Chev/Holden 1.4L Cruze E85 FlexFuel Conversion

Here are two of my logs from a while ago in another thread. The first one shows a max. Delivered Torque of 183. Stock, I recorded 144. That is a gain of 39 torque (around 28% improvement). Max. Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure was 37.0 psi, subtracting Baro it is 22.4 PSI Boost (stock I saw around 14 PSI max).

In the second log I got 189 Torque, an over 31% improvement from what I saw stock. Boost was a tad lower, 21.5 PSI (36.1-14.6).

I believe these numbers to be accurate, judging from factory specs as well as from what several other tuners are seeing. You can definitely feel the power too.

Very little (no significant) knock both tunes, and much less than stock. Running 93 octane pump gas and 100% stock parts. Fuel economy remained very close to stock, in the low 30s average with light driving. Still making some improvements, really excited about the progress of the EFILive car as well.

I've finally got the tank of Premium100 down to a 1/4 (I won't be putting that in again), so I put some E85 back in and it's reporting 60% ethanol.
Also, it was only 99c cents per litre for E85 today, it's been a long, long time since I've seen the fuel amount tick over faster than the dollar amount.
I'll be doing a bit a highway driving on Sunday, so it'll be interesting what sort of highway fuel economy it'll get on 60% E85.

Your logs are interesting Boost, on our best premium unleaded we can't put more than 1 or 2 degrees of timing in to these engines at full throttle, I see you are getting away with 4 to 5, still without knock.
I'm currently running 8 to 9 on the E85 mixes with no knock.

Did a 200Km or so highway drive today, well, it was 90% highway and a bit of running around in between.
Currently on 62% E85 (as reported on the scantool) the fuel consumption increased to 8.4L/100 (28MPG), on regular unleaded the same trip would have got around 6.0L/100 (39MPG). So is it worthwhile to run E85?

E85 @ 99cents per litre, costs me $8.30 to travel 100 KM's (at 8.4L/100)
Premium 98 @ $1.47 per litre would cost approx $8.82 to travel 100KM's (at 6.0L/100).

So it's not money savings in question here, it's the fact the engine seems so much happier with a decent amount of E85 in the tank.
I think the ideal mix might be around 35% - 40% ethanol.

Cool, thanks for sharing the info. Yeah, I am averaging around 29 MPG too these days.

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Originally Posted by GMPX

Did a 200Km or so highway drive today, well, it was 90% highway and a bit of running around in between.
Currently on 62% E85 (as reported on the scantool) the fuel consumption increased to 8.4L/100 (28MPG), on regular unleaded the same trip would have got around 6.0L/100 (39MPG). So is it worthwhile to run E85?

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Great to see the ethanol sensor worked out so well Ross. Way to go! 40% more fuel at E62, sounds about right. May the boost be with you! :)

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Originally Posted by gmh308

May the boost be with you! :)

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I am! :laugh:

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Originally Posted by Boost

I am! :laugh:

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LOL. Those who boost and get away, get to boost another day! Yo Boost! :)

Ross

Can I assume the same process will work on a E67? Was in NY this weekend working on a friends jacked up ZR1. Weve been running MS109 oxygenated fuel but it's getting expensive.....even though it makes made power....

I started wondering if we could have a switch wired into the controller to emulate the stoich point so the controller could compensate for fueling and spark depending on fuel used..

Even if we ran the MS109 (which is balanced at 13.41) it would tell the PCM the chemistry of the fuel so it would at least correct. Question I also have is what Ethanol percentage does the spark tables switch over and do we have control?

So you did nothing with the OS just enabled the flex fuel functionality...

Cool project!

Howard

The E67 can do Flex Fuel no worries, however the catch is if the many FlexFuel related tables have had some base numbers in them from factory, not all do.
So on the Cruze GM have populated all the FlexFuel tables with good starter values, but this is not always the case, especially on a platform that has never had FlexFuel offered (like the Corvette).
The first table to look at is B3671, if this is all a single value then forget it, nothing will be set up for FlexFuel.
The FlexFuel sensors are so cheap it's probably not a big deal to experiment with one to see if it all works. Just do what I did and put a small amount of E85 in first.

On the spark, there is a main table (same size as the High/Low Octane tables) that adjusts timing for FlexFuel, then there is a multiplier for that table based on the ethanol percentage, see B5114, so there is no switch point as such, it's a sliding scale based on E85%, there is three spark maps specific to E85.

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Originally Posted by gmh308

LOL. Those who boost and get away, get to boost another day! Yo Boost! http://forum.efilive.com/images/smilies/smile.png

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Mmm, I wonder if a couple of these small Cruze Turbo's would fit the 3.0L V6, they share that same single exhaust outlet design. GM was thinking about it but it looks like the idea was shelved......
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2010/03/...turbo-3-0l-v6/

Very interesting! I was motivated to do some research on that 3.0 of yours since you commented that it was good for nothing. I did find a GMI article where they were complaining about it also. I have to say though, in the Impala it feels quite potent, I almost mistake it for a bigger V6 or a weak V8.

I also think GM desperately needs an answer for the EcoBoost stuff, such as putting the Verano T motor in the Cruze to smash the Focus ST (please tell me the Verano T will be EFILive friendly). And how about a 3.6TT, with say at least 700 horsepower?? :)

baaack on topic...