Mikey 97Z M6

iTrader: (37)

So what do you all think of GM's push for the E85 fuel? I'm sure you've all seen the commerials for it by now. From the small amount of research I've done, it appears to have no real drawbacks and is in fact a high octane fuel (113) as straight Ethanol. The E85 is a blend of 85% Ethanol and 15% regular fuel. If it is a cleaner burning fuel, I see it as a nice alternative. It would also help the US economy with the farming communities in the midwest with diminishing farm land etc.. Seems like a win-win situation but maybe I'm missing some of the facts on it.

Here is a good link I found: http://www.ethanol.org/index.htm

Comments?

Mike

Rokko

iTrader: (2)

There was an article in the paper about this fuel, a vehicle also consumes it at a more rapid rate than the fuel we use now.

NVME

iTrader: (1)

Yup. It needs to be run at about 9:1 air:fuel (vice 14:1 like gas). You need bigger fuel pumps if you want to run it in a performance application. Also, there are few places that have it readily available right now. I have heard it can be hard on rubber in fuel lines, but that may be a rumor. It definitely has merits though.

JJKJ

iTrader: (4)

I thought I read that E85 is 85% Ethanol and 15% petroleum. Sounds like a good step towards fuel independence to me. I've also researched Biodiesel for my truck as an alternative fuel. As far as I've seen, I can run up to 100% Biodiesel in my truck without problems. Last time I fueled up, I mixed 15gal of 99% Biodiesel (B99) with 11 gal of petrol diesel. The mixture ran without any significant drawbacks. I did drop about 1mpg which is not a biggie in my view.

I like the push that GM is making towards E85 and if you've been watching the news, the push that WA state is making towards being a production leader in Biodiesel.

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

I read about this 5-6 years ago. It will take a major over haul of the fuel system for most cars. Exception would be Flex fuel cars designed for the task. If the correct injectors are choosen you could get by with very little tuning

BTW If I remember John is right on the 85% E 15%G mixture

As long as they get the price down per gallon(you will comsum a good deal more) it would be great!

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

It is the equivalent of 100 octane. The big things are the fuel pump o-rings need to be replaced with viton or a similar material to prevent deterioration as well as rubber fuel lines and the base fuel map usually needs to be bumped up around 140-160%

But it would allow more compression and burns clean compared to petroleum based fuels. E85 sells for around $1.10 a gallon in the midwest.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

Well, we can grow more corn. I think we are using up petrol faster than animals are decomposing & turning into oil....tho the Middle East seems to be trying to rectify that.

Sadly after watching the piece on 60 Minutes about the ice caps melting, I think we all need to prepare for changes in the not-too-distant-future regarding our cars. Or grow gills.

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Like I said the correct size injectors and you would pretty much be good to go. Many fuel pumps would be attacked also. Those are the main reason I mentioned a complete over haul of the fuel system. It basicly needs to flow twice as much and not give in to the corrosive natures they will be weathering

Looks like cost would be the same just have to fuel up twice as much

In the past and present I have researched to benifits and defualts of alternate fuels

Ackattack1

iTrader: (7)

Back when I was in college I actually did a rather large paper on E85. Granted this was back in 2000, but from what I found it was a good alternative, with the major drawback being availability, but since then, it has been growing. Also back then gasoline was still cheap, so running ethonal was a more expensive option, but now it would probably be about the same.

Besides the possible fuel system changes, there were other things to note:
Basically higher octane
Less energy per gallon than gasoline
Lower stoich. mixture, therefore you need more ethanal, so your mileage won't be as good.
Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is it doesn't vaporize as easily as gasoline at low temperatures, so in cold climates (ie Minnesota, etc) block heaters and other heating systems may be neccessary. Shouldn't affect us much here. Also I don't think it would work well in a carb application in cold climates because of the lower vaporization.

Back when I was doing my research paper GM was sponsoring a compitition at colleges where the students took brand new vehicles and converted them to run on E85. I'm sure they used some of those findings in there current flex. fuel vehicle.

I really hope that E85 catches on. I recently heard our ol' friend Bill Gates invested a lot of money into some Ethanol company that was trying to get started here on the west coast (Northern Cali if I remember right)

GEARHED

iTrader: (5)

I wondered about that, congeling in lower temps. Even with a core heater I don't think it would stand up in places around Alaska or Canada for that matter.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It figures, Kalifornia still considers us the 'suburbs'

Robert56

iTrader: (2)

Also bad on nitrous fuel solenoid seals.
Robert

Mikey 97Z M6

iTrader: (37)

Ooops, I made a typo when I was typing lol... it is 85% Eth... and I knew that lol,,, I'll correct my original post.

I wasn't able to get on here at all last night as my home computer took a crap on me.

For me, changing out some fuel support items wouldn't be a big deal, but to 95% of the population I imagine it would be a big deal. I coud see a slow transition into E85, but it doesn't look like it's going to be taking over anytime soon. I'd love to see it as an option at every pump though. Filling up more often would be a bit of a pain, but if it keeps the money out of the middle east, I'd make the sacrifice.

I guess the Indy car series is going to use a blend of Ethanol for the 2006 race season, then in 2007 they are going full on Eth... It'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

As for the comment on Eth deterioating the seals on the nitrous solenoids, plumb a dedicated 1gal fuel cell filled with race fuel for the nitrous.

Mike

99blancoSS

iTrader: (115)

what happeneded to nitrogen? Thought that was going to be the clean burning fuel we need.

Amorget

I think it was Hyrdogen that GM spent a bunch of time and money researching. The problem is that it is so freakin explosive that you need anti-static suits and stuff to refill.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

I wonder what the fire depts think of changing over to ethanol, since alcohol makes no visible flame when it burns. Could make responding to wrecks more dangerous....

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

You can have hydrogen in several different forms. I think most mfg. are looking at a temporary medium where the hydrogen is suspended by a third party gas and is broken down chemically when it is combusted.

Nate

Ackattack1

iTrader: (7)

The advantage of the ethanol is it is made from agricultural bi products, so its completely reunable.

97formula

I know it's been a while since any of you have talked about this but I've heard that if you either raise the compression ratio or use a super/tubro charger to boost the compression that the power would be the same with similar economy. any of you know if this is true?

79nova

they are to start build a plant to make e-85 in nc soon,

Runn

E85 is the ****