Not my original plan, but I will be running my 521 street stroker in 77 F250 4x4 with E85. I have 10:1 compression with my current cam and I don't want to have to get a bigger cam to run pump gas, so I'm going with an E85 750 CFM carb. I will be very curious to see what kind of performance I get and how much ethanol it will burn.
__________________ BUCK
"My mind works like lightning, one brilliant flash and it's gone"
1977 F250 4x4 Highboy-Frame Off Restoration in Progress
When will your 521 be up and running? Im curious to know how it comes out. Im gettin close to ordering my 545 rotating assembly and Ive been tossin around the idea of gettin between 10-10.5 CR to run E85.
I hoping to have it at least built to dyno this spring. As far as running in the truck, probably not til fall. Hopefully, sooner, but you know how truck projects are.
__________________ BUCK
"My mind works like lightning, one brilliant flash and it's gone"
1977 F250 4x4 Highboy-Frame Off Restoration in Progress
the only way E85 works out to your benefit is if its 3/4 the price of gas.thats the effiency difference .on a flex fuel vehicle if you get 20MPG on gas youll get 15 on e85
I don't plan on getting very good mileage at all. I wouldn't with gasoline either. I just want to be able to run my street motor without having to add Octane booster or Racing Fuel. Ethanol is a nice alternative for higher compression street engines.
__________________ BUCK
"My mind works like lightning, one brilliant flash and it's gone"
1977 F250 4x4 Highboy-Frame Off Restoration in Progress
Bob, efficiency burning ethanol isn't as simple as counting BTUs per gallon. You are quite correct that ethanol has about 2/3 rds of the BTUs per gallon of gasoline, but there is more to it than that. Ethanol also has a much faster flame speed than gasoline, AND a wider limit of flammability. How the fuel map on a flex fuel car is programmed makes a huge differance in what fuel mileage you will get. One of the fellows on an E85 forum has his car running just fine on a 16.8 fuel ratio........I'll bet he isn't losing 1/3 of his potential mileage. DinosaurFan, on work's old cast off 'puter
The biggest benefit without a doubt of E85, is it's abbility to resist detonation, pricewise compared to race gas. Where I live, a gallon of E85 is 2.55 or so and has an octane rating of 105 (summer blends anyway), and race gas is 6-7 a gallon. So run a Quickfuel 750 E85 carb and 12:1, it will be fun.
__________________
Josh
79 F'150 302 NP435/205
79 Bronco 400M/NP203
67 F100 352 Auto 2wd
72 F100 302 Auto 2wd
Most of my buds who want more power with thier chips with out burning expensive pump premium use what we call POLISH PREMIUM. As you can tell, South Bend area has a heavy Polish population and it is a term of endearment-not a cutdown. Anyway, they simply put in a 50/50 mix of regular 87 octane gas, and E85-which results in about a 93 octane rating-and this is a conservative rating. I use this mix in my 97 Escort with a chip and love it. No pinging here, it has 127,000 miles on it and have been using this mix for 20,000 miles. Also, if you search other threads you'll find I've been running my truck on e85 for over 50,000 miles with stock injectors, fuel lines, pump ect...and had no trouble. I do have a custom tuned chip tuned for E85 though. But if you use a 50/50 blend, you could use your premium fuel setting on your tuner and the PCM should have enough latitude to compensate.
I have a Diablo Sport two tune chip in my 99 Ranger with 2.5L and 5speed. One tune is for E85. My E85 MPG is good in city but poor on highway due to open loop over 80% throttle. I plan to have it retuned to keep engine in closed loop even at full throttle.
As it is I can break even at $.58 spread in price.
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