I was wondering if anyone has converted their car over to run on e85. which is a new fuel that is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. I'm from wisconsin so e85 pumps are popping up all over the place and i'm very interested in converting my car to run on it. The reason being is that e85 is 105 octane pump gas. Then i can build a high compression small block that makes tons of power. I know if you have a carbuerated car all you have to do is make it run 30% richer, but I have no idea on how to do it to a TPI car.

 

im not an expert on fuel injection but id say youd have to start with compter programing an injector size

 

do a search on here, it's been discussed a fair bit, every time the gas prices jump a bit, everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

 

I've been hearing you need a different fuel filter and injectors. I would then say your timing tables.

 

from what little I remember it's a bit of work. need to play with the fuel curves and might even need larger injectors. spark tables would need played with as well. it wouldn't hurt to run your car faily warm with the e85 also. fuel lines might might not be ok but it isn't going to be an overnight thing. fuel pump could use a good cleaning so could the rest of the fuel system cause without it e85 cleans very good and crud loves fuel filters

 

apples an oranges im in the mid 12s in a low buck application pretty cool i think an i can run any fuel i want pretty much no expensive computers or other high buck stuff

 

E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol (produced from corn) and 15% (gasoline)... while it makes significantly more octane numbers (105+), it has its' drawbacks... lots of them apply to the 'standard engine'.

First of all, E85 is very 'antiseptic' in the engine... meaning that it's hard on all the working parts, ie: rings, bearings, seals, moving parts, etc.

E85 has a higher octane rating, yet produces less horsepower than gasoline... yep, it's give and take people.

To set-up an engine to run E85 successfully... you'll have to basically run an "alcohol funny car engine"... minus the supercharger and $$ high-end performance parts.

The day will come when E85 is a viable alternative... I long for that day.

With crude oil @ $66+ / barrel... we can't take this much longer. The United States is the LARGEST agricultural grower of corn. We could sink the oil-producing nations back to the dark ages if we used E85 on a MASS scale.

It's time we did just that.

</rant>

 

According to Missouri DOT any fuel injected vehicle's computer will be able to adjust to E85. It is basically your seals in the fuel system that will eventually pay the price.
Gas mileage can be as much as 30% reduced by my own testing in an E85 compatible vehicle. However there are some 06 vehicles that can run it without the loss of mileage, I would say it is in the programming.

I would like to run it in my 89 GTA just for the higher octane which makes it a viable alternative to 100 octane race gas or AV gas which I haven't priced in years but I would bet it is 7-8 dollars a gallon by now. I realize there would need to be some mods to the fuel pump and any seals. There is a article in Chevy high perfoemance or one of those mags this month on thei exact subject.

I find it interesting how the price of E85 started out 50 cents a gallon cheaper than gas and how it creeped up to about 6-10 cents cheaper and how E85 would go up the exact same amount as regular gasoline when E85 has only 15% regular gasoline ? Curious isn't it ?

Price of oil is only part of the problem, our own oil refining companies are the biggest part of the problem. Since Bush took office refining profits have went up 255% . Now they are playing games with the E85.

 

Im prolly going to repeat some of what has been said but im just going to say everything that comes to mind...with that said, here we go...
E-85 is composed of 85% ethanol and 15%. The gasolilne is blended in to help with engine starting, ezpecially during cold weather situations. Vehicles equipped with this capability are known as flexible fuel vehicles. These vehicles are equipped with an electronic sensor that detects the presence and percentage of ethonal and then programs the fuel injector on-time and ignition timing to match the needs of the fuel being used. Fuel system components may be redesigned to withstand the effects of the higher concentrations of ethonal. This requires any rubber o-rings to be changed for the ethanol and the fuel lines need to be ethanol resistant. E-85 has a stoichiometric ratio of 9:1 instead of 14.7:1 for gasoline. So the air/fuel mixture has to be adjusted for the percentage of ethanol in the fuel system. In order to detect ethanol in the system the vehicle is equipped with a composition sensor. This sensor is the only additonal piece of hardware required on an E-85 vehicle. The sensor provides the percentage of ethanol and the temperature of the fuel to the pcm. The pcm then adjusts the timing and the quantity of fuel that is to be delivered. The benefits of E-85 are less pollution, less CO, CO2 production and less dependence on crude oil. You will consume more ethanol than gasoline because e-85 has less heat energy than gasoline so your gas mileage will be 3 to 4 mpg less. I would pay for the extra E-85 any day because the money stays in the states which would help out our struggling farmers.

 

one MAJOR problem with using a grown crop. to provide enough fuel for even half the U.S. would require damn near all the avalable crop land. thats why the price is gonna go up, its because there will be a large demand for limited amounts of fuel. plus there will be a problem of what if there is a bad growing season? or a drought? that would spell big problems with that industry. i think that it is awesome that they are making progress on alternative fuels this but i reall dont think that this is it, there is just no reasonable way to produce the staggering ammounts of fuel needed.

 

As stated, this has been discussed. Search on "e85".

I haven't heard of anyone running it on a non-flex EFI vehicle. You certainly can't run it in any computer controlled EFI vehicle - if that's what Missouri DOT says, they're wrong. I'd guess you read it wrong and missed the "flex" part.

In the '57, I jetted up, upped the squirter size, and bought an extra fuel can. More timing advance didn't help any. Since I also did a cam change, I don't have apples-to-apples performance data, but I certainly can't complain about how it runs.

 

I didn't read anything wrong, I spoke with them on the phone several times before I attempted this with a beater.
So far so good. Yes I realize fuel seals will eventually
deteriorate but this a test.
**** I am not responsible for anyone else trying this ****

The computer and O2 will adjust which is exactly what you did when you adjusted your carb on your 57.

Someone said there were different types of 02 ...something about a composite one. After checking on this as I went through this on a 2000 Caravan that was originally a FLEX fuel vehicle for E85. In 2000 Dodge made two 3.3 engines, one flex and one not. The fuel pump was different, the 02 were the SAME.

 

i cant find the article right nw, but hot rod (i think) wrote and article about it. You cant just put it into any vehicle and expect it to run. I cant remember exactly what needs to be changed. But Saab (GM's foreign counterpart) has cars that run on both. GM's E85 silverado didnt lose any mpg when they converted it. And supply for fuel is plenty. They are using leftover beer actually *S*. Millions of gallons of beer get dumped by coors, bud, etc every year. Coors already has a special plant being built for this purpose. And as far as crops go, you wouldt believe how much goes rotted and unused. Damn i wish i had the article.!!!

 

the o2 can only do so much even less with a narrow band o2 and usually the o2 sensor is only usefull at cruise rpms. so when you go into open loop like high load, cold, and so forth it might run but not the greatest or up to it's full potential. there is only so far the computer can go without actualy knowing what fuel ratio the motor is really running at.