Hello from Sweden!
 

Hi everyone.

I am not new to Eco tune your car or trying to drive fuel efficient :turtle:...

I found out of this forum by recommendations on a Swedish ethanol forum. With E85 in your fuel tank you maybe more concerned about fuel consumption because the fact it has about 30% less energy per liter than regular gas.

I have several old cars and because of the tax laws in Sweden diesels aren't that economic if you don't drive a lot. My recent commuter car and off course hobby and project car is my Audi, a -96 A4 FWD with 1,8 liter turbocharged engine. Stock power is 150hp.

Naturally I have done some modifications sutch as converted the engine for E85 104 octan ethanol fuel. The car runs smooth an good without any sign of hammering, pinging or misfire. But I have some cold start problems. At temperatures of about 15 deg C or lower I have problems starting cold. Proberbly because the cold start program in Ecu is to lean for ethanol. If I floor the pedal when starting things get easier but not easy.

I have replaced th injectors with bigger and now recently replaced exhaust manifold and turbo. Just now in testing and trimming in state. I hade som boost problems with the new turbo so I think I had a quite lean run before adjusting boost pressure. I'm now running at 0.9bar (13psi) for safe reason. 0.7bar (10psi) is stock setting.

I plan to delete viscofan and power steering and to do some aero mods.

Best regards
Z

Hi Zovix,

I assume you've already added block, coolant and/or transmission heaters? I know starting ethanol is tough, so warming things up beforehand can't hurt.

Or is your drive long enough to even make it worth the trouble?

No actually I don't have any heaters just yet. I hade to dismount the coolant heater due to leakage. Naturally it will be replaced. I plan for fuel preheating.

I have 60km one way trip to work so I spend a lot of time in my car, also I live in a little town so I have a 20min (18km) ride just to go shopping. I try to plan to shop on my way home for work but sometimes I'm just to tired so I drive straight home.

I am interested of learning more about transmission heaters.

/Z

Welcome to the site. It sounds like a fun project you have there. We'd love to hear more about it as you progress.

Oh, man. We know how that goes.

I reckon there are all manner of engine and tranny heaters available for snowy Sweden. Shop around.

O actually it's not that snowy for now. I live in the region around Stockholm and for now we actually have un usual warm with temperatures well above zero degrees Celsius. But things can change quickly.

Welcome!
Cold just start here in Portugal and mpg already go way down...
A grill block and heaters are mandatory to good mpg in Sweden I think...

It became more usual in Brazilian flexfuel cars since 2009. Since the first Brazilian car featuring fuel pre-heating was a Volkswagen, it might not be so hard for you to find parts to retrofit into your Audi :thumbup: