In my part of the country, E85 is readily available. Because of that, I tune everything fun I own on it (where possible). E85 is about $1.50 cheaper than premium, so the 20% hit to the fuel economy still means it makes the car cheaper to drive. Couple that with the free hp and it's a no-brainer. Name me one other mod that will get you that kind of power bump while paying for itself! I'd use the forum sponsor tuner VAP, but they only do E85 as a stage 4 after spending over $3k on other stuff. My car is a manual, so I don't want to abuse the clutch and transmission to that level. Jag Madness has an E85 tune that doesn't require the massive dollar investment and clutch abuse. They claim a 100 hp increase for me with my 340hp 2016. I think that's probably a bit optimistic, but in my previous experience, E85 is a very noticeable power bump.
My question is whether there are any gotchas I need to be concerned about before dropping the $950.

 

Running E85 on this platform is not as simple as flashing a generic file or adding a piggyback to “allow” ethanol use. The calibration requirements are significantly different from pump gas and, if not handled correctly, can introduce real risk to the engine.

E85 requires different air fuel ratio, different combustion characteristics, and requires substantially more fuel volume to maintain proper lambda under load. That means the entire system, including injector duty cycle, high pressure fuel system capacity, and low side delivery, must be properly modeled and validated. On top of that, ignition timing strategy, knock control sensitivity, cold start enrichment, and transient fueling all need to be recalibrated specifically for ethanol content.

This is why we only offer an E85 calibration once the vehicle is running our crank pulley and upper pulley setup. That combination has been fully data logged and tested to ensure the engine operates within safe limits under the increased load and fueling demand. We are not guessing or applying a one size fits all file. Every parameter is adjusted with real world validation to avoid lean conditions, uncontrolled knock, or excessive cylinder pressure that can lead to pre ignition or detonation.

Many of the lower cost options on the market skip this level of development. They often rely on limited logging, incomplete fuel system modeling, or overly aggressive timing to show short term gains. The result can look fine initially, but it leaves very little safety margin and increases the likelihood of long term issues.

Our upper/lower pulley with tune can achieve about 475Bhp on the 3.0L V6 without E85, 450Bhp without the upper pulley. The expression the cheap comes out expensive holds true here.

 

I did the Madness phase one ECU tune last year on my 2016 V6 so far no issues and definitely an increase in power.