E85 calibration

What ethanol actually buys you

E85 has a much higher effective octane and a far greater latent heat of vaporisation than pump gasoline. It cools the charge as it evaporates and resists detonation, which means a calibration can run more timing and more boost before knock becomes the limit. On a forced-induction engine that is often worth a substantial gain over the same car on 91.

None of that is free. Ethanol carries less energy per unit volume, so you need roughly 30% more of it to make the same power. Fuel economy falls accordingly, and your fuel system has to be able to flow it.

Where combinations run out

• Injectors at or near duty limit on gasoline will not have the headroom for E85
• Factory pumps and lines are frequently the real ceiling, not the injectors
• Ethanol content varies seasonally and by station — a calibration has to tolerate that
• Fuel left sitting in a car that is driven rarely is its own problem

We check the fuel system capacity before we take the job. If your combination cannot support E85 safely we will say so rather than write a calibration that depends on a pump that is already at the edge.

What we do and do not sell

We do the calibration. Flex-fuel and dedicated E85 calibrations, developed for your vehicle and your fuel system.

The E85 map is not extra. Every tune includes a pump gas map and an E85 map at the same price. Flex fuel — one calibration that adapts to any blend through a sensor — is $300 more, and the sensor has to be on the car before we write it. A flex calibration runs whatever is in the tank, so the fuel system has to be able to feed full E85. Packages and pricing

We do not sell conversion hardware. No pumps, injectors, lines or flex-fuel sensor kits. If your combination needs hardware to run ethanol, that work happens elsewhere and comes back to us for calibration.

The fuel we keep

We calibrate on Ignite ethanol and stock E85, E90 and E98 at the shop — a blend sold to a stated ethanol content, rather than pump E85 that moves with the season. Ignite Racing Fuel in Corona covers what each blend is for and why fuel cannot be shipped.

Where the tuning happens

The E85 map is included with every tune, alongside the pump gas map. Some vehicles are sent it on a DEFI RTD4. Others have to be here, on the Mainline ProHub, because their controllers cannot be reached remotely. Search your vehicle and the page will tell you which before you spend anything.