i have looked and can not find any threads that talk about converting to E-85. I have been thinking about doing this to my car for a while but wanted to get some real world input instead of the post's on the E-85 conversion sites.

My car will run on 93oct but it does not like it too much....it does run on when shut off of and there is a significant performance difference with race fuel in it. I have 11.6:1 pistons but my large cam,aluminum heads and backing off the timing kinda help me get away with the 93oct. I have been looking into converting my Demon to E-85 due to the 108oct rating. My fuel system is all SS braided line so nothing to do their just buy a $300 kit and a few hours. I have a gas station down the street that sells E-85 so supply is not a problem either.

I am leaning to do this because I usually buy 110oct and mix but that is getting very hard to do with a place to buy the fuel and the cost.

have any of you guys done this?????????what are your thoughts on it?

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...past-week.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...-on-my-c3.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...51585-e85.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...06997-e85.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...anol-85-a.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...on-anyone.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...rience-c3.html

and so on and so on....

 

Here are a few considerations

Octane: A minimum octane for E85 is not specified. FFV’s can tolerate the lower octane of gasoline i.e. 87 (R+M)/2. There is no requirement to post octane on an E85 dispenser.
If a retailer chooses to post octane, they should be aware that the often cited 105 ctane is incorrect. This number was derived by using ethanol’s blending octane value in gasoline.
This is not the proper way to calculate the octane of E85. Ethanol’s true octane value should be used to calculate E85’s octane value. This results in an octane range of 94-96 (R+M)/2. These calculations have been confirmed by actual octane engine tests."

"A gallon of E85 contains about 75% of the energy contained in a gallon of gasoline (gasoline contains about 114,000 BTU per gallon, while E85 contains about 84,000 BTU per gallon). That means that a flex-fuel vehicle operating on E85 will get about 25% lower miles per gallon compared to operating on gasoline. Therefore the fuel system must be designed to provide sufficient fuel flow including the fuel pump and fuel injectors."

http://ethanolrfa.3cdn.net/dd9e74ce1..._rbm6bdgh3.pdf

 

Gee, if all that is true, and it is, then is E85 a big scam?

 

Ya think?

 

its a great use for excess corn ... if we had that.. now crops are dedicated purely to Ethanol. The main issue with E85 is that it takes more fuel and energy to produce the E85 then the E85 can provide... we are loosing alot of energy in this production. Also the only reason E85 has a cheaper face value than regular gas is that it is government subsudized to make it affordable... Also with the reduced efficency of E85 compared to regular fuel (in my truck anyway) E85 has to be $0.55 cheaper to "cost" the same as regular fuel. I usually find it at my local kroger gas station for about .55-.60 cheaper than regular unleaded, so my 2010 Silverado drinks quite a bit of tainted corn wiskey each week!

 

I use E85 in my fuel injected turbo motorcycle,I had to use bigger injectors to get enough fuel and remap the ecu.
The reason being is its alot cheaper than buying race gas at $70 for 5 gal. pail.
I'm not worried about gas mileage, but the fact that it burns cooler and has a higher octane rating allows me to run a little higher boost levels without fear of detonation.
Don't know if i would want to run it in my car unless i went through the entire system and made it compatable.

 

As far as making it compatable...you need to replace all rubber fuel components with those specially made for E85 (gas tank hoses, any rubber in the carb{I don't know about carbs so..}) and then rejet and tune

 

That is basically the same thought with my car, it is in no way a driver.....strictly to the track and local car shows. I could care less about fuel mileage, I am mainly interested in the higher octane de to the higher compression in my engine. The only thing I would have to change over are the seals in the carb but since that come in the kit I a good.

 

Alcohol is hydrophilic... it absorbs water from the atmosphere.You state that this is not a daily, or perhaps even weekly driver. An ounce of condensation inhaled at WOT midway through second gear at the track will ruin your day (and possibly some expensive engine internals) instantly. Just one thing to consider.

As mentioned earlier, E85 has less energy per gallon than gas, so you'll have to jet up to use the fuel... do you have a baseline jetting recommendation from your kit maker? Are you willing to spend a couple "test and tune" nights dialing in the jetting and timing? Are you confident that you will catch detonation or a lean misfire before it takes the piston crowns out? If you ever leave town on a cruise, will you be able to get an E-85 fill up "out there" since the thing will no longer run very well on straight gas?

I'm not trying to pick on you, or dissuade you from trying this, I just have a bunch of drag racing buddies who tried ethanol and went back to their old setups because the benefits weren't there for them.

 

All very good points....as mentioned before I am just in the info stage of this right now I have not made up my mind as if I am going to do it. I do fully understand that it takes more E_85 to make the same power as gasoline which is why the carb kits come with larger metering blocks,jets,squirter...etc.... Tuning the car is not an issue either, thats all I do with this car and I have spent whole days tunning at the track on my '87 Buick GN which is a bit more detailed than this simplistic SBC.

I welcome all points and opinions and that is why I posted this thread....to hear all thoughts and exsperiences.

 

I will be converting my Firebird over to E85. Its because of the cooler, denser air charge and the higher oct rating. Here in CA, the most boost I can run through a "P" ATI head unit is about 6 or 7psi. So, I want to obtain as much power with as little boost as possible. Also, I will be able to pass the CA sniffer with my cam on E85 (custome grind similar to an MS3 on a 112). Here in CA we have a lot of E85 stations. Plus there are dedicated websites to find E85 and I can just plug into my TomTom all of those locations to help me out on car cruises.

As far as my Vette, I'm going to stick with gasoline...for now. I may end up switching to E85 just so I can mod the hell out of it and still pass the stupid CA sniffer. which is, really, my only motivation to switching to E85. Otherwise, I would just run more boost, bigger cubes, bigger cam.

Ethanol isn't corrosive. METHANOL is. Two completely different chemicals. Hell, you can drink Ethanol, hahahaha!
I say you go for it! Its cheaper at the pump, and all you have to do is increase your fuel to compensate for the different Stoich ratio. 9.7:1 instead of 14.7:1. My local tuner does E85 swaps all the time because of the added benefits of the stuff.

If you have an older car, I would recommend you replace the hoses no matter what! Fuel hoses (just like radiator hoses) go bad over time and modern rubber hoses are more oil/fuel resistant then those from 30 years ago (as far as the newest C3 is concerned). You will need a higher flowing fuel pump as well, since you will be asking for (roughly) 30% more fuel.
Oh, and the TQ benefit from E85 is awesome! You'll like it. AND, the car won't smell so bad (and make your eye's water) when you start it up in the garage, even without CATS.

 

I converted to E85 this this past fall. I built a 421 sb and wanted to run high compression to make some horse power. 13.5 to 1 is what I have. I have only 50 mile on this new engine but so far I'm very pleased. This car is a rocket now. I had Horsepower Innovations build the carburetor which is custom tailored to your specific application. It is $700 shipped but you just bolt it on, set the idle and your good to go.


http://www.horsepowerinnovations.com/index.html

 

I converted over to e85 on my 69 AMX with 13:8.1 comp.
Got tired of buying race fuel, wanted to drive the car a bit more, jetted the carb 10 jet size more, but still wants to die coming to a stop but screams when the pedal drops, and runs much cooler 170 temps.Guess it would run right if I bought a e85 carb or have mine worked on by a pro.

Yes it might absorb moisture but have not seen it or checked.

I did it because I can drive down and fill up for $30

 

thanks for the replys...that is what I have been looking for people that have done the swap and hear the results. I have found a carb conversion kit it runs about $300 I have plenty of fuel pump and SS braided fuel lines so all I need to do is the carb conversion and roll out.