E-85 on a 360

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project360

project360

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any one know the compression ratios needed to run e-85......
and the advantages or disadvantages?

i have a local tuner running e-85 on some real hot turbo cars and seems to run very well, but it takes lots of fuel to get the a/f correct..
 
e-85 will run on any compression....the newer flex cars are not high compression cars...

advantage ...price...runs cooler....can be used as racing gas due to its 105 octane rating
disadvantage.....fuel system needs to be upgrade to deliever about 30% more fuel...carb must be modified to use e85.....

e85 is not corrosive like methanol...

but google e-85......you will find a ton of info
 
My truck is the e85 flex fuel option. As far as power I have no clue but mpg goes down 30%. So unless e85 gas is 30-40% cheaper it's not really worth it.
 
thanks, as fuel economy is not the issue, running high compression with out buying race gas is. its going to cost more up front to get going on E-85 but weekly savings at the pump.
 
Been running it for a while in my drag car, 440 w/12:1 compression and Predator carb set up for alcohol and tuned leaner. Works great, never gets over 190 degrees in 100 degree heat.
Be careful, it may not be true E-85 depending on where you buy it and what time of year it is. I usually mix my own, only use the pump fuel if I have to.
I have an air fuel ratio meter on my car, will not work with E-85 at anything over an idle.
 
I look in to running e85 and changed my mind. I heard as the weather cools off, E85 becomes E80-E70, etc, they add more gasoline to help it burn in cooler temps. That throws the jetting way off. With newer flex fuel cars, the computer adjusts for it.

It can be done though but plan on replacing everything from the gas tank to the carb.
 
will be converting my two bracket cars next year to e-85...........
 
im not sure i will be worried with cooler weather in Tucson AZ, a cold day is 70ish on the normal side, odd numbered cold days could see 40s but thats pretty rare.

guess i need to find a good carb shop to build my holley.

thanks for all the info
 
You won't really see a benefit on the cost I wouldn't think since you'll lose mileage with E85. It's just not as powerful as gas so you need that extra 30%. I don't know what it's like in your area, but around here the prices pretty much work out to be even, so E85 is 30% cheaper, but you use 30% more. It is corrosive however, and you will need to upgrade pretty much the whole fuel system. I built a race car project with it for senior design in college and everything in the system had to be either stainless steel, hard annodized aluminum (not just pretty colored annodized), or teflon coated rubber. It will eat through regular steel and rubber over time, so while you could possibly run it now I would be wary of using for long without changing most of the lines and stuff over. At the very least you need to change out the rubber lines, they wouldn't last very long.
 
Map63Vette said:
You won't really see a benefit on the cost I wouldn't think since you'll lose mileage with E85. It's just not as powerful as gas so you need that extra 30%. I don't know what it's like in your area, but around here the prices pretty much work out to be even, so E85 is 30% cheaper, but you use 30% more. It is corrosive however, and you will need to upgrade pretty much the whole fuel system. I built a race car project with it for senior design in college and everything in the system had to be either stainless steel, hard annodized aluminum (not just pretty colored annodized), or teflon coated rubber. It will eat through regular steel and rubber over time, so while you could possibly run it now I would be wary of using for long without changing most of the lines and stuff over. At the very least you need to change out the rubber lines, they wouldn't last very long.
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thanks, i currently have no fuel system except a new holley 750 DP. once im done with the motor and know for sure if it will or will not run on pump gas, then i will figure out the fuel system issues. compression guessing to be between 11 to 1 and 12.5 to 1. fuel cost thought, 10 gallon fuel cell on E-85 is about 29 buks, 10 gallons or race gas is 70 buks or so dependent on what it is.
 
if you are going racing or running that much compression...e-85 is a very good choice. In the long run it will save you money...
 
dodge freak said:
I look in to running e85 and changed my mind. I heard as the weather cools off, E85 becomes E80-E70, etc, they add more gasoline to help it burn in cooler temps. That throws the jetting way off. With newer flex fuel cars, the computer adjusts for it.

It can be done though but plan on replacing everything from the gas tank to the carb.
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I suggest peeping, "Performance E 85" site. Lot's of savy people, using a long time. They will dispell the "evil corrosion myths". Good Luck, Ateam.:read2:
 
E85 is a great way to go for power though, you can tune a lot more out of it if you do it right. The octane rating and fact that you use extra fuel is nice because you get the cooling effect of the fuel and the detonation resistance. You don't need higher compression to run it, but you can't go wrong with bumping it up some, though you will lose the ability to run plain old gas in a pinch if you go too crazy. Though with a carb I guess you pretty much can only tune for one kind of fuel at a time anyway.
 
Well, color me surprised, just read through the corrosive section on the E85 site and no one seems to be having any trouble with it. Maybe there are some types that are worse or something, but they did bring up a good idea. Worst case just take whatever part you are concerned about and let in soak in a bottle of the stuff and see what happens. I would be mostly concerned about the old rubber hoses, but a lot of people seem to be getting by without any problems over several years. I know O rings and stuff tend to swell pretty bad when exposed to it, which would be my main concern, but you could just drop a few in a jar of E85 and see what happens.
 
Map63Vette said:
Well, color me surprised, just read through the corrosive section on the E85 site and no one seems to be having any trouble with it. Maybe there are some types that are worse or something, but they did bring up a good idea. Worst case just take whatever part you are concerned about and let in soak in a bottle of the stuff and see what happens. I would be mostly concerned about the old rubber hoses, but a lot of people seem to be getting by without any problems over several years. I know O rings and stuff tend to swell pretty bad when exposed to it, which would be my main concern, but you could just drop a few in a jar of E85 and see what happens.
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methanol and ethanol....methanol is corrosive...ethanol is not...
 
My father wrote an article called "Booze power" a few years back for mopar muscle or mopar action ( dont remember which one) He setup a thermoquad to run it on his junk 440. the only changes he made other than the carb was he bumped the compression up a point or so. His fuel mileage only changed by 1mpg if i remember correctly.
 
Ethanol will remove rust from your fuel system, after running a tank of the stuff, one should change the fuel filter. most people don't and thats when they run into problems.

also I don't get the "use 30% more fuel therefore 30% worse milage"
sorry, but it dosn't work that way.
 
72swgnr said:
My father wrote an article called "Booze power" a few years back for mopar muscle or mopar action ( dont remember which one) He setup a thermoquad to run it on his junk 440. the only changes he made other than the carb was he bumped the compression up a point or so. His fuel mileage only changed by 1mpg if i remember correctly.
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I remember that article, it was in Mopar Action. VERY interesting, the modifications required don't seem too difficult at all. In fact I may get a second carb for my yet-to-be-built 360 and set it up for E-85 to see how it does.
 
you can not run a paper style filter with e-85...needs to be a screen...
 
good thing im not worried about mileage, and changing to viton o-rings would probably fix any swelling issues, im just going to have my carb worked by a respected race shop who can set it up for ethanol and also set the jets up based on build so its easier to get it going for the first time.
 
quick fuel technology make an conversion for 4150 holleys ...give you two new metering blocks set up for e85....and you will need to change air bleeds....up the size of the squirter...

new needle and seats..no viton...

get the newer acelerator pumps...that are alcohol resisitance...parts alone will cost ya around 200 bucks...
 
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