E85 Fuel Test With A Special Twist

[87chrisss]

I Know this thread is going to stir up the weak and strengthen a few.. Let's see what happens. I just wanted to post some of my E85 Fuel Tester result's which i test every fill up.. Now, this isn't necessary but i run alot of boost and my puppy is stock to the T. I like to keep my car in running condition always and i also go balls out when racing. As you may have seen in other posts i run 29-30 psi on my stock longblock no special internals or special headbolts. My heads have never been off the block. I have great oil pressure and over 150+ compression on all cylinder's and i always check my plugs as well. So i just wanted to show you how i check my fuel content. I have to agree the ZEX ethanol analyzer is way better but i paid like $12 for my tester could have made it for $2. Well enjoy and also stay tuned for the special twist..


This is the fuel tester .

Fill Water to the specified line.

Fill E85 up to top line, and shake it up.. Then sit patient and see your ethanol content. As you can see this batch is 85%

 

[87chrisss]

Im definitely not the brightest fellow. But i do read and i am patient to see results after reading alot and i mean alot of reading on alcohol and plug readings. I ran into a thread on another site about Ethanol + Methanol blend mix. Very interesting thread.. Unfortunately like every posting online, very inconsistent. So i had no choice but to try it myself. Ofcourse i read that methanol and ethanol will not mix and its very dangerous it will destroy aluminum and i made sure to test very small amounts hasn't been in my tank yet but.....Im really trying to get a batch ready to throw in my tank. Still testing but this is a short little tease on me spiking the ethanol with some methanol and testing the batch with the fuel analyzer..You can see seems the fuels did mix fairly well i dont see a difference in the liquids other than the water and ethanol. Huge increase from the previous 85% Yes i know why dont i use alky injection.. I dont know why?

 

[Hot Air]

I bought one from Summit. Interestingly, cost from Summit was cheaper from the manufacturer! Shipping was the difference. Works great!!
Conrad

 

[696]

Same one I use. Easy to do. I have got anywhere from E-70 to E-95

 

[Firechaser]

I used the same tester...I had a few race jugs sit around last winter for 3 months and they went from E85 to E90...guess it's fermenting

 

[kidglok]

I used the same tester...I had a few race jugs sit around last winter for 3 months and they went from E85 to E90...guess it's fermenting

So this e85 must be like wine

 

[CGASTON]

If you could filter out the gas, then you could drink it!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Turbo Buick

 

[jdpolzin]

Ive actually tested the theory too after thinking about how ethonal could essentially gain in %. Most cases, my tank is higher % after sitting the winter in two of my cars.

 

[b4black]

Flex fuel, like gasoline, has an ASTM specification. That specification called for Flex Fuel to contain anywhere from 70-83% ethanol. The colder the climate, less ethanol (more gasoline).

Why is 83% the upper limit? It's because flex fuel is made with 15% gasoline and 85% denatured ethanol. The ethanol has 2% denaturate in it.

The spec was recently change to allow down to 51% ethanol. The higher level of gasoline is there for the vapor pressure - without it, engines are very hard to start when cold. In northern states, even 30% gasoline wasn't enough in the winter.

If you store your flex fuel and the ethanol content seems to go up using this type of tester, it's possible the fuel has gotten wet. This tester cannot distinguish between water and ethanol (or methanol).

This type of analyzer is cheap and easy to use, but not very accurate. Buy a cheap, plastic 100 mL graduated cylinder somewhere. It will be somewhat better than a test tube.

Mix 10mL of gasoline and 90 mL water. If the gasoline has 10% ethanaol, then you will see 17 mL of the bottom layer. The water extracts most, but not all, of the ethanol from the gasoline.

 

[Firechaser]

^^^Good stuff, never thought about water contam. messing with the e85 tube tester...makes sense. Guess I won't let a batch sit for a year now to make E100

 

[87chrisss]

I'm Now realizing how much ppl actually read the thread. The higher ethanol % that is shown is the same batch of ethanol that i had previously posted 85% content.. All i did was blend the E85 with pure Methanol and retest and it gave me a huge increase in alcohol %. On another site i read that methanol and ethanol wont mix but possibly in small quanitities it would be ok, so i tried it. It seemed to mix fine and it gave me a pretty big jump in the alcohol %

 

[b4black]

I think poeple read your post, just not much to reply to directly regarding the methanol. Whoever told you methanol and ethanol don't mix was wrong. All alcohols are 100% miscible in each other. They also readily mix with water. Your test showed that well.

Methanol is more aggressive/corrosive than ethanol. Before there was E85 Flex Fuel, plenty of testing was done with M85 (85% Methanol). A lot of that work was done using Turbo Regals in the late '80's.