kidturbo

Good point. Have you ever blended your own fuel?
While it's illegal for places to sell E100 [drinkable / moonshine] you can buy E99 from Ethanol plants and blend your own percentage. Methanol is available at 100% purity from race shop. I buy it to produce Biodiesel. You could blend your own mix pretty easy so you always know what your running. Only reason there is any gasoline in E85 is for ease of starting and to keep people from filling up quart jars at the pump.

Tinkerer

I looked into it for my 598. Was told in NA form the compression needs to be about 13 or 14 to 1 to get the full benefit. The other problem as stated earlier is fuel consistency. I though about doing fuel injection with an O2 sensor thinking that it would adjust the mixture per the mixture of E85. I was told by experts that it wouldn't work the way I wished.

Cole2534

iTrader: (1)

Jon Roth's Skater runs E85 with big Carson Brummett power, IIRC.

vintage chromoly

iTrader: (3)

A good fiend owns a speed shop / chassis dyno and they've been doing a lot of E-85 stuff lately.
We had a conversation about retuning my mustang drag car for E-85 when I switch out my top end.
One thing he was insistant upon was that I buy the E-85 by the 55 gallon drum and from someone like VP. As has already been said, consistency is a real issue.

The idea of buying 110 octane fuel at 2 bucks a gallon is appealing. I'll say that.

SS930

E85 is still hard to get/find in the northeast, if it were readily available here I would strongly consider converting over. My guess is E85 will go the way of the dodo bird over the next decade.

jeff32

Im not a pro in engine, but i heard from a reputable local engine builder that you need to get the right fuel supply and set up to run those fuel. Once set up is done you cant switch back just because you dont find the right fuel, or mix both together, without engine damage...

indysupra

iTrader: (3)

As far as the consistency stuff you can get a flex fuel
Sensor that will monitor it and set up most aftermarket ecu's to change it depending on the alky content. We did that on the supras 7 years ago. It can be setup to be pretty much dummy proof. One thing about it is it does not like to sit in injectors for a long time.

underpsi68

BINGO!!!!!

I usually don't get involved in the E85 debate because it is usually people that have never used it that heard this or that about it and have incorrect information.

I don't run E85 in my boat but have been running it in my street car for the last 7 years with no issues what so ever. My 352 EFI SBF runs a 9:1 compression and 15 lbs of boost. It makes 900HP on the dyno. I could run more boost with my turbo but the current exhaust is chocking it. When I get some time I would like to fab up a new exhaust so I can raise the boost.

Some of the internet talk that I haven't seen are issues with the fuel siting. My car sat for 6 months this past winter and started right up with old fuel in the tank. I had bare aluminum fuel rails on my engine for 5 years and found no issues with the fuel attacking it.

I have friends that are running 40lbs of boost on E85 and love it.

E85 is 105 octane on the gasoline scale but it is not a true comparison of octane. It is really around 115 octane when it's cooling abilities are taken into account. I know my engine runs much smoother and cooler on E85. It is amazing the sound and difference of engine attitude on E85. On carb application you can actually see condensation on the outside of intake after hard run.

E85 is a much more forgiving fuel. It has a much wider/safer A/F range than pump gas. Just the other night I did some adjustments to my ECM program and overlooked some fueling issues. On some test passes, 2 different times I ran the engine at 16:1 A/F for about 2 seconds each with no side affects. Try doing that with pump gas or even race fuel. Another time a few years ago my alternator took a dump. I did a 15psi pass. I ran the engine for about 4 seconds at 15:1 A/F until I let off as I could feel the engine was down on power. I have never had the engine apart in 7 years (only to check valve lash once a year).

The exhaust temperature runs cooler on E85, about 100* on m setup.

On my setup I run a flex fuel sensor. My EFI is programmed to adjust for ethanol content and fuel temperature. I run my engine on open loop 100% of the time. The ECU will change my tune depending on ethanol content for boost (turbo), fueling and timing. Now a carb application would be different for sure.

Around my location E85 is popping up everywhere. Summer months it is E85, winter months is E70. Spring/fall it is anywhere in between. There isn't that big of a difference in fueling from 85-70%. About 3-5%. If you tune your engine for E85 it will just be a little richer on E70. If you tune for E85 that is the safest bet if you can't change your A/F.

One downside to running E85 is you need a pretty big fuel system to account for the 30-40% more volume you have to flow. I had to run a methanol injection system under boost on my setup because my 83 lb injectors were maxed out. I put a new fuel system in about 3 years ago and removed the meth setup. I bought 220lb injectors as well as run 2 fuel pumps now. I currently run 50% injector duty cycle at 15psi. I can up my boost in the future without doing my fuel system over again.


Another downside is ethanol is a great cleaner. The problem with it is if you put it in an older system it will clean all the debris and varnish possibly clogging up the fuel filter, carb or injectors. If you do switch over to E85 make sure you keep checking/changing the fuel filter on a regular basis.

I have quite a few friends that have switched over to E85 over the yeas and would not go back to pump gas.

These are my findings with E85. I'm sure I will think of more once I post this. LOL

My .02

indysupra

iTrader: (3)

What he said other than I have had some injectors stick closed after sitting from the winter. I just pickled the system with 93 for the winter. With the flex fuel sensor you don't even have to turn on the laptop when you put non e85 fuel I it.

Cole2534

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm. Could you use this flex fuel sensor to prevent detonation? I'm not sure how it works, just pondering.