Anybody use Ethanol or make their own
#1
Anybody use Ethanol or make their own
I read thread about fuel prices and I agree it sucks. Does anyone make their own ethanol fuel (or other alcohol) and if you do, do you run it in your F-body? How hard would it really be to make your own still etc. ?
#2
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My brother and I are in the process of doing this. You have to have all the parts and in Florida apply for a small distribution license that limits you to 10,000 gallons per year. I'm letting him deal with getting the parts. We should be putting together two stills in the next month or two. We're going to still some straight alcohol, then tweak with it seeing if we can add certain things to make it a little better.
Once we get everything figured out I'm going to tune my 93 Z28 with a GT42 turbo on it. I'll be doing before testing on 93 octane and after testing running our alcohol on the dyno. That's about all I can really tell you about it as that's what he's told me. You can also make drinking alcohol in it too as an added bonus.
Once we get everything figured out I'm going to tune my 93 Z28 with a GT42 turbo on it. I'll be doing before testing on 93 octane and after testing running our alcohol on the dyno. That's about all I can really tell you about it as that's what he's told me. You can also make drinking alcohol in it too as an added bonus.
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For the home brewer it will be nearly impossible and definitely impractical to make it dry enough to burn in an engine, alcohol absorbs water so it is not an easy thing to get the water out of it.
Naturally aspirated you will make LESS power and drastically reduce economy on alcohol, if compression and tuning are just right you can get slightly more power but it is unlikely.
Forced induction is another story, alcohol acts as a chemical intercooler and can be a benifit there with the air temps seen in boosted engines.
Naturally aspirated you will make LESS power and drastically reduce economy on alcohol, if compression and tuning are just right you can get slightly more power but it is unlikely.
Forced induction is another story, alcohol acts as a chemical intercooler and can be a benifit there with the air temps seen in boosted engines.
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You need a tune, an appropriate fuel pump, and I believe even different fuel injector O-Rings to run it constantly. All due to it being dry. There's a guy on here who runs it almost all the time, he mixes in some diesel to help with lubrication.
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For the home brewer it will be nearly impossible and definitely impractical to make it dry enough to burn in an engine, alcohol absorbs water so it is not an easy thing to get the water out of it.
Naturally aspirated you will make LESS power and drastically reduce economy on alcohol, if compression and tuning are just right you can get slightly more power but it is unlikely.
Forced induction is another story, alcohol acts as a chemical intercooler and can be a benifit there with the air temps seen in boosted engines.
Naturally aspirated you will make LESS power and drastically reduce economy on alcohol, if compression and tuning are just right you can get slightly more power but it is unlikely.
Forced induction is another story, alcohol acts as a chemical intercooler and can be a benifit there with the air temps seen in boosted engines.
Also, it! This topic has been covered millions of times.
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My fuel system will be completely alcohol compatible. I'll be using 60lbers, a boost reference fuel pressure regulator, and two 255lph with the second pump on a hobbs switch. The water thing will be interesting to see how it turns out. Especially down here seeing as how we have extremely high humidity at all parts of the year.
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My fuel system will be completely alcohol compatible. I'll be using 60lbers, a boost reference fuel pressure regulator, and two 255lph with the second pump on a hobbs switch. The water thing will be interesting to see how it turns out. Especially down here seeing as how we have extremely high humidity at all parts of the year.
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I've made it and used it. Its not rocket science.
The process of making it isn't all that hard, but it is rather time consuming. And sometimes not worth making unless you have free input. I've ran upto a 30/70 mix and my car handled it fine, and no problems with lines or anything.
-Rick
The process of making it isn't all that hard, but it is rather time consuming. And sometimes not worth making unless you have free input. I've ran upto a 30/70 mix and my car handled it fine, and no problems with lines or anything.
-Rick
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Might just be 93's 'stupidity', but I ran about 80% E85 one time. My car ran OK home, but the next day it ran like total crap. I figured about 40% is the max I want to try running.
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Even though Alcohol is Hygroscopic (it retains water like brake fluid and A/C compressor lubricants), it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Also, if you can, find a Mark IV supra Fuel pump. It flows about 40-50 more LPH than a 255 at the same PSI. I like where your going with your setup Beaflag. If you didn't realize most cars from the early 90s don't have a problem with being alcohol compatible. Just replace a few o-rings and you should be good. Also, Alcohol isn't corrosive to aluminum like most people think. Its actually methanol that people have problem with. Figured I'd give some heads up on that.
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I have seen what happens when a guy trusts his 18yo kid to winterize an alky(methanol) roundy round car. Alky is rough on parts granted today most stuff can handle it fairly well since for the last 20 everything has been mandated to handle at least 10%, so while issues are possible at higher concentrations it will be a slow long process.
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I have seen what happens when a guy trusts his 18yo kid to winterize an alky(methanol) roundy round car. Alky is rough on parts granted today most stuff can handle it fairly well since for the last 20 everything has been mandated to handle at least 10%, so while issues are possible at higher concentrations it will be a slow long process.
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Getting ALL the alky out of it. Kid boxed the carb up with the bowls full and did the same with the belt driven fuel pump, pump was seized by spring carb needed a rebuild too.
The sealed fuel system of these cars and using ethanol instead of methanol would reduce these concerns a fair bit though.
The sealed fuel system of these cars and using ethanol instead of methanol would reduce these concerns a fair bit though.