How to make a car run on E85?

So what kind of mods need done to make a car run on E85 decent?
Can a car run on both E85 and regular gas right? Or mix of both as if you need fuel, you need fuel.

We got our first E85 station. $1.85 gal

 

injectors, fpr, fuel lines, fuel pump, fuel tank maybe, higher compression or lots of timing advance. a point to note is that e85 has a 25% higher bsfc than standard gasoline, so your fuel pump and lines will need to flow more, and your mileage will probably go down. everything that touches the fuel needs to be stainless steel or silicon/special rubbers.

something like that.

 

E-85 is basically equall to 100-105 Octane.
It is a little more corrosive than standard gas.
It can and will destroy regular hard rubber lines o-rings and gaskets over a period of time.

So you have to replace pump with a FFV version, same with the o-rings and gaskets.
Your mileage will NOT go down, it actually get BETTER due to the higher octane level. It will also burn alot cleaner, and more completely. The supply and needing more is also NOT correct. You may want to try to get a chip burned specifically for E-85, as you are esentially moving to burning constant race level octane gas.

Try listening to someone that has actually DEALT with it.

 

Don't be so quick to be the expert on this .

This info is taken right off of the E85 website:
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"Ethanol has less energy content than gasoline. However, E85 also has a much higher octane (ranging from 100 to 105) than gasoline. FFVs are not optimized to E85, so they experience a 5% to 15% drop in fuel economy. This will vary based on temperature and driving conditions.

For comparison purposes, aggressive driving habits can result in a 20% loss and low tire pressure can reduce mileage by 6%. Research indicates Ford FFVs experience a 5% horsepower gain on E85. The range of any particular vehicle is dependent on the size of the fuel tank and driving habits. Current Ford Taurus FFVs have an 18-gallon fuel tank and will normally travel 350 miles between refuelings"
-------------
Now when they say,"Ford FFVs experience a 5% horsepower gain on E85", You need to interpet this properly! What they are refering to is a vehicle set up on E85 has 5% more power as opposed to that same vehicle having to run on gasloline WHILE still setup for E85. Recalibrate that FFV vehicle to run on gassoline and it will have much more power and better gas milage.

Don't buy into the scam- we get this crap all the time in Calif with the BSoxygenated fuels they produce here. "Oh they burn cleaner" Yeah per gallon, but you need 1.3 gallons to go the same distance as unoxygenated fuels so ultimately you are producing more polution per mile but less per gallon- its a scam.

Octane is NOT power- it is the stability rating of the fuel ONLY

BTU ratings of the fuel is what makes energy or "power"

 

I read that milage will go down as well.

The ECM's in our car are not designed to beable to swap back n forth from gas to e85. You will need to make it one or the other.

As far as I can tell, due to how many changes need to be made, lower milage results, few places you can get it. I dont think its worth it quite yet.

Someday it will.

 

sorry v6sucker, ive got a pretty solid source on this one . . .

galvanic corrosion will also occur on metals other than stainless steel, so all the lines and the fuel tank have to be stainless.

any car that runs on e85 can run on high octane gas, you just have to be careful for detonation, because pump gasoline has a lower octane rating than e85. e85 can be geared for performance, its high octane allow higher compression ratios than pump gas, and a high compression 105 e85 engine can make more power(out of more fuel) than a high compression 91 or 93 gasoline engine.

here's a neato study done in 98 i think. a tad dated maybe, but still pretty informative: http://www.westbioenergy.org/reports...5019_final.htm

 

Most standard replacement pumps (Walbro, etc) are compatible with E85 as is; so are most new replacement o-rings and other rubber parts. The rubber lines should be replaced (most aftermarket braided lines are compatible with alcohol fuels, but not all). Nearly all race type pumps will work fine with alcohol fuels. Alcohol fuels, including E85, have a cleaning effect, so any gunk in your fuel system will be cleaned out into the fuel, and wind up in the engine, so its best to repalce/clean everything beforehand. Probably better for a ground-up rebuild. Changes to the programming will be necessary also.

 

I'm curious about what the E85 costs now after Katrina ?

 

I saw a post somewhere (from someone in Ohio I beleive) that said its around $1.90 per gallon. Premium is around $2.95 here, so the cost difference would pay for a lot of conversion costs.

 

that would not effect it at all.
this is all based in US, and based on US crop yeilds.
And total refining time for it now is down to 24-26 hours from corn and water/sugar to ethanol.

 

E85= Ethanol 85%

What makes up the other 15%= gasoline. So it does affect the price. Just pointing out facts.

 

I haven't seen a fuel station yet w/ E85... I wonder how long it'll take to go mainstream, if at all ??

 

Renewed interest in E85 (due to higher gas prices, due in part to Katrina), will , in the short term, cause a rise in price...as more becomes available (supply of ethanol, plus more stations to sell it), it should level back off, or possibly lower in price. So indirectly, yes, Katrina probably will affect the price, though not greatly.

 

It starts in farm country first. We got lots of corn around here. They also broke ground on a plant not long ago that will make corn into fuel. So its probably there to hype it up. But if you look, there are only like 7-8 cars made that can use it.

Sort of lame. We need something cheap that runs like gas.
How a diesel can run bio fuel with little effort.

Propane is probably the smartest choice if you gonna need to do major swap of parts and lines. only 65-75cent gal. Also gives you the same or better performance over gas.

I know guys in the UK with monster 4-5000lbs Buicks converted to propane with good results.

 

most if not all GM cars 95+ are FFV freindly... same with Ford, Chrysler and imports...

 

Nope. The first GM ride to be e85 ok was the 2001 4cyl s10 truck. They are doing the truck series first for fleet use. Then moving to the cars n such.

 

you do know that ethanol has less energy in it right?
that means you need to burn more of it to create the same amount of power to move your car the same speed as you did with gasoline

also if I remember right ethanol has a much different a/f ratio

think it was closer to 7:1 or 10:1
somewhere in there I think
that also is going to create a use of more ethonal which will mean less gas mileage

also octane itself isn't going to do much for gas mileage all by itself

so because you changed fuel that resist detonation easier. if you don't do anything to take advantage of that it's not doing you any good

 

Goverment site list only a few
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/prog...cgi?1/E85_GSLN


This site shows a bit more
http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php


General Motors


2006

3.5L Chevy Impala (LS, 1LT & 2LT)**

3.5L Chevy Monte Carlo (LS and LT models only)**



2005 - 2006

5.3L Vortec-engine Avalanche

5.3L Vortec-engine Police Package Tahoe*

2003 - 2006

5.3L V-8 engine Chevy Silverado** and GMC Sierra** half-ton pickups 2WD & 4WD

5.3L Vortec-engine Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon and Yukon XLs

2002

5.3L V-8 engine Chevy Silverado** and GMC Sierra** half-ton pickups 2WD & 4WD

5.3L Vortec-engine Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon and Yukon XLs

2.2L Chevrolet S-10 pickup 2WD

2.2L Sonoma GMC pickup 2WD

2000 - 2001

2.2L Chevrolet S-10 pickup 2WD

2.2L Sonoma GMC pickup 2WD

 

Why don't you read more carefully. It says "FFVs are not optimized to E85, so they experience a 5% to 15% drop in fuel economy" That is not optimized, if they were optimized those numbers would be even lower.

And its not just about mileage, think where ethanol is made. That's right, America. Its also a renewable resource.

 

By lower you mean they would get better mileage with a larger drop, correct?

 

By lower I mean the percentage in fuel economy drop would be lower thus you would get better mileage.

 

I have been burning E85 every couple of tanks in my BEATER 86 firebird with the 2.8 since June. I will say that you do LOSE mileage. I was getting 25-26 mpg on regular 87, and I could get 19-22 mpg with the E85 driving the same 84 mile round trip everyday.

The car runs great. I haven't had any problems with it. I've put almost 7,000 miles on it since i started burning E85, and I haven't had any problems.

I don't recommend burning E85 in anything but a beater. I tried it a couple of times as an "experiment," just because I was curious if I could do it or not.

Here in North Dakota, E85 is at quite a few gas stations, and I can get it for $1.69 per gallon.

 

I posted this in another thread on the Power Adder forum, in case some of you didn't see it. E85 obviously works very well in performance applications too.

Since there have been no replies but several views of this thread, I'll post a little of what I found elsewhere. E85 sounds like the solution to a lot of problems.

http://www.turbomustangs.com/forums...=&postid=492931


http://www.turbomustangs.com/forums...&threadid=46476

Unfortunately, there are no E85 stations within 100 miles of me except at Ft Gillem, and its military use only! Guess its time to build a still!!!

 

E85 in nebraska is only like 40 cents cheaper. The gas stations raise it up just like regular gas. They dont care.

edit: over labor day weekend it was around 2.50 when 89 octane with 10% ethanol was 3.05-3.20.

 

Basic Economics,
Supply and Damand DUHHHH!!!!!