Injectors stuck open E85

[Msm1984]

After a very hard night of driving my car all of a sudden start having a really rough idle and misfiring in the lower power band with some white smoke coming out of the exhaust and a strong gas/oil odor


I drove the car home as I was not that far away and spoke with my mechanic about what to do. I had to flush the rest of the E85 out of the car and flash back to 93 which would be easy since I had maybe a 1/4 tank left. I drove the car about 2 miles to go drain the tank and swap to 93 but the car completely broke down.

Turns out I ran out of gas somehow. I luckily had my laptop with me so pushed my car to the side of the road and flashed back to 93 while my friend went and brought me a couple gallons of gas. I put some gas in the car and drove to shell and filled the car up with 93 and some injector cleaner in there as well. Maybe it was just bad e85 even though I test my e85 every fill up. Couldn't be my plugs because they are brand new and gapped to 0.20 (97506)

Drove the car for a couple miles towards my mechanic to see if it got better and it just got worse. In about 10-15 miles I burned half a tank of 93.

My car ended up dying right outside of the mechanic who will be able to work on it Tuesday.


Throughout all of this I never had any CEL come on which was strange. The smell of gas was absolutely unbearable it was almost hard to breath.


I am wondering if the lucas ethanol cleaner i've been using contributed to this but will keep you guys updated

[hoobawhat?]

Keep us posted. I think I’m having the same issue. Fuel trims keep going negative and I’m getting bad stutters/misfires. I think my injectors are spraying too much fuel!

[Msm1984]

Originally Posted by hoobawhat?

Keep us posted. I think I’m having the same issue. Fuel trims keep going negative and I’m getting bad stutters/misfires. I think my injectors are spraying too much fuel!

Originally Posted by hoobawhat?

Keep us posted. I think I'm having the same issue. Fuel trims keep going negative and I'm getting bad stutters/misfires. I think my injectors are spraying too much fuel!

I will! Car will be looked at tomorrow

[mike@x-ph.com]

I am running a full E85 map by Cary Jordan without any problems.

I do remember he had a note in his map files where he recommends to fill up with 91/93 every year or so

[aBMWfan]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

I am running a full E85 map by Cary Jordan without any problems.

I do remember he had a note in his map files where he recommends to fill up with 91/93 every year or so

Hey Mike, are you saying just flush with 91 or 93 once a year? I was told every 3 fill-ups but that seems excessive to me.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by aBMWfan

Hey Mike, are you saying just flush with 91 or 93 once a year? I was told every 3 fill-ups but that seems excessive to me.

I honestly do not know for sure, but I remember reading about in Cary's map files.
He is an E85 expert, I'll tag him for help CaryTheLabelGuy

[aBMWfan]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

I honestly do not know for sure, but I remember reading about in Cary's map files.
He is an E85 expert, I'll tag him for help CaryTheLabelGuy

Yeah he tuned me recently did an awesome job!

[dcpatters]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

I honestly do not know for sure, but I remember reading about in Cary's map files.
He is an E85 expert, I'll tag him for help CaryTheLabelGuy

https://www.jordan-tuned.com/faq

I think this what you're after. Mid-way down the FAQ

"It is recommended you cycle a tank of pump gasoline through the fuel system AT LEAST once every 3 months or 3k miles. There are some good fuel system conditioners and stabilizers on the market from the name-brands and those are fine to run, however it’s still recommended to cycle a tank of pump gasoline through the system every 3 months or 3k miles at the very least."

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by dcpatters

https://www.jordan-tuned.com/faq

I think this what you're after. Mid-way down the FAQ

"It is recommended you cycle a tank of pump gasoline through the fuel system AT LEAST once every 3 months or 3k miles. There are some good fuel system conditioners and stabilizers on the market from the name-brands and those are fine to run, however it’s still recommended to cycle a tank of pump gasoline through the system every 3 months or 3k miles at the very least."

Thats it, thank you

[Msm1984]

Here are my plugs taken out.

They look good huh?

Also, all 6 injectors are ruined

[Shadow2]

How often do you use that Lucas ethanol cleaner? When was the last tank of 93 you ran through it?

[Msm1984]

Originally Posted by Shadow2

How often do you use that Lucas ethanol cleaner? When was the last tank of 93 you ran through it?

Every fill up of e85

3oz a tank

I run 93 every 5 tanks if e85

Nothing less than e80 was ever put in my car


Really hoping the cylinder walls aren't all scratched up to hell.

[bmwmike335]

Originally Posted by Msm1984

Here are my plugs taken out.

They look good huh?

Also, all 6 injectors are ruined

How old / new are those plugs? did you scan it for codes was there anything about misfired or mass air flow getting too much air?

[Msm1984]

Originally Posted by bmwmike335

How old / new are those plugs? did you scan it for codes was there anything about misfired or mass air flow getting too much air?

500 miles on the plugs and no codes

[Msm1984]

Looks like jpipe was completely filled with gas

[dcpatters]

Originally Posted by Msm1984

Looks like jpipe was completely filled with gas

What kind of tune are you running? Custom E85? How bad were your STFT / LTFT?

[Msm1984]

Originally Posted by dcpatters

What kind of tune are you running? Custom E85? How bad were your STFT / LTFT?

Custom E85 and idk yet

[theweebabySeamus]

Its odd that at least 5 of your six injectors failed at the same time. I know they can go together or one bank at a time but Im surprised at teh sudden onset on all of them.

[Msm1984]

Car is fixed.


All injectors plugs and 02 sensors had to be replaced. Will not be running E85 anymore. Not worth the hassle to change oil every 3k miles ( 150$ ) and plugs every 4k miles (100-500$ depending if dyi or not ) especially if you drive a lot.


I did everything right. Tested E85 every single fill up. It was always clean as a whistle and never below E80. I never went below half a tank to keep it as full as possible and would switch to 93 every 3 fill ups.

New spark plugs were put in at the beginning of the tuning process as well and gapped accordingly.

Imho, custom 93 tune with FBO is the way to go.

[BzsBimmer]

Wow. I don’t know how many people change oil and plugs at those intervals running E85...?

[MuffinFlavored]

Originally Posted by Msm1984

Car is fixed.


All injectors plugs and 02 sensors had to be replaced. Will not be running E85 anymore. Not worth the hassle to change oil every 3k miles ( 150$ ) and plugs every 4k miles (100-500$ depending if dyi or not ) especially if you drive a lot.


I did everything right. Tested E85 every single fill up. It was always clean as a whistle and never below E80. I never went below half a tank to keep it as full as possible and would switch to 93 every 3 fill ups.

New spark plugs were put in at the beginning of the tuning process as well and gapped accordingly.

Imho, custom 93 tune with FBO is the way to go.

how much power are you giving up going back to 93 from e85?

[Commanderwiggin]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

Wow. I don’t know how many people change oil and plugs at those intervals running E85...?

Those intervals are definitely on the extreme side. Generally oil change intervals are cut in half but plugs are the same interval.