Originally Posted by dailydriver
Originally Posted by RDY4WAR
Another factor is the spark plugs used with ethanol fuel. Ethanol absorbs a lot of heat so a hotter plug is necessary to keep it clean. A common mistake in the racing world is people will run E85 at .82 lambda and -9 or -10 NGK plugs trying to tune it like a gas engine, then they get fouled plugs, hard starts, and hesitation. Running them on -7 plugs and .70 lambda netted more power and cleaner burn. It's a highly oxygenated fuel so you can't treat it like gasoline.
IF this above is truly the case, then the tuners on the Fiesta Forums had better wake up, since they ALL, to a ONE, tell their customers that one step colder plugs are REQUISITE for all of their tunes, yes, even the E30 and E40 ones.
(But these apps/tunes are for open tracking/road race, or street use on factory 10.1:1 comp ratio engines running higher boost, NOT staging lane warm-up only, drag race use, so maybe that is the difference?
)
I had a lengthy discussion with one of the reputable (if not the most reputable) tuners in the FoST/FiST community about why they suggest that. He said the only reason they suggest that is because when people switch to E85, they also tend to turn up the boost, so they're just trying to CYA. In their competition race cars, they run 1-2 steps hotter than comparable with stock, but they know exactly what they're going to do with it. E85 is more forgiving than gasoline.