Trouble Starting, E-85 + Warm Weather

[helloWorld]

Have any of you experienced noticeably longer cranks and struggling to stay on after cold starts when it is warm outside with E-85? I know its backwards since E-85 is supposed to have issue when it is cold outside. However, my car will cold-start beautifully when its 20 F outside.

When it was 75 F after work yesterday, it was the worse I have seen since I started running E-85 this winter. Starter motor had to run several more cycles before it started. The idle after cold start sounded terrible, you would think I had a cammed LS3 or something.

I put brand new OEM spark plugs in September 2015. I haven't checked their gap, but they should be .05. The injectors were brand new, put in December 2015.

 

[Tron84]

Have any of you experienced noticeably longer cranks and struggling to stay on after cold starts when it is warm outside with E-85? I know its backwards since E-85 is supposed to have issue when it is cold outside. However, my car will cold-start beautifully when its 20 F outside.

When it was 75 F after work yesterday, it was the worse I have seen since I started running E-85 this winter. Starter motor had to run several more cycles before it started. The idle after cold start sounded terrible, you would think I had a cammed LS3 or something.

I put brand new OEM spark plugs in September 2015. I haven't checked their gap, but they should be .05. The injectors were brand new, put in December 2015.

Since I switched to e-85 I've always had longer cranks time to start. Doesn't matter if it's warm or cold out or if the motor is warm or cold.
Every great once in a while on a cold start I get the f'ed up sounding start where the rpms go crazy and it sounds like it's running on a couple cylinders and sometimes backfiring, then it clears up after 10 seconds or so.
I've never been able to attribute it to certain ambient temps.
.05" seems way big for the gap, mine spec at .030"-.032" but I'm running boost.

 

[Jvibe92]

You need to do an idle relearn and kam reset

 

[helloWorld]

Thanks guys. I will try doing a kam reset, returning to stock, and then flashing my E-85 tune again this weekend. I will also check my spark plugs this weekend as well.

 

[kevin2970]

I have experienced longer cranks but that's normal on e85. But I have never had the weird idle after starting... Tune issue?

 

[helloWorld]

I did a KAM Reset, reflashed to stock, reflashed my E-85 tune, and did the 10 mile idle relearn. That fixed the problem!

However, I took it too far by bringing the gap on my plugs down to around .046" yesterday. I have already noticed that my car runs worse now, it feels down on power in the low RPM range. So, I will be regapping back up to around .050" or .055" soon.

 

[KILRSVT]

I have a little bit of an idle fluctuation for around 30 seconds then it smooths out....but my crank is a little longer . Overall i just feel the car runs so much better on E85 I switch to 91 for a while and I was just not happy.

 

[Blazer707@TBR]

I did a KAM Reset, reflashed to stock, reflashed my E-85 tune, and did the 10 mile idle relearn. That fixed the problem!

However, I took it too far by bringing the gap on my plugs down to around .046" yesterday. I have already noticed that my car runs worse now, it feels down on power in the low RPM range. So, I will be regapping back up to around .050" or .055" soon.

Spec is .049-.053 for your plugs. We usually go right in the middle at .051.

 

[helloWorld]

Thank You Blazer for that information. I didn't really do my research and for some reason I have thought that E-85 like a smaller gap. However, it seems that E-85 likes large gaps, at least on NA.

 

[Badlilstang]

About to do E85 with mine and curious your opinion on it and do you feel the power gain was worth it?

 

[SixPak]

+1
Thinking about switching over to E85 but not sure if the gains would be worth it my being NA. I have been told gains could be as low as 6-10whp and upwards as high as 20-30whp. Kind of a mixed bag. I have 93 tune, LT's and full exhaust but all else motor wise is stock.