i read on a turbo mag that gm is gonna push the e85 alternative fuel. and for the 2007 F1 races, there gonna be using it, they say its real good wit cold starts and its very NOS friendly!!! e85 is equivalent to 113 octane fuel and its cheaper than 87 octane!!! lets see what its outcome is gonna be.

 

I've been running it and loving it. It's been just a little bit cheaper to run than 92 octane here in MN, and the car feels a lot stronger. I was running 23psi, 19-20mpg on 92 and run 26.5psi, ~15mpg on E85.

I think every boosted car should run it if its available..

 

Lucky us here in SC, the stuff is everywhere...but last time I looked on the pump itself, the octane label said either 104 or 105 octane. Are there differences in this stuff? I'd love to get my turbo Civic tuned on this once it's all together!

 

do you have to do any conversions?? retune??

 

I'm just using 780cc injectors and a Walbro. I'm running the injectors at 97% with the stock turbo though, waiting for 1000cc's to come.

 

97%?! That's huge. I'd upgrade to 1000cc, or up the fuel pressure soon.

 

E85 ranges from 100 to 105 octane

 

^So that 113 was quite a bit off then? It sounded so...

 

Ethanol has a lot more advantageous characteristics than just the octane. E85 is probably closer to 105 not to 115, also it ranges from E70 to E85 which alters octane rating somewhat.

It also cools the charge and it burns faster than gasoline.

Another very important thing about Ethanol - there's more of it in the combustible mixture than that of gasoline at Lambda (or any other ratio for that matter) which means it produces more power than gas at the same air consumption rate. (in laymans terms - it makes more power than gas)

 

If E85 produced more power than gasoline then switching to it would give you better gas mileage, not worse. So, if you're talking about energy potential then E85 is not more powerful than gasoline. If you're saying you can make more power on a boosted car with E85, then that is correct because it does have a higher octane. I can't really tell which you're trying to say from your post.

 

He's saying that when E85 is burned at its stocihometric A/F ratio more energy is released then gas.

Ethanol burns at 9.8:1 and gas at 14.7:1. Ethanol has a lower energy content per mole of fuel then gas, but since it requires more fuel to burn completely, it has more energy when burned with a given amount of air.

 

Right, hence the worse mileage, I think I just misunderstood what he was saying.

 

Man you people are all over the place.

 

Here's a post about the different burn rates in case anyone is interested: http://www.fuelsrc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14

 

Very informative THX