[Bostro]

Hi Mates,

Reading about you all on a corn mixes made me hungry of the powers you have. On top of it while looking for best custom tuner for me I met Bend Calibration and seriously thinking about joining corn club.

I have studied some cons and pros of doing so and Im still not an expert but outcome is that using of an E-mixes with flex fuel system installed is quite a safe approach.

Having this said I wanted to ask you, drivers using corn, what maintenance practises you are applying to avoid any potential issues caused by corn fuel (max mix e60)?

- Oil changes more frequent, if yes, how often?

Anything other? Any other best practises?

Thanks in advance !!!

[markoz28]

I’ve been on E40 for about 1000 miles. Car has about 5k miles now. I’m going to change mine solo and then when the system says again at the dealership. I’ll have it done every 4-5k miles. I know some that are doing it ever 3k miles.

[Info@mad-us.com]

On full E it's good practice to Switch back to full gas every 5 tanks of E. Not sure if its the same with e60 but I would probably oil up the fuel system every now and then especially the injectors that were known to get stuck from time to time on other models.

[mike@x-ph.com]

I have been using E85 for the last 10 years on several BMW, never had to do any extra maintenance, and never had any issues.

You will be fine if you stock to the correct mix for your fuel pump and tune.

Make sure you get a flex fuel kit to know the E85 mix in your tank

[Bostro]

Thank you thank you. Will have this in mind. I will need to switch and use regual fuel and E from time to time as I do not have easy access to E85. So seems like this will be good. Also my dealer is open to do oil changes as only service note is on, so easly 1000-2000miles before regular date. With all the switching plus shorter times between oil changes seems I’m really safe.

And yes… BM3 flex fuel kit is on order in few minutes.

mike@x-ph.com … check your IM

[TopJimmy]

I’ve had input from a pro who did his homework who says there’s no need to use alcohol lubricant/additive or to run tanks of gasoline. He confirmed through Bosch that the sticking/breaking issue we saw on F-bodies running alcohol was caused by excessive HPFP pressures breaking the pezio gate (“the plinth” I think he called it). The injectors on G-bodies are rated at MUCH higher PSI than F-body.

TLDR?…we should encounter very few problems with leaking/broken injectors because of alcohol in our tank.

[Bostro]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

I’ve had input from a pro who did his homework who says there’s no need to use alcohol lubricant/additive or to run tanks of gasoline. He confirmed through Bosch that the sticking/breaking issue we saw on F-bodies running alcohol was caused by excessive HPFP pressures breaking the pezio gate (“the plinth” I think he called it). The injectors on G-bodies are rated at MUCH higher PSI than F-body.

TLDR?…we should encounter very few problems with leaking/broken injectors because of alcohol in our tank.

Thank you Jimmy !!!

[Hit_Apex]

I am concerned about the thinner oil BMW uses now (0W30). I always change oil in between the CBS indicated but would do that even if I didn't run E. I currently have a sample out to Blackstone where all 4k miles were on E30 and will share in this thread. I'm pretty certain I will move to 5W30 or 5W40 - probably 5W30 for the S58 and 5W40 for the S63 as the S58 has tighter rod bearing tolerances. Cold weather is not an issue for me. Looking at BMW spec formulas from LiquiMoly and Ravenol.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by Bostro

Thank you thank you. Will have this in mind. I will need to switch and use regual fuel and E from time to time as I do not have easy access to E85. So seems like this will be good. Also my dealer is open to do oil changes as only service note is on, so easly 1000-2000miles before regular date. With all the switching plus shorter times between oil changes seems I’m really safe.

And yes… BM3 flex fuel kit is on order in few minutes.

mike@x-ph.com … check your IM

[Indo Rider]

I also haven't seen any evidence that filling up with straight gas periodically is necessary or beneficial. If you want to, go ahead. More frequent oil changes are never bad. If you are running E, you are probably driving the car hard. That in itself is a good reason to shorten the OCI. Blackstone analysis is cheap, and if you give them notes on fuel and how much above stock power level you are, they often comment back with good notes for you.

[Info@mad-us.com]

Originally Posted by TopJimmy

I’ve had input from a pro who did his homework who says there’s no need to use alcohol lubricant/additive or to run tanks of gasoline. He confirmed through Bosch that the sticking/breaking issue we saw on F-bodies running alcohol was caused by excessive HPFP pressures breaking the pezio gate (“the plinth” I think he called it). The injectors on G-bodies are rated at MUCH higher PSI than F-body.

TLDR?…we should encounter very few problems with leaking/broken injectors because of alcohol in our tank.

Interesting.

[TopJimmy]

On the idea of increasing OCI…the more E% you daily…the more frequent you should do oil changes. We all know it’s best to change oil every 5K miles instead of 10K (when on gasoline). If dailying E30 then I would change every 3500mi. For daily E50 a 2500mi OCI is good, and for E85 drop that down to every 1500-2000mi. I only change the oil filter at the 10K intervals, otherwise it’s just a dump and fill.

Our local oil pro here on BimmerPost told me BMW TPT is not so good for high ethanol use. (Up to E30 no problems with good OCI). For higher E% he likes either the new Motul 300V 5W-30 or Motul 8100 Xcess gen2 5W-40. Blackstone with TAN/TBN is also a good idea, but they like OCIs of 2K miles or more so their particle count is valid.