MK7 R/8V S3 Stage 2 with E85 blend
We’ve been getting lots of enquiries regarding blending E85 lately so we thought a brief explanation on what its all about would help anyone looking into it. There’s plenty of information online regarding E85 but we hope this case study can help.
E85 (85% ethanol ,15% unleaded) has become very popular to blend with normal 98 octane premium unleaded fuel for people chasing maximum power. The process is done by filling your tank up with both 98 and E85 making a “blend” (further blending E85) and depending on how much of each you use it will change the ethanol percentage so you may end up with a E30 blend or if you add a little more E85 a E50 blend and so forth. E85 has an octane of 105-108 depending on where you buy it from, it burns much cooler which means your engine runs cooler, turbocharger runs cooler therefore enabling the engine to run more efficiently. What does this mean? It means we’re safely able to run much more ignition timing and/or boost levels to achieve far greater power.
So why not run just straight E85? Unfortunately E85 requires approximately 30% more fuel flow to achieve the air fuel ratio we need to produce the same power when using 98 unleaded so to utilize the factory fuel system we need to lower the ethanol content to find the balance of fuel flow, air fuel ratio and of course power output.
As you can see the results speak for themselves adding 25-30kw to all 4 wheels on this 8V S3 making it a real weapon on the street. We’re excited to get this to the track, stay tuned.
