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Gonna swap to E85...should be fun

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camaro75racer

New Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
236
Well im about ready to put the new motor in my car and have decided to switch over to E85 since its easily available here. I talked to Eric Marshall on the phone and he's gonna be burning me a chip soon for this application. From the reading ive done on the E85 ive got some high expectations from this project and will be sure to relay my results to everyone.
 
I hope you are running E85 compatable fuel lines, fuel pump and fuel tank. If not in about six months you will wish you had. Ethanol is corrisive. Why do you think that the new cars are built specifically for this fuel ? Let us know how you come out with this fuel. Good luck- Brad
 
i've been running E85 on and off in my T since i got it on the road 3 years ago without any issues.
the only real problems i've had are that it feels a bit cold blooded forabout 30 seconds when started cold and my fuel mileage usually goes down a bit when i put more than half a tank in.
on the plus side, it feels like it has 50 more HP, the exhaust smells race ready, and i got the best mpg i've ever gotten with that car (24mpg) on a 130 mile interstate run where i had an average speed of 80mph running an almost full tank of the stuff. it apparently works well in steady state cruising mode.
 
Suggestion...

If you convert over to E85... you should put some dyno time on your car to optimize the conversion. If you don't do that you are probably losing out on potential gains of your swap.
 
Since I am a partner in 4500 acres of good #2 yellow corn. Thanks for using ethanol!

I have not tried e-85 in my GN yet on a large scale. (not more than 2-5 gallons at a fill-up)

A few facts. (from a corn grower)

E-85 has about 105 octane. That is why you feel like you have more power. We all know more octane=less knock and the ability to increase boost. The downside is, the BTU's are about 2/3rds of Unleaded gas. Thus, less efficency. This has been the sticky point with ethanol, about 30% less milage but in most cases the price is not 30% cheaper. Your comment was interesting nova that your best milage ever came with e-85 at cruising speeds. Could be that your foot was not in the gas as much :). The reason I felt I could get away with 10-20% straight e-85 per fill-up is that it is only 85% ethanol and 15% gas. Regular gas MAY contain up to 10% but chances are they only blend 8% in the summer and 5% in the winter (cold start issues) Most if not all cars can take the 10% blend if not a little more, even up to 20%. Brad had a good point about the fuel lines. In '05, when gas hit $3.00 and e-85 was still $1.50, a farmer I know filled his on farm tank with e-85 and ran his full size, non e-85 chevy van on the stuff (late model). Anyways, he did end up having problems with his fuel lines and tank. Mostly seals. I also know that many of the Marine engine manufactures do not endorse any ethanol blends at all. I see signs in WI at gas stations near the lakes that say NO ETHANOL in our gas. On the flip side, there are many old farm trucks running around burning the stuff with no issues. We would use it more, but kind of hard to burn it in a duramax, also all of the equipment is diesel. We have had the clogging fuel line issues with bio-diesel, but once the filters are changed, they are good to go.

I am interested in how the e-85 project turns out for you as I am also thinking about converting to ethanol. Heck I grow it I better burn it!!!!
 
what about the amount of corn it takes to make e85 and inturn causing the price of it to go up to the farmer who use it to raise livestock that we eat and will have to pay more for? what about the cows that eat the corn that we get milk from and the price of milk goes up?

what i got from the tech seminar at BG nats was that it takes twice the amount of e85 to do what gasoline does. so to make it cost effective it would have to be half the cost...which in a place like pittsburgh.. its not. hey i mean if people go to it in big numbers and the demand goes down for gas.. the price will go down on gas as well and my big blocks will be happy again.
 
using corn is just the first step in ethanol production. like anything else, the market will decide when to try something different. when corn gets too expensive because of ethanol production, some other source will become more viable.
what that will be, i don't know, but it could be anythign from sugar beets to switchgrass to whatever else we have plenty of.
regarding my awesome fuel economy on that one trip- that was the return leg, and on the way up witha tank of 93 octane, i only got 17mpg. i put in an almost full tank of E85 for the rturn trip 2 days latery, and got the 24mpg number. that must have been a fluke, because other than that one trip, the best i've ever gotten on E85 was 15mpg.
and i still don't buy the argument that E85 will eat up your fuel system. over the course of the last 3 summers, probably half of all the fuel that goes in it is E85- half a tank of it mixed with half a tank of 87 octane gets the same mileage as straight 93 octane, but has a bunch more power and costs a LOT less per mile- and i haven't seen any signs of a degrading fuel system. but when something breaks, it will get upgraded to better parts just becasue that's what i do.
 
i may have misinterpreted the seminar but dont the fuel injectors/carb jets gotta be double the size to compensate for the amount of e-85 it takes to do the same job as gasoline? i mean for it to be a full e85 vehical.. not a hybrid.
 
No E-85 in Houston, but I have heard about lots of guys who work in the oil industry running Xylene. :cool:

Many many years ago, I did a research experiment on a NA motor with M85.
That was pretty difficult because I did not fully understand the benefits and requirements of methanol. One day the car ran awesome, while the next day it had hard starting problems. What was interesting to see is the layer of frost on the outside of the intake in 98+ deg weather after a run. :D

Anyways, if the system is set-up E-85 is a great fuel for a charged induction vehicle.
 
my car was factory built for meth/eth..... but its not sold around here:mad:
 
I hope you are running E85 compatable fuel lines, fuel pump and fuel tank. If not in about six months you will wish you had. Ethanol is corrisive. Why do you think that the new cars are built specifically for this fuel ? Let us know how you come out with this fuel. Good luck- Brad

Gotta agree with Brad here........ethanol tends to "expand" rubber. Everything will work fine for a while then your pump will lock up because of the swelling of the O-rings.......Been there, done that.........and get you some big-ass injectors that are compatible too........Good Luck and keep us posted.
 
what about the amount of corn it takes to make e85 and inturn causing the price of it to go up to the farmer who use it to raise livestock that we eat and will have to pay more for? what about the cows that eat the corn that we get milk from and the price of milk goes up?

Typical "Food vs Fuel" debate.

The price of corn has risen due to many factors. Ethanol is just one peice of the puzzle. I dont want to go over the entire world balance sheet on supply/demand for grain, but overall, world stocks were lower after last years harvest. Much of this was due to increase protein demand from China. Although they have not imported corn, (if they do, the price will skyrocket) they are not big exporters anymore. They are using more to feed livestock.

As far as prices "on the table" yep, pobably a little higher. Milk price is up, bread will be more expensive and all of it will be blamed on ethanol. A bushel of wheat can make 70 loaves of bread. Wheat price has doubled. The cost of raw wheat in a loaf of bread is about 10 cents. Bakers will raise the price to you and blame it on ethanol. I bet the price increase will be more than 10 cents.

It is amazing that when grain prices were cheap, and farmers relied on support prices, people complained about us getting handouts. Now prices are higher and they will complain about the cost of milk and the farmer getting rich while fueling up thier gas guzzlers. In your case, your big blocks. If you can afford them, then a little more for a gallon of milk wont hurt you.
 
my car has the tank,fuel lines.walbro 340 pump. i need chip and what size injectors? ta 49 turbo:biggrin:
they were running some BIG injectors and a "impedence"box.i dont have the injectors or chip they used......box has been removed in favor of cruise control;)
 
Well the word is that you need to go 30% larger...so if your gasoline performance goals would be met by 42# injectors(mid 11s) then 30% larger would be approximately 55#. I'd probably jump on a set of 60# and call it good:cool: .

I've got a set of 72# out in the shop so I'm on the prowl for a good deal on a modded ecm...:D
 
Well the word is that you need to go 30% larger...so if your gasoline performance goals would be met by 42# injectors(mid 11s) then 30% larger would be approximately 55#. I'd probably jump on a set of 60# and call it good:cool: .

I've got a set of 72# out in the shop so I'm on the prowl for a good deal on a modded ecm...:D

would i have to swap back to the smaller injectors to run gasoline? going to keep and put away the injector box,its part of the cars history.....
 
would i have to swap back to the smaller injectors to run gasoline? going to keep and put away the injector box,its part of the cars history.....

You can keep the larger injectors, but will just need another chip to run gasoline. If you get a tumbwheel chip, it is at the "flick of a button". :biggrin:



Did you ever figure out what exactly the function of the box?
 
You can keep the larger injectors, but will just need another chip to run gasoline. If you get a tumbwheel chip, it is at the "flick of a button". :biggrin:



Did you ever figure out what exactly the function of the box?

thanks.the box has (6)resistors in it to allow the stock computer to run lower?/higher? impedence injectors....??
 
thanks.the box has (6)resistors in it to allow the stock computer to run lower?/higher? impedence injectors....??

I reckon the box must be to drive the low impedance injectors.
The stock ones are high impedance.
High impedance in the TR's are typically 13 - 15 Ohms

Not sure what your car has and I am sure they are special as well, as in SS (??). Measure the resistance of the injectors to tell the tale of the box. That is, if the ECM is stock.:biggrin:
 
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