at fault eating away from the inside like that, my car would be in serious trouble by now. It's been running E85 on the factory untouched motor since 2009. It dynoed 714 to the wheel 5 years apart (2009 and 2013). This is 04sleepers "old" car