E85

[long283]

I was filling up at the local Caltex during the week and noticed they now have E85 at one of the bowsers.
$1.21/L while the 95 I filled with was $1.51/L.

Yes I know all the cons about using a possible food source for fuel, harder cold starts, increased fuel consumption....
but it would be nice to run in a weekend vehicle or racer that was built for the higher octane. The other way would be to run 91 octane and inject the E85 when the engine was under load.
And I have a couple of block heaters for a SBC that would take care of the cold starts.

[wagon]

I'd like to try it too. I don't think my injectors are big enough, however. Has anyone tried a setup with a flexfuel sensor yet?

[Metalfab_101]

Has anyone tried a setup with a flexfuel sensor yet?

Nup, keen to see how they go though!

[kholman]

There is some discussion of using E85 over at MSEFI.com forums.

[long283]

I was wondering if it would be possible to use a potentiostat or something similar to determine the percentage of ethanol in the fuel as a flex-sensor?

Something like this http://hackaday.com/2011/09/14/cheapsta ... entiostat/ .

I'm sure the electrically noise environment of a car would interfer with the readings but I don't believe high accurracy would be required. Maybe have the flex-sensor do a rough scaling of the fuel map and have a wide band oxygen sensor narrow it in.

[devojet]

I run the Caltex e85 in my SB 350 chev race engine in my boat, but it is carbie fed. It goes better, runs smoother, only down side is the hard starting below about 17degs. I just tip a bit of unleaded down the carb to start it. Only change I made to the engine and fuel system was changed the carbie to one that was tuned for e85. The engine only has 10:1 compression but e85 can handle 13:1 NA.

In theory you should get an instant 5% increase in power due to the energy content and the amount you burn, plus any aditional benifits of the cooling effect the fuel has. In my boat air temp after the carbie drops to around 7deg on a 20deg day.

I also have a series 2 SS commodore which is factory flex fuel. It has noticably more low down torque when running e85.

You can get GM sensors for about US$350 new or you could just use map switching. If it is tuned for 85% and you have a lower % mix it will just run a bit rich.

Caltex fuel is only 70% in sydney and melbourne and 73% in QLD because of the warmer climate last time I checked. I'm not sure if they plan to increase it or not this summer. They didn't last summer. Might have to email them and find out again.

Cheers
Daniel.

[azeo]

David Blumes' Book, "Alcohol can be a Gas" has some good stuff on conversions in the appendix. Greg Banishs' Book, "Designing and Tuning High-Performance Fuel Injection Systems" is also a pretty good book, and includes info on alcohol tuning, *plus* a Megasquirt installation case study at the end, highly reccommended! Some people apparently use dual tables, and an external switch, but this doesn't allow for mixing E85 with gas at various ratios in the tank like a flex-fuel sensor can, and is used for well-defined occaisons such as transitioning from street to race and back. David Blume's book also covers a variety of techniques for cold starting. It would be a fun thing to do with an MS!
Cheers,
azeo

[devojet]

Just an update, i tested some caltex e85 a couple of weeks ago and it was 80%. So looks like they are switching to a summer blend this year. Will be interesting to see how high it gets.

Cheers
Daniel

[wagon]

Has anyone had anymore results with E85? What factory Australian-delivered cars run it? I might try it soon; I might have to infest my Ford with more GM parts.

[devojet]

I won the Australian jetsprint championships last year running it.

Series 2 VE commodores are the only flex fuel cars I know of.

Cheers
Daniel.