I have a 650 Holley laying around that needs a rebuild anyways (leaks). I was thinking of buying the E85 kit, and running steel lines to an electric pump, then steel lines to the carb.

anyone done it?

 

don't forget to advance the timing. as e85 has a high octane rating…
also rejet the carb 16-27% larger as you will need to fuel the engine more.

 

good points, this will be going on a 460, do you think the 650 will be OK, or should I keep the 750 on it? I know it would do fine with the 650 and straight gas, but this E85 is new to me

 

I'v never heard of a E85 conversion. Is that something new and what does it consist of doing ?

 

it's rebuilding the carb with a kit that allows you to use E85 gas, you then replace your gas lines with either steel, or new rubber that can take the E85

 

Wouldn't you lose power with E85? How much would it bring up your mileage if any?

 

It would lower your mileage a fair bit.

 

I guess I don't understand then, what is the advantage ? Is the fuel cheaper to buy ?

 

Nope... It increases power. Some weekend hobby racer's use this as cheap racing fuel.

E85 is cheaper than straight gas due to government subsidies.

 

If the mileage goes down though what would be the point? You would be paying about the same probably when buying E85 at a cheaper price but with lower mileage. Seems like it would make more sense to just get a couple bolt ons or something to make the power go up and still run gas.

 

I can't see any advantage other that saying ' i have an old truck that will run on it'. What's it made of , grain or corn that we should be feeding our live stock ? Just curious .

 

most of the current e-85 fuel is made from corn. and it is not removing the food off of the store shelves…
the corn is feed corn for cows…
thing is, a cow isn't designed to consume corn. it is designed to eat grass and leaves… so the cow does not receive all of the food value in the corn..
using the corn to make alcohol releases enzymes and breaks down the corn. so after the mash is boiled/distilled. the alcohol free corn mash is dried and used as cow feed. the beef and milk cows end up not needing as many lbs of feed, for more production. as they can digest the dried mash feed more completely. which also reduces the amount of waste to clean up…

back to the fuel, alcohol has fewer btu's per gallon. thus needs more fuel to get the same distance.
but due to having a high octane of over 110 (prior to blending with gasoline)..
you can advance your timing and get more power per gallon.
thus using less throttle for a given driving condition, which brings your miles per gallon closer to that of gasoline with a stock engine.

if you were to build your engine to 10.5- 11.5:1 (e-85)... up to 14:1 compression, (for pure alcohol)...you would get better fuel mileage and lots more power than using premium fuel.. about the same power as race fuel…

lets see e-85 around 2.50-3.00/gallon,... race fuel 7.00-10.00/gallon or more in some areas. (i've seen race fuel as high as 17.00/gallon)….
same performance. and cleaner burning. fewer oil changes, no varnish..

you do have to make sure your fuel is fresh, as alcohol has a strong attraction for water…
which will reduce power…and does nasty things to the gas(e-85)…

if used straight, some water wouldn't matter, just lower your flammability..
it will just steam clean the combustion chambers like water injection…
you will have to build your fuel system to be compatible.
rebuild carb with alcohol compatible parts, replace all rubber hoses with compatible line.
clean fuel tank and old lines, to prevent crud plugging fuel line/filter/carb…

have fun running cheap fuel and burning your tires off..

ps: if your have the space and a source of farm byproducts, molasses, sugar, etc.. distill your own fuel…
legally you have to add a bit of gas into it.
if you don't skim the first or last of the distillate, it makes the moonshine ''''non-drinkable''''.
as the first and last has a possibility of having +++methanol+++ in it. ***which is poisonous***
the engine won't care about the poison….
make sure you make at least 160 proof, 198 is best. but that takes a multi stage distiller or multi-batch process. which adds to the cost of the final product...

 

There is no advantage. Math and science don't lie.

 

Not quite sure where you got 110 from. Ethanol has an octane rating of 99.15 on the AKI scale, which is how we measure octane in the US. Ever seen "R+M/2" on the gas pump? That's the AKI rating. E85 is in the 94-96 AKI range.

Race fuel is engineered to burn faster, ethanol isn't. Ethanol is a poor substitute.

 

Well let's see, it burns cleaner ( fewer emissions ) , it burns cooler ( less detonation, pinging ) , it loves high compression or boost and it's cheaper then 87 octane gas.

I'm setting my 54 project up to run E85. It's getting a supercharged 300 6cyl.

If you want to run E85 and take full advantage of it. You really need to bump up the compression ( or add boost to it ) .