running on alcohol

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May 2, 2005 | 02:07 PM

fordguyforlife

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Joined: Feb 2005

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From: Baton Rouge, LA

running on alcohol

does anybody no what exactly it takes to convert an engine to run off of alcohol?

May 2, 2005 | 06:34 PM

Bronco2Nic

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From: Cloverdale, BC, Canada

I was woundering the same thing because me and my buddies say that if gas pricesses go up much more then were making a still in my buddies backyard.

May 2, 2005 | 10:01 PM

Torque1st

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Moved to proper forum.

May 2, 2005 | 11:33 PM

rusty70f100

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From: Iowa

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordguyforlife

does anybody no what exactly it takes to convert an engine to run off of alcohol?

Well, it depends on a few variables, such as what vehicle you want to convert, where you live, and how well you want it to work.

Basically with alcohol, you need to run it richer. For a carburetor, this means changing jets. For a fuel injected vehicle, this means reprogramming the computer.

Where you live has a lot to do with it also. Alcohol doesn't vaporize as readily as gasoline. In cold climates, this can be a real problem when it wont start in the morning. Most E85 capable vehicles use heated intake manifolds to solve this. On a conversion, you might want to figure out a way to start it on gasoline then switch over. Of course, if you live in Texas, then never mind.

Alcohol motors will really benefit from an increased compression ratio. This would involve rebuilding the engine and modifying the internal components. This is what you have to do if you want to get equivalent mileage as gasoline. Basically you use a high static compression ratio, around 12 to 1, with a small cam, to create a high dynamic compression ratio. This will extract the most possible power, and thus mileage, out of the alcohol.

Anything else?

May 3, 2005 | 12:24 AM

fellro86

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Joined: Feb 2004

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From: Marengo, Iowa

Quote:

Originally Posted by rusty70f100

Where you live has a lot to do with it also. Alcohol doesn't vaporize as readily as gasoline. In cold climates, this can be a real problem when it wont start in the morning. Most E85 capable vehicles use heated intake manifolds to solve this. On a conversion, you might want to figure out a way to start it on gasoline then switch over. Of course, if you live in Texas, then never mind.

ADM did a study back in the late 70's with a Ford Fiesta, and they brought the compression up a bit, rejetted the carb, and set up a washer bottle filled with gasoline to give a shot of gasoline to the carb to make it fire. Beyond that, it ran fine with just those mods, and was getting pretty good mileage, better than it had gotten with gasoline alone. I did a paper on it back when I went to college, but unfortunately do not have the paper and the info at hand anymore.

May 20, 2005 | 05:25 PM

meatybtz

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well, i ran my ford off of a can of Eth ( E100) i had distilled and molecular sieved to 100%, only thing i changed was my jets. Ran great, and cool too. Rejetted hooked back up the fuel line and drove off with gasoline. The simple least efficient way is to simply rejet your cab to compensate for the different air-fuel requiremetns, the rest is just filling a tank. Unless you have very cold weather, being a californian, i dont have that problem. Corse, i am runing on gas now again.

Jun 5, 2005 | 10:58 PM

Triel

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I am getting ready to make some major mods to my 2001 Cal F150. I will be testing how far I can take the engine, in Alcohol %, before problems. Then I will start modifying and adding new parts till I get to 50% or higher. When I am done I will list everything I did or provide a link. The reason for this is simple.

I have a 2001 4X4 F150 with Triton 5.4L. I only get 13.5 to 14.5 mpg in it regardless of how hard I drive. I once took a trip from NC to Daytona, FL and was driving between 70 and 85 on I95 (to keep from getting ran off the road). That trip only resulted in 15mpg. When I moved from Califonia I towed another vehicle on a trailer. Weight of trailer and towed vehicle totaled 7500 lbs. My truck got avg 14mpg. That is dam good since I was maxed out on GVWR and had more power then I needed.

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Jul 29, 2005 | 10:02 AM

jwbowen

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Joined: Jul 2005

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Triel,

You might start your mods by seeing if the chip from a CrownVic/Merc Marquis can be installed in your F-150. They run the 4.6/5.4 engines and already are dual fuel vehicles (DFVs). In other words, they will run any blend of gasoline and ethanol up to E85 without changing anything. When you make a big shift (from E10 to E85, say), they idle roughly and stumble for a few seconds until the chip figures out what it's burning. Then you're good to go.

Note that Ford doesn't promote these as DFVs. Wonder why?