Hi all, I moded my car to run on E85. The car is a breast now, but during "winter months", I'm in Seattle so winter is 30-40F, I have really hard time starting the car. A few times, I had to try so many times that the battery would run out of juice and I have to connect it to another car. Once started, the car runs great.
When temperature goes to 50 and above, it doesn't start right away either, I have to try to start, wait for 20 seconds and try again - that works great.

Maps are provide by Cobb. All mods are in the signature.

My solution for now is to run on gas during winter.

Anybody know what might be causing this?

 

Most of this is in your tuners hands, Ethanol doesn't like to ignite in cold weather, and the cold start injector enrichment must be spot on. Add to that you may be running on the leftover summer fuel and not the winter blend, which is 70% and easier to ignite. Not sure if you had a tune on gas before, but if you still have the same spark plugs and small gap, that may be a problem as well.

E85 also doesn't like to sit around through the winter months, it will degrade quickly, and if left in an unsealed container, evaporate, leaving the 15% of the crap crude they mix it with left.

Running gas through the tank won't hurt, it sometimes is recommended to clean out the 85's gumming effects. To run E85 it is not recommended to let the car sit idle for weeks, as it will cause problems. The car will run rich on gas.

 

Try with MUCH more cranking enrichment at the temperatures you have problem with.

 

At least you have something to snuggle up to.

 

completely normal, just try to run pump gas in winter. I only run E85 from late spring through early fall.

 

E85 is going to be harder to start with - that is the nature of the beast.
I just try to drive my car for a few miles at least every other week - provided the weather is descent, I always take them out for a little bit.