soloDC

So decided test out VP Racing M5 Methanol vs VP C85 vs Sunoco Pump E85 (tested in at 92%) fuel on my mild motor (stock internal K20z1). VP C85 has become really popular both on street and track and I wanted to see how it did against methanol on a very simple small motor. I also wanted to see if such a small mild motor would even benefit from methanol... So lets begin. All dyno data was performed same day, same dyno, within a 2 hour span. A dynojet was used.

Motor Setup: stock internal K20z1 with all accessories still hooked up (152K miles) with OBX v1 2.25 inch open header, port matched DC5R intake manifold, Stock T-Body, K-tuned thermal gasket, home made 3 inch V-stack intake, deatschWerks 850cc injectors, stock fuel pump, stock returnless fuel system.

Tuning Results & Notes:

Tuning Performed By Herbert Benavides of Manassas Va. (LsV9KeZ) on here.

VP M5 Methanol: Heat range NGK8 plugs used for this fuel. Peak power: 233 Whp STD Correction. VP M5 Methanol ($42 for 5 gallons) also made more power every where in the power band over C85, average pickup was 5-7 Whp through the whole power band! Target AFR's for this fuel were 10.5-11.5:1. This motor ended up liking 11.5 AFR's across the board. Timing liked 30-32* degrees. Some additional tuning notes about M5 Methanol, this fuel has a huge tuning window, what I mean by this is you can swing timing 4-6* degrees either way and only lose or gain 2-4 Whp. On another very important note, my fuel system could not support M5 to the fullest... Injector duty cycle was 90% at 7000 rpm. At 7900 Rpm injector duty cycle reached 100% and power leveled off at this point and AFR's leaned out to 12.5 at 9000 Rpm. My tuner and I both agree that if my fuel system could fully support this M5 Methanol, Peak Power would have been in the 237-240 Whp range. Also this is a very corrosive fuel and should be drained within hours of pouring it in your fuel tank and then you should pour in pump gas and let the car run.

VP C85 Ethanol based fuel: Heat Range NGK7 Plugs were used with this fuel. Peak Power: 226 Whp STD Correction. VP Racing promises this fuel tests between 85-90% Ethanol everytime, but you cannot actually test it with a simple water/ethanol tester. Target AFR's were 13.0-12.8 and timing ended up at 32* degrees. This is a good fuel for the price ($55 for 5 gallons) and I see why it's popular with areas of the country getting inconsistent pump ethanol percentages, to some people spending a little more money for quality is important. VP C85 required about 6-8% more fuel than our local pump E85.

Sunoco Pump E85 (tested in at 92%): Heat Range NGK7 Plugs were used with this fuel. Peak Power: 221 Whp STD Correction. Target AFR's were 13.0-12.8 and timing ended at 32-33* degrees. At $3.00 a gallon this is a great high quality pump ethanol and it consistently puts down 7-9 Whp over pump 93 octane on similar setups. This pump E85 took the least amount of fueling out of the 3 fuels.

Other Misc. Notes: When moving from an E85 tune to a Methanol tune, add 30% fuel across the board and the car should start up. When moving from a pump 93 octane tune to Methanol add 50% fueling for start up. End thoughts are this, M5 Methanol turned out to make great power on even this super simple mild setup, think if my fuel system could actually fully support it... There would be even more power to be had. We knew we might run into this fueling problem on Methanol but we decided to tune it out anyways. The car will stay on VP C85 for now but I look forward to getting a larger pump, fpr and 1000cc injectors and seeing what can be had on M5.

For guys who bracket race and or index race M5 seems like a great option, especially at the price of $42 a gallon. Having said that, you will burn through more Methanol. Below are some videos of my car on the dyno and a video of the M5 graph vs the C85 graph. I can only imagine what M5 Methanol would do on a built K24 or an aggressive 2.0+L high comp B series.

hub_n_hun

Thanks for the testing and sharing your results!

With the M5 test, do you think those injectors would've been enough with an adjustable FPR and just turn it up a bit?

Is there a way to tell that you were running out of injector rather than your fuel pump not being able to pump the fuel needed?

AllMtrRex

Thanks for your time and money spent comparing the various fuels.

M5 wins another fuel shootout!

Chugger

Nice info man I'm somewhat close to manassas. I plan on using m5 in my bseries very soon.

0xenocron

Good post! Thanks for sharing

Going from Pump Gas to Methanol should be at least 100% increase in injector pulsewidths

Going from pump gas to pump ethanol should be a rough 35% increase

At least in my experience

soloDC

Thanks! And yes, thanks for catching that! You're right, going from a 93 octane tune to a methanol start up will require a 100% increase.

I would like to test FTW Purple vs M5 at some point, hopefully sooner than later. I have already tested pump E85 vs FTW Red on this stock Z1 with poor results for the very expensive FTW Red Fuel. It was on par with VP C85.

0xenocron

I did a similar test last year

https://honda-tech.com/drag-racing-3...fuels-3227817/

JRSC01GS-R

We just tried m5 on my 13:1 b20v. Car loved it, picked up 10hp and 11lbs tq over e85 and the car seems to rev much more freely above 9k now.