Anyone running E85 fule in thier truck? It's about $0.50 cheaper per gallon around here, and with a carb I can't see the conversion being real tough... I'm thinking jets, and plugs????

Any thoughts are appreciated.

God Bless
David

 

it'll eat up your fuel system. i was looking into it a few months ago and the components used in our trucks will fail with the use of E85. sorry , i would have liked to save some cash with it too.

 

The only thing I can see that would be a problem is hoses and cork gaskets... I have a Holley Eletric Fuel Pump that claims to be good for use with Alcohol and a Barry Grant Carb that has all rubber gaskets (which also is supposed to work with Alcohol.... I just ran all new 3/8" brushed stainless fuel lines and have about 4 inches of standard fuel line in the whole system. What do you think a guy needs to change?

Thanks
David

 

I would call Holley and double check that, I don't think ethanol is the same as race fuel alcohol, but I could be wrong. Same thing for the carb. You should replace all the rubber lines with ones approved for E-85, just to be sure. Again, you may have to call companies to find out if their product will work with that fuel.

 

it will also eat up your valves,our engines arent designed for this newer technoligy

 

I wouldn't worry about the internals of the engine, E85 burns cooler than regular unleaded gasoline.

 

the e-85 "85% ethnal" ethnal is a drying angent and unless you have hardend valve seats you will roun them....but......if you put lead atitive in your gas it will save your engine thats my deed for the day

 

Dave, I would say go for it. It sounds like you already have the correct carb and fuel pump. yes, ethanol is mildly corrosive, but not nearly as bad as the methanol your racing carb and pump are suppsed to handle. What kind of ignition does your truck have ? E85, like pure ethanol, likes a little stronger spark than gasoline. I'll believe you'll want to jet up something like 20% richer than gasoline. Bigger jets ought to be available, the methanol racers have to jet up 50-60%, as compared to gasoline, so your E85 deal should be easy. I'm sure you'll need to swing the timing ahead as well. yes ethanol will be harder on the valves and seats, but so is unleaded. What engine and compression do you have ? More is better with E85. Let us know how you do, lots of us want to try this too. Dinosaurfan, @ his dad's house

 

The alcohol carb shouldn't have any actual rubber in it, should be all neoprene seals. Ethanol will damage natural rubber, but not synthetic like neoprene and some plastics. It depends what has all been done to your motor as to what you need to do there. If you have never done anything with the valve seats, you may run into problems there, but you will have the same problem with unleaded fuels anyway, ethanol or no. If you run the E85 exclusive, you will need to advance your timing a bit, as the octane rating is 105. Higher compression helps to maximize the properties of ethanol as well.
The major consideration with ethanol is the natural rubber components, and the jet and timing settings. If you want to switch back and forth, you will have troubles in that the jet sizes will constantly be wrong, and if you try to find a happy medium, it won't be enough for the ethanol, and will be too much for the regular gasoline. You can get distributors with a variable timing control you can keep in the cab, they were made for running dual fuel systems, propane and gasoline. The fuel pump should also be alcohol compatible. I know you said you have all that, it's just a matter of fuel lines mostly at this point. Typically ethanol does not corrode steel, only if it were to have a lot of water in it will it become corrosive, and that is actually the water, not the alcohol, then it also take about 20% water to finally satisfy the alcohol's affinity for water. That's 2 gallon of 10...

 

There is more information in the Alternative Fuels forum.

 

but nomater what if you have an older vehicle with an older motor to save the motor and power you should add lead additive , the lead in the gas back in the 60's was mainly there aslubricant in the engine also,

 

I've finally heard back from Barry Grant, carb is a okay, still waiting to hear back from Holley. I just rebuilt my 390, and installed hardened seats all around... therfore I'm thinking the lead additive shouldn't be needed, right?

David

 

From my understanding, you should be fine with the hardened seats, and can now run uleaded without having to add anything as well.

 

To get the most out of E-85 should you bump up the CR to 10:1?

 

that would be better than leaving it at 8:1 or whatever you happen to have...