Converting to E85 ethanol

Methanol being unacceptable is true. Ethanol is OK upto 20% but methanol
spells death to consumer cars, methanol over 6% in your fuel requires
serious modifications so forget it

As of 85% ethanol i dont know, what I do know is that my 2004 Nissan Sentra
now makes 40+ mpg and will even go up! I use a simple physics law: it takes
energy to accelerate weight, I reduce that weight. I went to extreme by
removing spare tire the FIRST day of drving it in September 2004 as I am
covered for 2 years roadside and take spar eONLy to 100+ mile trips from
home and heck I might never load it, removed back seat, visors, trunk is
empty, installed ALUMINUM LIGHT_WEIGHT ALLOY wheels with strength rating
equal or better than original steel, this reduces unsprung weight->reduces
train on engine to accelerate and brake,
I use a real oil and not dirt-cheap petro-junk sold in conveneince stores, I
am an engineer and always try to find the bes tspecifications and
environmentally-wise which happens to be AMSOIl and not Mobil as most fo you
ar ebrainwashed to believe, AMSOIl synthetic 5W30.

I am myself 5'7 and skinny, light clothes, etc etc th ebottom light this car
is like a motorocycle now, light, excellent handling, people drop theoi
rjaws when they see a cheap Sentraaccelerating and braking instantly like a
Ferrai. And whole deal cost me now $19K, i am nto complaining I am happy an
ddont need 85% rethanol and DONT CARE FOR RISING GAS COSTS, MORONS WHO BUY
HAMMERS AND FULLSIZED SUV'S ARE TRULLY MORONS AND CRIMINALS AGAINS TNATURE
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol 

Mgrant wrote:
> Has anyone ever tried or experimented with using E85 as a fuel for
> their street rods? In case anyone is wondering, E85 is fuel that is
> blended with 85% ethanol (the "Budweiser" alcohol) and 15% gasoline and
> it's supposedly selling for about 50 cents less than 87 unleaded. I
> hear the octane rating is around 106. All the info I've found says that
> jetting/injectors needs to be 25-30% larger and timing bumped up 10-15
> degrees. I imagine that some of the rubber fuel lines, carb floats, or
> fuel pumps, etc might need upgraded, but I also hear that ethanol is no
> where near as corrosive as the methanol (poisonous) alcohol that the
> blown alkys use. I know that my 5.0 HO powered 87 T-Bird likes the 10%
> gasohol blend, but I'm thinking about bumping up the compression up to
> 12:1 on my next engine build and giving E85 a try. Tips and info on
> ethanol conversions would be greatly be appreciated.
>
> Mike
>
You also need a fuel sensor, which determines whether you have E85 or
regular gasoline. This sensor feeds a computer which adjusts fuel
mixture accordingly. So the computer needs to be properly programmed.
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol 

Thanks for the tips on MPG improvements, weight is a HUGE factor!
Another factor I found with the T-Bird is air resistance. Being that
this car is an aero-Bird, I have seen mileage of 29 mpg at 65 mph, 33
mpg at 55 mph. But when there is a headwind or when I cruise over 75
mph, it will drop clear down to 18. Anything or any driving technique
that presents an additional parasitic load on the engine, no matter how
small, will always require the engine to use more fuel.

Converting a caburetor to E85 should be simple and straight forward,
but EFI seems like it can be a bit more complicated with the
BTU/stoitmeric differences between E85 and 92 unleaded. If I do convert
the T-Bird, it would be tuned to run E85 only, not flex fuel. I will
most likely have to bump up fuel flow with larger, ethanol resistant
injectors or re-program the ECM. I could possibly fool it with a
different sample tube in the C&L MAF, but MAF fooling can cause high
RPM lean issues. As far as engine work, I will be buying high flowing
AFE heads, GT-40 intake, cats, exhaust, etc anyway, regardless of what
fuel I decide to burn. I decided to send a inquirery to Ford
Motorsport/SVT about covnerting to E85, so hopefully I'll get some
answers regarding a Ford EFI system. I was just curious to hear any
feedback from anyone that did an E85 conversion, EFI or carburated.
Thanks
Mike


Don Stauffer wrote:
> Mgrant wrote:
> > Has anyone ever tried or experimented with using E85 as a fuel for
> > their street rods? In case anyone is wondering, E85 is fuel that is
> > blended with 85% ethanol (the "Budweiser" alcohol) and 15% gasoline and
> > it's supposedly selling for about 50 cents less than 87 unleaded. I
> > hear the octane rating is around 106. All the info I've found says that
> > jetting/injectors needs to be 25-30% larger and timing bumped up 10-15
> > degrees. I imagine that some of the rubber fuel lines, carb floats, or
> > fuel pumps, etc might need upgraded, but I also hear that ethanol is no
> > where near as corrosive as the methanol (poisonous) alcohol that the
> > blown alkys use. I know that my 5.0 HO powered 87 T-Bird likes the 10%
> > gasohol blend, but I'm thinking about bumping up the compression up to
> > 12:1 on my next engine build and giving E85 a try. Tips and info on
> > ethanol conversions would be greatly be appreciated.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> You also need a fuel sensor, which determines whether you have E85 or
> regular gasoline. This sensor feeds a computer which adjusts fuel
> mixture accordingly. So the computer needs to be properly programmed.
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol 

Keep us posted on what you find out and your eventual conversion. It sounds
very interesting.

Mgrant wrote:

> Thanks for the tips on MPG improvements, weight is a HUGE factor!
> Another factor I found with the T-Bird is air resistance. Being that
> this car is an aero-Bird, I have seen mileage of 29 mpg at 65 mph, 33
> mpg at 55 mph. But when there is a headwind or when I cruise over 75
> mph, it will drop clear down to 18. Anything or any driving technique
> that presents an additional parasitic load on the engine, no matter how
> small, will always require the engine to use more fuel.
>
> Converting a caburetor to E85 should be simple and straight forward,
> but EFI seems like it can be a bit more complicated with the
> BTU/stoitmeric differences between E85 and 92 unleaded. If I do convert
> the T-Bird, it would be tuned to run E85 only, not flex fuel. I will
> most likely have to bump up fuel flow with larger, ethanol resistant
> injectors or re-program the ECM. I could possibly fool it with a
> different sample tube in the C&L MAF, but MAF fooling can cause high
> RPM lean issues. As far as engine work, I will be buying high flowing
> AFE heads, GT-40 intake, cats, exhaust, etc anyway, regardless of what
> fuel I decide to burn. I decided to send a inquirery to Ford
> Motorsport/SVT about covnerting to E85, so hopefully I'll get some
> answers regarding a Ford EFI system. I was just curious to hear any
> feedback from anyone that did an E85 conversion, EFI or carburated.
> Thanks
> Mike
>
>
> Don Stauffer wrote:
>> Mgrant wrote:
>> > Has anyone ever tried or experimented with using E85 as a fuel for
>> > their street rods? In case anyone is wondering, E85 is fuel that is
>> > blended with 85% ethanol (the "Budweiser" alcohol) and 15% gasoline and
>> > it's supposedly selling for about 50 cents less than 87 unleaded. I
>> > hear the octane rating is around 106. All the info I've found says that
>> > jetting/injectors needs to be 25-30% larger and timing bumped up 10-15
>> > degrees. I imagine that some of the rubber fuel lines, carb floats, or
>> > fuel pumps, etc might need upgraded, but I also hear that ethanol is no
>> > where near as corrosive as the methanol (poisonous) alcohol that the
>> > blown alkys use. I know that my 5.0 HO powered 87 T-Bird likes the 10%
>> > gasohol blend, but I'm thinking about bumping up the compression up to
>> > 12:1 on my next engine build and giving E85 a try. Tips and info on
>> > ethanol conversions would be greatly be appreciated.
>> >
>> > Mike
>> >
>> You also need a fuel sensor, which determines whether you have E85 or
>> regular gasoline. This sensor feeds a computer which adjusts fuel
>> mixture accordingly. So the computer needs to be properly programmed.
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol 

Yeah, please post your progress. I'm looking at somthing along this train of thought. My commute is about to triple within the next month. My first thought was to just get a gas sipper little econo-car. But then I found guys online brewing their own ethanol. I'm trying to do some cost analysis to see if its even remotely feasible. Here's an interesting link I've found lately, though.


http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id36.html
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol 

Just for extra info, I looked up the BTU content of gasoline, methanol,
ethanol, and E85 ethanol.

Unleaded= 114,100 BTU
Methanol=56,800 BTU
Ethanol=76,100 BTU
E85 Ethanol=81,800

Converting from gas to E85, I would assume that you could use these
numbers to compute how much more fuel you will need to maintain
stoich. Unleaded to E85 computes to 29% larger jetting. I still
planning on trying this on the T-Bird, but I have yet to hear from Ford
Motorsport. I am in the process of building an aluminum jetboat and I
plan on stroking a 460 out to 514 cid and running the compression up to
11:1 and run E85, which is 105 octane.

BTW, I've run across some stuff called butanol, which is being
researched as a direct gasoline replacement. All I have learned is that
it no more corrosive that gasoline, same BTUs, and can be derived from
fermentation like ethanol is, but with the added byproduct of hydrogen,
which can be used in fuel cells. Anyone else have any info to offer
about this stuff?

Mike
 >> Stay informed about: Converting to E85 ethanol