i was just reading an article on Autoweek.com talkiing about e85 ethanol. near the end it says that it is equal to 105 to 113 octane. has anyone tried tuning with e85, would it be possible. the article was pretty basic but it said all you need to run it is stainless steel fuel lines and bigger injectors. heres the article http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60221010/1041
just an idea as an alternitive to race gas. im sure its a lot cheaper and it seems more readily available.. discuss

 

um... someone plz answer, i would like to know this aswell

 

the only reason you wouldnt wan to use it is because it is extremely corrosive and i guess will break down your gaskets.

so i guess it depended on how much you use it?

but me i wouldnt do it just for that reason.

 

Seems more readily available? tell me how often have you seen E85 at the pumps?

Ive seen more race fuel pumps at gas stations than e85,

 

E85 has lower energy content per volume even though it has a higher octane it take more of it to provide the same energy. Basically it would be a wash.

 

as your resident E85 semi-expert i'll tell you a little about it.

E85 is an alcohol... so yes it is semi corrosive. it will eat up your gaskets unless you make sure you have alcohol compatable components. it eats aluminum as well, but not stainless... you can also hard anodize your aluminum to give it a protective layer which will make it last.

E85 is 85 percent ethanol and 15 gasoline, and as such has a slightly higher A/F ratio then pure ethanol. you're looking at 9.8:1 Air to fuel ratio for stoic. combustion of E85. this means you need to inject roughly 30-40% more fuel for the same amount of air when compared to gasoline. the energy density is less then that of gasoline as well, but the increase in fuel makes up for that. and yes it has an contane rating from 108-115 depending on who you talk to.

the biggest benefit of using an alcohol is the latent heat of vaporization... for the exact same reason people use meth kits to boost to 28 psi, when you use it as your fuel, you can run enormous amounts of boost without worrying about knock. the alcohol cools the air many times better then gasoline as it evaporates (and sense heat is the reason for knock, drastically cutting temperatures reduces the problem). when you run alcohol fuels, intakes will actually feel like they are freezing cold even in warm ambient conditions due to the fuel vaporizing.

what you would need: alcohol compatable fuel pump, lines, injectors, pressure regulator, filter, and tank. a tune for the new fuel... a lambdameter will account for the new fuel just fine.

the problems with it, it's not readily availible anywhere. you will need to fill up even more often with our ****ty little gas tank.


any other questions just ask.

our race car is running on E85 with a full standalone ECU. biggest problem we have is the intake temps are so cold at startup because of the fuel they take a while to get going.

 

this is what the forum should aways be like. thanks for the answer KevinD, great info. i wasnt planning on running a setup like this i was just wondering if it was plausable. autoweek made it seem like there wasnt much invovled and the higher octane rating brought on the race gas comparison.
you mentioned your race car.. im guessing its an evo?
thanks again

 

no, the race car is our Formula SAE car. college competition thing. only way bad-***. they are open wheel race cars, like miniture forumula one cars. we build it completely from scratch... heres a picture:



the car pictured has a honda CBR 600 engine running on 93 octane gas. the car we are building this year is a CBR 250 turbocharged running E85. let me tell you, 20,000 rpm rev limit sounds orgasmic with the turbo too.

 

KevinD - Thank you for the explanation. All this new attention on E85 has had me wondering if it could be something worthwhile for the future or not. Very informative.
Thanks

 

Yes, E85 works VERY well with turbochared engines. Saab has a "concept" 9-5 with the high output 2.3L turbo that makes 260 crank hp on regular pump fuel. When you put E85 into it, it automatically decects it and power jumps to 300 hp and ~320 tq.

 

only problem i see is that its not available everywhere. i have never once in my 22 yrs living seen a e85 pump.

 

This makes me wana run Alky more but will it destroy my Evo Aluminum stuff?

 

See E85 here in MN quite often. It's not at EVERY station but you don't need to drive more than 25 miles to find a station that has it.

 

Yeah, Minnesota is loaded with E85 stations. I'm guessing it's #1.

If anyone wants to see if E85 is available in their state you can look here:

http://www.e85fuel.com/database/search.php

 

So I'm not up on the street price of E85 since we dont have it here. Sounds like you would get less miles out of a tank of E85 due to its properties, but overall would it be cheaper per mile or more expensive, compared to race gas?