Topic: Bad blend at Western in Fort Collins (Read 1544 times)

caroth · « **on:** June 30, 2008, 11:56:23 PM »

I have been running E85 in my turbo Ranger for well over a year and have it tuned well. I fueled up on Saturday night and now my tune is way rich. I had a pretty neutral tune for both summer and winter blends,but I am way too rich. The blend from the pump must be well below E70. Anyone else had any problems with Western?

I called Western and leaft a message with the fuel dude, but he has not called back.

caroth · « **Reply #8 on:** July 04, 2008, 12:07:52 PM »

I was the first station at Drake and Shields. I filled up in Greeley at the Cenex and my air/fuel is back to normal. Hopefully they will get a new batch in soon to "fix" the mixture.

Greengenes · « **Reply #7 on:** July 01, 2008, 05:21:11 PM »

caroth,

Was this the "new" station along Riverside?

I fueled up there about a week ago ( an E30 blend ) but

haven't seen any problems. In fact , we've since filled again

elsewhere after nearly running out of fuel..

remember the Seinfeld episode?? ... going farther to the left of the

little "E" mark then you ever thought possible

hotrod · « **Reply #6 on:** July 01, 2008, 04:43:15 PM »

Go buy a couple cheap baby bottles they work fine for the test.

Larry

1outlaw · « **Reply #5 on:** July 01, 2008, 02:11:08 PM »

You can test this Caroth if you have a 50-100 ml graduated cylinder and a pipette to measure water.

caroth · « **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2008, 01:24:54 PM »

I have been running various E85 "blends" from the different stations along the front range without any problems for at least a year. My engine management is MAF based with a wideband O2 sensor installed and calling the shots. My EMS is not flex fuel, I have tuned it for E85 only. I didn't have any problems in the winter until the temps got below 5?F. My EMS will adjust +/- 20% blend in fuel, so this batch of fuel must be in the E50 to E55 range. I will wait a few days before filling up, hopefully they will get another batch of fuel to fix the issue. I wonder if the tanker driver accidently started filling the E85 tank with 85 octane?!?

Greengenes · « **Reply #3 on:** July 01, 2008, 11:28:51 AM »

It's mostly erratic behaviour at cold start. I haven't seen it at all over the last winter

but prior to that , it seemed to happen during the transition from winter to spring.

I was trying to correlate it to a bad tune/ flash upgrade, but now I'm not sure.

The cold start problem was fixed with a few gallons of unleaded, as usual..

Dan M · « **Reply #2 on:** July 01, 2008, 11:14:44 AM »

Quote from: Greengenes on July 01, 2008, 06:58:21 AM

I've had a few bad tankfuls, but it is usually when I'm switching over from Unleaded to E85,
and so I assumed it had something to do with fuel trims. Since this was a few winters ago,
I was more concerned with the mix coming out of solution ( phase seperation ) than with
running rich or lean. I wonder about their quality control sometimes. Maybe it was more of
a logistics problem, like what was pointed out in the bad press they had a few years ago
re: 85 octane going into 87 octane tanks...

Now, if they had blender pumps ......

I have wondered about that myself (as I am approving prices and seeing Western go by) greengenes and for the reasons you posted. I suspect the 85 octane and ethanol mix is a possibility but how would that actually affect driveability ? (since the majority of fuel is ethanol) What were you noticing with the "bad tankfuls"

Greengenes · « **Reply #1 on:** July 01, 2008, 06:58:21 AM »

I've had a few bad tankfuls, but it is usually when I'm switching over from Unleaded to E85,
and so I assumed it had something to do with fuel trims. Since this was a few winters ago,
I was more concerned with the mix coming out of solution ( phase seperation ) than with
running rich or lean. I wonder about their quality control sometimes. Maybe it was more of
a logistics problem, like what was pointed out in the bad press they had a few years ago
re: 85 octane going into 87 octane tanks...

Now, if they had blender pumps ......