Conversions to alcohol

You need to convert to computer controlled fuel injection..........

Anything rubber will need to be replaced in an older car.  Fuel lines, gaskets and seals in the carb, accel pump, etc.  E-85 also has a detergent effect.  Any gum, varnish, rust will loosen and plug the filters.

You will need bigger jets, since it takes more alcohol  to produce the same  power.   Most people  report that mileage with E-85 drops 10-20%, so the money you save in price is lost in mileage, making it about a wash.

I think your best bet is to make it as fuel efficient as you can on good old regular gas.

Bob
tufcj


Edited by tufcj - Aug/15/2007 at 4:32am

If the car is over 25 years old replace all the lines -- maybe as far back as 30 years. Anything since around 1980 has alcohol resistant lines and seals.

The big problems with running E-85 in an older vehicle that's been running gasoline is deposits left by the gas. Sometimes the varnish and sludge left by evaporating gasoline will help a seal or seam leak (like in a gas tank). The main ingredient in carb and fuel injector cleaner is alcohol! Start running high concentrations like E-85 and everything will start to loosen and leak. It's not the seals giving way, it's all the built up varnish that was backing up the seal getting washed away. Run a couple good fuel filters for a while, and change often. Everything should clear up in 500-1000 miles.

Alcohol has a higher octane rating, but less energy.  What it really means is that the fuel will tolerate a lot more compression before detonation occurs.  Dual fuel vehicles have to have compression consistent with the lowest octane fuel that will be run. So the engines are standard 8-9:1 compression. If it were being optimized for E-85 only, compression can be boosted to 10:1 or more. Then you gain most of the lost power, and will get more miles per gallon to boot since the overall efficiency of the engine is increased. Not enough more mpg to equal the loss in energy compared to gasoline, but enough to notice (2-3 more mpg from what I've been told).  If you're building a car to run E-85 it needs to be optimized for the fuel to make the whole endeavor worthwhile.  Just be careful! I wouldn't go more than 10:1 because you don't always get E-85. In the winter the blend is changed to what, 50/50?? I don't recall, but E-85 won't start well in cold weather. You need to find that ratio and build for optimum power on that blend. That is unless this is going to be a mild/warm weather project, like a drag car, off-road, or show/cruise vehicle.

I think that to get the most out of E85 you should concentrate on alcohol's ability to cool the intake charge, forced induction without an intercooler.

Race cars that run Alchohol use methanol, E85 uses ethanol.

Edited by PHAT69AMX - Aug/16/2007 at 4:56pm