View Full Version : E85
HatchHero
01-29-2010, 09:17 PM
anyone run this stuff in their cars? plz post pros and cons using this stuff. do we need a conversion kit of some sort? there is a citgo near my house that has it all the time.
slostang
01-29-2010, 09:19 PM
what kind of vehicle? if its stock, its not worth it.
HatchHero
01-29-2010, 09:21 PM
civic with h swap. 450 dsm injectors and a wally 255 ihe skunk 2 goodies etc etc. will it burn up my fuel pump? i know they got different air fuel ratios?
slostang
01-29-2010, 09:40 PM
civic with h swap. 450 dsm injectors and a wally 255 ihe skunk 2 goodies etc etc. will it burn up my fuel pump? i know they got different air fuel ratios?
from what ive seen with people using e-85, you will have to increase your fuel flow around 33%. if i was you id leave it alone. you wont see any power gains.
HatchHero
01-29-2010, 09:41 PM
so gas mileage will be worse too wont it, what if I ran a 60 shot dry??
slostang
01-29-2010, 09:47 PM
so gas mileage will be worse too wont it, what if I ran a 60 shot dry??
still wouldnt touch the e-85. 95% of the people using e-85 in their street cars use that in the place of race gas when they wanna turn the boost up. if its not broke dont fix it. my :2cents:
Schroeder
01-29-2010, 10:07 PM
so gas mileage will be worse too wont it, what if I ran a 60 shot dry??
Mileage will be worse as E85 has less BTU's per Lb than Gasoline. Pulled from the Web:
A gallon of E85 has an energy content of about 80,000 BTU, compared to gasoline's 124,800 BTU. So about 1.56 gal. of E85 takes you as far as 1 gal. of gas.
Also take in mind that you can't just run the stuff in a car that isn't configured for it. It is extremely corrosive due to being part alcohol. All of your rubber lines will need to be changed, and also that the E85 compliant cars run Stainless Fuel tanks due to being corrosive.
The reason the boost / high comp guys run it is E85's higher octane rating therefore it resists detonation better than gasoline. Some people say its 105 octane, yet some say it really figures out to only 94-96 octane. They can turn up the boost and / or timing and have less worry's about spark knock.
Basically no you can't run in your car as it is without converting shit over. That is unless your car was built for it then yes you can run it. I know my Ford is a Flex Fuel vehicle but I've never tried to run it. It's hard to find in the Newnan Area.
Hope that helps
HatchHero
01-30-2010, 10:16 AM
thanks everyone
SPOOLIN
01-30-2010, 10:25 AM
Also take in mind that you can't just run the stuff in a car that isn't configured for it. It is extremely corrosive due to being part alcohol. All of your rubber lines will need to be changed, and also that the E85 compliant cars run Stainless Fuel tanks due to being corrosive.
Wrong, has all been busted. Any car made from the mid 80's on is fine with e85, gasoline and e85 share the same corrosive nature, its just that e85 can attract water and that can rust shit out if you dont have a good sealed system. I know people who have been running this shit for a couple of years and there are no issues.
HatchHero
01-30-2010, 10:42 AM
Wrong, has all been busted. Any car made from the mid 80's on is fine with e85, gasoline and e85 share the same corrosive nature, its just that e85 can attract water and that can rust shit out if you dont have a good sealed system. I know people who have been running this shit for a couple of years and there are no issues.
hmm who tunes e85 around here?
Motivation
01-30-2010, 11:09 AM
Any performance shop should be able to tune on e85. If I am not mistaken, e85 is on the same level as 106 octane. Yes, your gas mileage will be worse. But, you will be saving at the pump so you will come out even or save some money. With e85, you can run more boost with out detonation or higher compression. You need bigger injectors I believe than 440 due to the fuel flow. Your 255 should be alright. I would go with different fuel lines because e85 is denser than regular pump gas...
Schroeder
01-30-2010, 12:26 PM
Wrong, has all been busted. Any car made from the mid 80's on is fine with e85, gasoline and e85 share the same corrosive nature, its just that e85 can attract water and that can rust shit out if you dont have a good sealed system. I know people who have been running this shit for a couple of years and there are no issues.
True, but the alcohol part will eat your rubber lines.
Echonova
01-30-2010, 01:13 PM
True, but the alcohol part will eat your rubber lines.Meh... I not getting dragged into another E85 debate.
Long story short...
Spooling is right, chances are your car will be in the junkyard before ethanol is a factor. Ethanol is a polar solvent, newer rubber hoses are not the biggest problem with it. A lot of the "rubber hose issue" stems from hose technology from 30 years ago and Methanol, which is more corrosive.
Will it eat your hoses??? Sure, just replace them in every 15 years and you'll be fine.:rolleyes:
I got dragged into many a E85 debate, but I convert gas stations to E10 or E85. So when I build, I'm planning long term-high volume use. So I argued much the same points you are. But for the average Joe... Eh, listen to Spoolin.
Boats are the real danger with Ethanol, but that's a whole 'nother subject all together.
Schroeder
01-30-2010, 03:22 PM
Meh... I not getting dragged into another E85 debate.
Long story short...
Spooling is right, chances are your car will be in the junkyard before ethanol is a factor. Ethanol is a polar solvent, newer rubber hoses are not the biggest problem with it. A lot of the "rubber hose issue" stems from hose technology from 30 years ago and Methanol, which is more corrosive.
Will it eat your hoses??? Sure, just replace them in every 15 years and you'll be fine.:rolleyes:
I got dragged into many a E85 debate, but I convert gas stations to E10 or E85. So when I build, I'm planning long term-high volume use. So I argued much the same points you are. But for the average Joe... Eh, listen to Spoolin.
Boats are the real danger with Ethanol, but that's a whole 'nother subject all together.
Sounds like you have experience with it which I do not. What you are saying makes sense to me. I only know what I've read on the subject but it's nice to hear it from someone who has actual experience with it.:goodjob:
SPOOLIN
01-30-2010, 06:32 PM
hmm who tunes e85 around here?
Any tuner around here can tune e85, its all based on Lambda...do the calculations and tune that shit using the Gas numbers.
scttydb411
01-31-2010, 12:14 PM
your setup/lines/pump are fine for e85. the biggest thing is it needs to be tuned for it since the energy contained within is less than gasoline hence requiring a larger amount for the same power output. if you want to be able to switch back and forth between gas and e85 then you'll need to have 2 chips/programs to go back and forth since e85 will have more fuel and timing advance than the gas tune.
you may or may not see gains if your setup is making the max output w/o coming close to detonation already. it's not always a given that higher octane will allow you to advance your timing to 11ty billion and make more power. there is a point at which advancing timing stops making power and sometimes that's before the knock threshold depending on if you're n/a, boosted (low/hi), high/low comp, etc.
most dyno shops can tune it if they know how to read lamda or convert the afr to match that of e85. i set up our dyno to read the afr based on the fuel used looking at stoich points, rich/lean for a particular fuel.
preferredduck
02-01-2010, 02:14 AM
Mileage will be worse as E85 has less BTU's per Lb than Gasoline. Pulled from the Web:
A gallon of E85 has an energy content of about 80,000 BTU, compared to gasoline's 124,800 BTU. So about 1.56 gal. of E85 takes you as far as 1 gal. of gas.
Also take in mind that you can't just run the stuff in a car that isn't configured for it. It is extremely corrosive due to being part alcohol. All of your rubber lines will need to be changed, and also that the E85 compliant cars run Stainless Fuel tanks due to being corrosive.
The reason the boost / high comp guys run it is E85's higher octane rating therefore it resists detonation better than gasoline. Some people say its 105 octane, yet some say it really figures out to only 94-96 octane. They can turn up the boost and / or timing and have less worry's about spark knock.
Basically no you can't run in your car as it is without converting shit over. That is unless your car was built for it then yes you can run it. I know my Ford is a Flex Fuel vehicle but I've never tried to run it. It's hard to find in the Newnan Area.
Hope that helps
Amen, regular gas is more combustable than E-85. all gas now has about 10% of this stuff in it and i will say that since they have done this i get worse gas mileage than before. i went from 340 miles to a tank to 300 after they did this. the bad part is most cars were not designed to run on this stuff and i'm sure there will be some long term damage to people's cars from this. we were suckered into this by big corporations and we now consume more fuel, isn't that worse for the enviroment?
preferredduck
02-01-2010, 02:17 AM
Wrong, has all been busted. Any car made from the mid 80's on is fine with e85, gasoline and e85 share the same corrosive nature, its just that e85 can attract water and that can rust shit out if you dont have a good sealed system. I know people who have been running this shit for a couple of years and there are no issues.
actually hydrogen is when you have to make parts stainless and change hoses. i don't like e-85 in the gas now but in certain applications depending on what you are doing it will work. i know high HP cars run it for the strip, but they are tuned and made for it.
SPOOLIN
02-01-2010, 08:28 AM
i will be running it this season. Yes mileage sucks but i live my life in the blue car a 1/4 mile at a time. it will probably use a gallon and a half every full pass.
Turbodude06
02-01-2010, 08:53 AM
This is some good info on this:goodjob:...
HatchHero
02-01-2010, 11:36 AM
i will be running it this season. Yes mileage sucks but i live my life in the blue car a 1/4 mile at a time. it will probably use a gallon and a half every full pass.
thanks to all reps will be givin. what about the fuel filter? will it filter e85 like regular gasoline?
SPOOLIN
02-01-2010, 06:25 PM
thanks to all reps will be givin. what about the fuel filter? will it filter e85 like regular gasoline?
Cant use paper elements, gotta use SS filters. As far as the factory fuel filter....i dont really know...you could always convert to an aftermarket filter if you really wanted to. Both of my filters are Stainless mounted on the pump.
HatchHero
02-01-2010, 08:33 PM
Cant use paper elements, gotta use SS filters. As far as the factory fuel filter....i dont really know...you could always convert to an aftermarket filter if you really wanted to. Both of my filters are Stainless mounted on the pump.
damn you all bout business!!:bump:
scttydb411
02-07-2010, 11:28 AM
we now consume more fuel, isn't that worse for the enviroment?
actually, e10 and e85 have lower emissions. the only good thing about ethanol fuel. carbon foot print is a different story on the other hand since most of it's made w/ corn or some other plant material and strips the land. also, the machinery used to harvest usually use tons of gas and makes it just as bad in the long run if not worse thinking of the other implications.
Apex i ITR
02-07-2010, 02:06 PM
Running E85 for almost a year.....allows me to run about 29 lbs of boost on my stock evo 9 turbo.......best performance additive by far.
SPOOLIN
02-07-2010, 03:37 PM
ethanol in places like Brazil is carbon neutral as is the corn ethanol here because the co2 emitted by burning it is the same as the next crop will absorb, the only waste is the co2 emitted from harvesting and transport but the facilities are all located in the same region of the country. Ethanol here is going towards what it is like in Brazil, the whole corn thing is just a mean time thing until cellulosic production kicks in from Pine and switch grass. And im not talking about whole pine trees, im talking about the wood waste from cutting lumber and all of the bark waste. Eventually the only stupid thing is we will be using diesel to transport the ethanol to the pumps...but shit, we already do that now with our own diesel and fuels so that is no different. Brazil could easily start exporting that shit in the next decade, and Europe. Brazil is ALMOST able to be completely independent from foreign Fossil Fuels. I don't care because either way im only using it for my race car which is going to pollute no matter what fuel i am using. I want to find a barrel of e98 and make my own leaded e85 but i just cant fucking find it!
Apex i ITR
02-07-2010, 03:51 PM
There is also algae ethanol hopefully coming in the next few years.
SPOOLIN
02-07-2010, 04:05 PM
There is also algae ethanol hopefully coming in the next few years.
also a cellulosic type
SPOOLIN
02-08-2010, 11:30 AM
if anyone is interested in E98, theres a guy i found that sells the barrels for 255$ for 54 gallons.
Shipping is 200$ whether you buy 1 or 4 so the more people that will go in, the lesser the cost. So if someone goes in with me on 2 barrels, then the cost per gallon goes down to about 6.50 a gallon, then you can make your own e85 blend or run it strait. If you ad another person the price drops again per gallon.
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