Running E85 ?

[phoenix64]

Any of you guys run e85(corn alcohol)? It has an octane rating of 105, and seems like it would have the same cooling effect as alcohol injection, plus I heard it cleans the engine out. Any thoughts on this?

I ran about a half tank through my camaro, I was able to run more boost with the same timing, but I switched back to gasoline. I was worried about A/F at cruise.

I had to increase the injector flowrates by about 25% to get the mixture back to 11.5:1 under boost. Also ran it at 10:1 for a while, and the EGT's went so low the stock o2's stopped reading.

Sure would appreciate any advice/thoughts on this.

 

[wilkinshc]

Check out this site:

www.e85fuel.com

Warnings I would give you is that you need the correct gas lines, fuel pump, gas tank, and flow rate set on the injectors. In a camaro or gn you will probably see premature failure of the pump, possible detioration of fuel lines, and possible fire from static electric from the metal filler neck. New vehicles that are equipped to run e85 have different fuel pumps, fuel filters, plastic filler necks, computers are setup to adj fuel flow, and different seals on fuel line connections.

Advantages from what I see are octane, price, emissions, and a renewable energy source.

 

[phoenix64]

Thanks for the info.
I also found a research project by some college students sponsored by GM. 3 or 4 years ago. They were given a 98 malibu, and GM built a custom fuel pump, injectors, FPR, otherwise the car was stock, except for thiner head gaskets, to take advantage of the octane. Within the first 100 miles or so, all 3 new "alcohol tolerant" parts had failed due to being prototypes, and were replaced by the stock parts. The car went another 12,000 miles with the stock parts. The conclusion of a GM engineer was "corosion is more of a problem in theory than in pratice."

I don't know about the filler neck, but I have a plastic gas tank, and the fuel lines are plastic/metal. Definitly going to be looking into the fuel filter.