Anyone running E85

[fetorino]

Has anyone run E85 in their FE? 

What has been your experience?

Have you seen a disparity in fuel quality from pump to pump or has it been consistent?

Any corrosion issues or drive ability problems?

What kind of mileage compared to gas?

[GJCAT427]

Not running E85 but our gas has 10percent added to it. I haven`t noticed any power loss but my milage dropped. The other problem I have is a fuel pump leakage which at first thought was a leaky line. This crap gas eats normal gas line and pump rubber. I`m going to get one of RobMc`s fuel pumps a little later this winter as he has alcohol resistant internals in his. It is a little hard starting when it gets hot out. Mext step is to get some avgas to blend and see what happens.

[fe66comet]

I am building my car up from scratch to run E85. It is far from done but all the fuel system has to be changed to run it due to potential moisture content and the ability of alcohol to break down rubber and dirt in the system.

[Heo]

Not in the fe but in a Volvo I milled the head for
Higher comp and used SU carb where you tune
it for richer or leaner mix with just a screwdriver
Milage about the same with gas without milled head
although i had to enrichen the carb 2 revs on
the adjuster
but the plastic in the carb dont liked the fuel
the holder for the main jet  fell in to pieces
but its known to do that some time with gas
allso and the float swelled and got stuck
closed
When i get some leftover time im going to
mill the head more if i find a shorter belt
for the camshaft and use older SU carbs
with brass parts and try with dual carbs
and a hotter cam

[fe66comet]

You can run way more ignition advance also and really get things rockin.

[machoneman]

You may have seen this site already (it is pretty good) so.....

http://www.raceone85.com/

[fe66comet]

Yes I have gotten a lot of info there, also Rob Mix gave me a huge amount of advice when he did my carbs.

[Qikbbstang]

they list the Modifications: Turbo(s), Blower, Cam(s), tunning etc they always start off with E85. Obviously running high compression to pull crazy HP.

[hotrodfeguy]

I had for a while, you can push 14-16:1 CR on it. I did not have a issue with corrosion. I think thats a methonal issue, not corn  Start with a alky carb or a E-85 spec carb. Was not that hard. Only real drawback was is you went through it about a good 1/3 faster. when I would cruise around on collage ave here I would be looking for a pump in half the time and if i didnt find it soon i was empty. But it can be ALOT of fun. cause you can build what is basicly a RACE gas engine that works perfect for e-85. And you will find people dump pistons and such for those CR's like 14:1  I even thought a 10: with a blower would make some serious power. 
E85 requires approximately 30% more fuel flow than the same engine setup would require on gasoline. This is due to the fact that E85 is an oxygenated fuel and you can burn much more of it with the intake air the engine can draw into the cylinder. As a result an engine with no other change than switching to E85 with a proper tune can typically produce anywhere from 5% -15% more power than it could on gasoline. In extreme boosted applications power increases can be even higher.
E85 significantly cools in the intake air charge as it evaporates, this increases the volumetric efficiency of the engine, it can literally get more fuel and air into the cylinder and burn it completely on E85 than it could on gasoline. E85 has a wider flammability range than gasoline so it can be ignited and burned both at much leaner fuel air mixtures (good for fuel economy) and much richer fuel air mixtures (good for max power output) than gasoline.


http://e85forum.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=523901d0013830efa1172a95394df465

[fe66comet]

On my 445 I am going 11.5:1 with future plans for a supercharger. The strongest street able drive train parts I can find support about 800 HP so that is my ceiling in the end. I think at that point I will be looking at a stronger block with splayed caps to hold things together and switch everything over. Not sure where I will end up with my current combo? But dyno time is coming soon.

[chris_r]

I have run e 85 for five years and one thing we all learn that run e 85 is to check the octane. I really like it in a high comp. street engine and race engine. Pump gas e 85 is just fine for the street e 85 engine but the octane is not consistent for the race engine. For race e 85 engine i buy a high quality e 85 from one of the race fuel company.

[fe66comet]

Or buy a test kit and supplement the mix with denatured alcohol.

[fetorino]

Everything I've read says test your fuel if you plan on leaning on it hard but if it tests good pump E85 is good stuff.

Blair ran my motor on the Dyno with E85.  Results to be posted in a few days after the guesses are all in on the TP hp thread.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=726.45