Anyone familiar with e85?

[Rockerdude]

Poor mans race fuel or fuel system's nightmare? Im building a 11-12 to 1 compression stroked 318 and am wondering what you guys thought of going the route of e85 or just sticking with the pricey 105 octane race gas.
Thanks. RD

 

[fishy68]

I don't have personal experience with it but I do know a guy that runs it in his 69 Cuda race car. Seems to work well now that he got a carb built for it by someone that knows what their doing. It runs 10.80's and doesn't have it all dialed in yet. 416 with Indybrock heads, solid roller, 12 to 1 compression, etc.

 

[70aarcuda]

http://www.raceone85.com/

e85 (ethanol) does not containt as much BTU energy as gasoline, you will need to burn 30% more fuel went running e85..so your fuel pump needs to be able to supply the additional fuel volume...also the carb needs to be modified...

Quick Fuel Tech offers complete carbs set up for e85 and it also sell kits with new metering block that are setup for the e85....

also ethanol is not corrosive like methanol.....

 

[oneway71]

http://www.raceone85.com/

e85 (ethanol) does not containt as much BTU energy as gasoline, you will need to burn 30% more fuel went running e85..so your fuel pump needs to be able to supply the additional fuel volume...also the carb needs to be modified...

Quick Fuel Tech offers complete carbs set up for e85 and it also sell kits with new metering block that are setup for the e85....

also ethanol is not corrosive like methanol.....

x2 btu's is where the power comes from. Same with biodiesel lower btu's, most people wonder why their gas mileage drops.

 

[70aarcuda]

so....if you are burning 30% more fuel...at 2.29 a gallon ...the actual cost is 2.29 x 1.30= 2.98 a gallon...

if you compare that to race gas at 6.50 a gallon...it is a deal...

then figure in the cost of the fuel system modification...which depends on whether are buying new or replacing to use the e85...

so i could save 3.50 a gallon on race gas which would save me about 20 dollar per race...plus stations selling e85 are just down the street from me..

 

[fishy68]

so....if you are burning 30% more fuel...at 2.29 a gallon ...the actual cost is 2.29 x 1.30= 2.98 a gallon...

if you compare that to race gas at 6.50 a gallon...it is a deal...

then figure in the cost of the fuel system modification...which depends on whether are buying new or replacing to use the e85...

so i could save 3.50 a gallon on race gas which would save me about 20 dollar per race...plus stations selling e85 are just down the street from me..

It is a good deal if implemented right IMO. If I had more E-85 stations close to me I'd have built my engine for it. Unfortunately I only have 1 station within 30 miles that sells E-85

 

[Rockerdude]

Sounds good so far.. :read2:

 

[71DartGuy]

I do commercial landscaping for a living and we have close to 100 pieces of 2 cycle equipment running every day. It hates E-85. I've never had so much trouble with carburetors when we were running that crap. I switched to regular 87 octane this year and have drastically reduced our down time.

 

[70aarcuda]

I do commercial landscaping for a living and we have close to 100 pieces of 2 cycle equipment running every day. It hates E-85. I've never had so much trouble with carburetors when we were running that crap. I switched to regular 87 octane this year and have drastically reduced our down time.

unless the equipment was modified to run on e85...it is going to run like crap....

without any changes to the carb....the engine will run extremely lean..like 30% lean...

e85 is 85% ethanol...15% gas..

regular gas with ethanol is about 85% to 90% gasoline and the rest is ethanol.....big difference....