Role Reversal

It's less harmful for the enviroment.

tanc

DTN, ever bought race gas? You'll see the point than.

SOCKS_old

dtn, you obviously can't read....

the point of switching to e85 is a) better for environment b) runs cleaner c) and the biggest point that most people would switch.. 105 octane.... and daily drivable..

30% is a rough estimate.. and when tuned.. it would be better than that also, when tuned..

untuned petrol vs. tuned e85 wouldn't be a huge difference, and the 3 main benefits would make up for it IMO.. being able to safely push more power, keep the tree huggers happy, and keeping the engine cleaner.

99mini

what's the point?....

the rule of thumb is 3 octane points enable a 2 psi increase (everything else constant).

[corky bell, p115.... http://www.kennebell.net/faq/faq-answers1.htm ]

so if you're running 250 whp at 11 psi on 91 octane, the E85/105 octane would let you increase the boost by another 8 psi, which would be good for 320 whp.

[boost/hp calculator.... http://www.tunercalcs.com/horsepower-from-boost.html ]

(but if you increase the octane and then increase boost, you have to increase the fuel to maintain the original air/fuel ratio. obvious, but something i learned the hard way......)

REDZMAN

Because you are narrow minded.

Besides all of the other reasons here, it lessens our dependence on foreign oil, meaning you don't need to go fight to keep our oil supplies secure.

Duh.

mwood

very interesting

David Dickson

Here's a cool fact for those who already have a wideband O2 meter. Wideband meters native read Lambda values. Most have a logic chip in them that will convert the Lambda value into the 'normal' AFR values we're all used to seeing. So a lambda value of 1 will display 14.7:1. Some meters can also be configured to display the actual lambda value or even the AFR value for Ethanol. For those of us who don't have a meter than can do that we're still in luck. We can still tune based on our gasoline AFR values! How you say? Well we just have understand what the meter is showing us.
For example we already know that when the meter shows 14.7 it is really reading a Lambda of 1, and what also does a lambda of 1 equal? It equals the stoich mixture of 9.6:1 for E85. So to take that even further for tuning. Generally for a boosted application you want to tune a bit on the rich side under full boost. So say I'm shooting for 11.5:1 under full boost. That is 3.2 AFR points lower than stoich. In E85 speak that would be 6.1:1 AFR. So since the meter actually reads Lambda you can still tune for your 11.5:1 gasoline AFR and get the 6.1:1 E85 AFR. This is just an example as E85's 105 octane means you don't have to go so rich but my point is you can still tune for gasoline AFR and get the desired E85 in return. On my car I'm going to actually tune for a gasoline AFR of 12.0:1 which will be a E85 AFR of 6.9:1.

Make sense? smile.gif

Just an update on driving impressions. The engine sounds different and sounds healthier. Its definitely running cleaner. No more of that soot on my tail pipe. My Long Term Fuel Trim is 0 and my short term hovers around zero. My ignition advance while cruising is now 46 degrees. EGTs have dropped 150 degrees F. So far I've lost a whole whopping 2mpg.

Arcy

I'm glad that people are starting to look into this more, I would probably do it if it weren't for the whole college thing, kind of kills the cashflow.

njsharkracer

Too bad they don't sell E85 in New Jersey.

Ericy321

Was waiting for something like the DMDicks. That really makes this a whole lot easier to understand.

I know the DSM guys do it. Buy they generally get new fuel lines and anodized rails to handle the stuff. That isnt needed at all?