Flex Fuel Sensor Hmmmmm?

[fabr]

[dsrace]

well i'll have to test a jug of e85 and see if it matches my sensor. i never knew what the water content might do but never guessed it would real higher ethy content. itns funny cause i did notice that once. fuel that was in my rail for the winter gained 5% ethy . at the dunes i go through 20 to 30 gals per trip.

[Carlriddle]

Wow, so the flex sensors are not accurate if water present.  Easy way to toast a piston or 2. 

[dsrace]

a guy needs a water in tank sensor too lol so ya one needs to test each batch of fuel ( i have a 30 gal fuel toter) then you'll know if it gets water in it as you use it, i guess.

[fabr]

Wow, so the flex sensors are not accurate if water present.  Easy way to toast a piston or 2. 

That's what the guy was getting at for sure. I had always heard that flex fuel sensors were a bit of a liar but these vids really demonstrate why.

[fabr]

a guy needs a water in tank sensor too lol so ya one needs to test each batch of fuel ( i have a 30 gal fuel toter) then you'll know if it gets water in it as you use it, i guess.

Honestly,I wonder if that is why so much pump e85 tests out at 85 or even more. Not really e85 but rather water logged e??

[fabr]

FWIW,that is why I bought anhydrous e98 to blend my own e85. ANhydrous e98 is as close to zero h2o as is commercially available. GOing to test my drum of blended e85 to see if/how much water has been absorbed through the poly drum in about 8 months. Then I will test the e85 sitting in my PEX lined aluminum car tank. They should both be the same and the same as  when blended but.............??  The next question is whether or not the one full drum of anhydrous e98 is still 98.  I'm looking for a new source of drums of anhydrous e98 since Glacial Plains will not ship outside Minnesota any more.

[dsrace]

so i watched the video's again. where the 1st is informative the second really speaks a lot. so in the 2nd video he tries a few diff configurations of water to ethy blends. he tried 50/50% and then basically 30/70% water to ethy blend. interesting enough the flex sensor still seems to read e100. so you would have to have quite a bit of water contamination to read e100. this is actually very good info to know for if ones gauge ever was to read e100 when we know it is not. the test with the beaker is still the best of course. now i would like to see how much water added starts to effect the reading even by a 1 point raise?? i say this as i noticed this my rail sat for 3 months with some higher humidity days that my flex sensor read e81 before and e85 3 months later. it sat with maybe 2 gallons in an 11 gal tank. once i added another 5 gallons it went right back to e81 and stayed there.

interesting video

[dsrace]

this is part 1 to the 2nd one fabr posted. this explains why the guy is testing the sensors.

[fabr]

I believe the test tube/beaker/baby bottle method is only ball park actually with something like a 5% error range. Assuming you don't have water saturated alky the flex fuel sensors are quite accurate at measuring the water content of alky and calculating from that the alky content. Add to that the fact that e85 can actually dissolve a large amount of water in it,something like 5 oz per gallon  you can actually run quite lean due to the water content of the alky fooling the flex sensor.  Yes,your 81 gaining 4 percent while in storage was water gain ,not alky.

[dsrace]

I believe the test tube/beaker/baby bottle method is only ball park actually with something like a 5% error range. Assuming you don't have water saturated alky the flex fuel sensors are quite accurate at measuring the water content of alky and calculating from that the alky content. Add to that the fact that e85 can actually dissolve a large amount of water in it,something like 5 oz per gallon  you can actually run quite lean due to the water content of the alky fooling the flex sensor. Yes,your 81 gaining 4 percent while in storage was water gain ,not alky.

i believe so too but it would be interesting to know at what rate that sensor starts climbing.  i guess that would need to be a test on my own.  good info either way for sure!! nice find

[fabr]

Let us know the result.

[fabr]

Been reading all I can on e98 shelf life compared to e85 shelf life and e85 with even small quantities  dissolved/absorbed water shelf life. and there's just no really defined answers other than very short shelf life of water contaminated eXX. It's not the alky goes bad , it's the gas component. Anhydrous e98 has an almost indefinite storage life.

[dsrace]

since my gauge on my dash displays ethy % i look to see the change with every fill up. i will have to start tube testing it to see for sure. should be interesting. the part 1 to that 2nd video you posted said something interesting about temp having an effect on ethy %...... hadn't heard that before hmmmm wonder if that is a direct use in production or what?

[dsrace]

Been reading all I can on e98 shelf life compared to e85 shelf life and e85 with even small quantities  dissolved/absorbed water shelf life. and there's just no really defined answers other than very short shelf life of water contaminated eXX. It's not the alky goes bad , it's the gas component. Anhydrous e98 has an almost indefinite storage life.

did not know that. are there any location in nebraska to get anhydrous e98?