Hello an e85 pump has opened up 2 minutes down the road from me, and with todays gas prices im thinking about switching. From my understanding e85 has a very high octane rating so what would be the highest compression i could run on e85 also, what all do i have to replace in my motor to adapt then new fuel? Thanks

 

check it out:

E85 Ethanol Alternative Fuel - E85 Octane Rate - ETHANOL: WHAT'S THE DEAL?

 

Is the E85 that much cheaper in your area? If your doing it because of the price of gas, around here that wont help as the decrease in mpg costs your more than the slightly less price of E85. And of course there is the debate that E85 is hurting the economy more than helping due to its impact on the food industry.

 

Well i was thinking more along the lines of 33% worse milleage actually... the '08 F150 FFV drops from 15mpg epa rated on gas to 10mpg on E85. So depending on how you look at it the gas gets 50% better or E85 gets 33% less.

Now the older engines might be a different animal, and if you actually set the engine up specifically for ethanol than the difference would be less, and you can potentially gain power with higher compression etc. Obviosuly FFV's cant adjust compression for gas vs E85.

 

No problem, i'm just going off EPA rating I've never tried it in a vehicle. Perhaps its not quite as much too if the regular gas your running already is at a 20% blend which a lot are. IDK. I do know one of my fellow shift workers says he gets a huge drop with it, I forget what vehicle he has I think it was a minivan. Anyhow, this is what I was talking about: Model 1 Vehicle Characteristics

 

In addition to the drop in fuel economy, these old trucks were never set up to use e85. E85 retains moisture and is more corrosive than straight gasoline (or gasoline with 10% or 20% mix of ethanol). E85 could be detrimental to fuel hoses/lines, seals, gaskets, etc.

I don't think the slight cost savings would outweigh lesser fuel economy and possible mechanical problems. I wouldn't try it in my '77.

 

On the other hand if you built a motor to take advantage of the E85 you could build a killer that ran on street fuel.

 

sorry for not respoding fast idont have a comp. Buit anyways im not using it to save gas, ive run premium right now which is almost 4 dollars a gallon here, i get 10 mpg max and i was planning on using it on the 434 i plan on building because the high compression e85 makes...and at 2.99 a gallon its better than running prem, and the fact that i can run extremly high compression so i can make more HP.. i just wanted to know whats the max compression i can have with e85 and what i would have to change to run it.

 

you will be able to run a really high compression with e85 (need you camshaft choice to tell you exctly) but you will make more powe running the low cr with fuel than the high cr with e85, so its still not worth it...

 

Is this going to be in a street vehicle, or a strictly race vehicle?

 

street...and i always thought you could make more hp/torque with higher compression..?

 

You can, but you're takling extreme compression ratios to make up for the performance drop from going to ethanol.

ethanol simply has less potential energy than gasoline, it's something like a 30% difference. When the fuel ignites, the resulting explosion is 30% less powerful than normal 90% gas at the gas station. You'll have to up the compression a hell of a lot to make up for that.
Ethanol is about 130octane

I'm not 100% sure, but I think people just run heavier fuel mixtures to makeu p for the performance loss. You just need to do more research on the subject, some discussions on the subject get pretty deep, heated and are not always as conclusive as many would like. I think people are still experimenting with the stuff. Wouldn't hurt to try it though, run ethanol, a stupid high CR and just up the fuel in the mixture. You wont be saving a ton on fuel prices, but you'll get some stupid insane compression ratio.

and I can't be specific (I just dont remember) but it's pretty corrosive on a few parts in these old engines. Anything rubber will have to be replaced with ethanol safe materials for starters.

also consider LPG, it can be cheaper, is easier to transport and store (in my opinion) and you can still run high CRs.

 

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/h...race_fuel.html


And e85 has 100-106 octane.

 

tryin to see if anyone has any experience with it..seems not...

 

Well i am not 100% sure either but I am pretty sure the power to be had is better with ethanol with a properly setup engine. The 30% less energy per volume you refer to just means it will have burn more fuel, not that the HP will be limited to less.