Anyone move to the Livernois E85 tune and can report back with the MPG loss percent?

[Suns_PSD]

Hey guys, I've been running the Livernois tune for years now, I'm bored. It feels good and my truck averages a bit over 18mpg. I honestly drive pretty nicely.

Last night I called Livernois for an unrelated question and before I hung up the man sold me on a set of injectors and the E85 tune. My current tune is supposed to be sitting around 460-470hp at the rear wheels and the E85 tune is supposed to get me in the 540-565hp range. Pretty solid bump.

E-85 is available all around me where I live and work and now that we can swap programs just from the OBD port, swapping back to Super when towing or traveling isn't such a chore.

The basic math around the fuel costs is that as of this morning, a block from my office, E85 cost $2.17, where-as Super cost $3.42. So, I save 37% on the fuel costs alone switching to E85. In previous experience with a flex fuel GM I had, I lost about 30% mpg going to E85.

The biggest issue I'm seeing is that right now I usually find a gas station about 1x/ week after about 450 miles. I'll probably have to find a fueling station around every 300 miles moving forward, which is an annoyance.

Can anyone provide some feedback on this particular change? I'll probably add that fancy air intake thing to. Volussa I think it's called. I wish they sold just a one sided one. I don't care about symmetry in this case.

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[Porpoise Hork]

As you know E85 has 30% lower energy density than standard pump gas so you can expect the same if not more than 30% drop in mpg with a tune. The 5.0 F150 averages 16–17 mpg (gasoline), so expect to get at best 12–13 mpg city and 15–16 mpg highway with E85 on a E85 tune. Then there's the almost certainty of having to replace the HPFP to an E85 compliant version to adequately supply the engine with the increased fuel volume required when running E85.

Some rough calculations on the return of investment for running E85 as well as prepping the truck to be able to run it.

Cost per 36 gallon tank to fill from completely empty: E85 is $78.12; super is $123.12.
Estimated range per tank using 100% of available fuel: E85 gives approximately 486 miles; super gives 594 miles.
Cost per mile: E85 is $0.16; super is $0.21.
Over 1000 miles, E85 saves about $46.53 compared to super at this price point if it remained the same.

Now let's factor in additional costs to safely run an E85 tune. Livernoise does strongly recommend upgrading the pump if you're going to be running E85 for a sustained period of time. A HPFP if required (very likely will) ranges between $1,599 and $2,499. The tune file is another 3-500.

Factoring in the cost of the pump and tune It would take you roughly 43,000 miles just to break even on the out of pocket costs to properly run E85 when factoring in the savings per tank full. This is calculated for the cost to upgrade the pump at $1600 and the tune file $400. This does not take into account if larger injectors are also required for an E85 tune.

If no pump is needed and just the tune then it's roughly 8600 miles to hit the break even point.

Please keep in mind that these are rough figures and are all contingent on fuel prices remining the same and mpg average is maintained within the estimate for E85 on a tune.

Something else to consider here. I did not factor in the probability of having to perform more frequent oil changes due to the increased fuel volume injected in and subsequent fuel dilution that is likely to happen as a result.

 

[Suns_PSD]

I did speak to Livernois about this topic and they assured me that in a 2021 F150 Powerboost, I would not need to replace the pump not for flow reasons nor pump reliability reasons.

It's not just about cost per mile of course, I mean, it's really fun to drive a luxurious & pretty fast truck even if it's totally unnecessary. The option has increased in cost due to tariffs increasing the cost of the injectors themselves, but all in I paid $380 for this mod which is about $80 more than it cost a few months ago.

Livernois did tell me that I'll have a VERY conservative tune, at around 540-560 rwhp. They said if I wanted to run scans on my motor during a 1/4 mile pull, they could get me up to about 600 rwhp in a 2 stage bump up with scans in between, safely on stock hardware, if my motor seemed to 'like' it, but it's not a priority to me. My truck is heavy with big tires and wheels and it's very noticeable, those big tires alone felt like an 80hp hit.

 

[TheGoatman]

I only lost 2-3mpg on e35

 

[gagliano7]

All I run in my 2023 5.0 is E85. I average just a tick over 15 mpg. Where I live is a lot of up and down hills and I’m a little heavy on the throttle. If I run 93 I get about 2 mpg better.

 

[Suns_PSD]

I only lost 2-3mpg on e35

E35, or E85?

A 2-3mpg on E85 (standard fuel is about E10) would be a total win in terms of fuel costs.

Also, my oil will stay cleaner, longer on just E85.

 

[TheGoatman]

E35, or E85?

A 2-3mpg on E85 (standard fuel is about E10) would be a total win in terms of fuel costs.

Also, my oil will stay cleaner, longer on just E85.

It was e35-e40 and it was less than 3mpg, Really 1-2 in most cases.

i dont have the injectors

 

[Suns_PSD]

I messed with adding a few gallons of E-85 to try and hit a ratio of E20 last summer and it ran really well with no appreciable loss in MPG. Just the standard tune with the idea of getting to around 95 octane to maximize timing advance.
Just found it to be too much trouble honestly.

 

[TheGoatman]

I messed with adding a few gallons of E-85 to try and hit a ratio of E20 last summer and it ran really well with no appreciable loss in MPG. Just the standard tune with the idea of getting to around 95 octane to maximize timing advance.
Just found it to be too much trouble honestly.

More context. That was on the lme e30 tune

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