Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:50:49 -0600
Reply-To: "John Connolly, Aircooled.Net" <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "John Connolly, Aircooled.Net" <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Subject: Re: E85 thermodynamic advantage?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I've been running E85 for almost 2 years in 2 cars. Here's the non BS
version from someone who's done it, and a lot of research. No baloney or
smoke here.
You aren't going to get more power from E85 UNLESS you
increase the boost or increase the compression. Since the vast majority of
our readers are N/A, there is no advantage. I don't think a lot of guys are
going to tear the engine down to bump the compression to 12:1 so they can
reap the advantages of E85. So the only advantage HERE is for guys that run
boost. NA guys don't bother.
E85 sucks in temps cooler than 60F. FI engines won't notice this as much,
but you can forget about it if you have a carburetor(s). E85 still sucks
below freezing in every engine. This is a problem for a lot of the year in a
lot of locales.
You also may as well consider E85 a "cleaner". If you have dirt anywhere in
the fuel system, it WILL be removed or at least popped loose by E85. This
CAN cause difficulties when the dirt winds up somewhere else (BTDT). If the
car is new that's one thing, but if it's 20 years old you better plan on a
fuel system flush and gas tank reseal (remove gas tank time) before you even
CONSIDER E85.
MPG will drop, as much as 30-40%, compared to gasoline. The chemist geeks
will tell you that you need 27% more E85 to be "the same" as gas, but
there's more to it than chemistry, I'm telling you what you'll experience.
It's up to you to decide if the smaller range will be worth it (150
miles/tank).
You also need to be able to re-flash or reprogram the FI computer for the
new fuel curve, easy if you have megasqirt, but if you have a stock ECU
whatchagonnado?
If you have carbs you have additional setup issues besides changing a few
jets (if only it was that easy) because it's more caustic, and because it
has a different density than gasoline so it behaves totally different in a
carburetor. It also has a low boiling point, so vapor lock CAN be a problem
in certain engines.
I'm not even going to comment on emissions, because that's another book
entirely on if it's cleaner or not, and depending on how you measure
"emissions".
I will say you can make your own Ethanol still for around $1000 the easy way
(or maybe $100 the hard way, scrounging, etc) capable of making 1000gal/mo,
and get a license for around $100/yr, and then not worry about where to buy
it. This of course depends on your neighbors, and your skills, not to
mention the wife.
John
Aircooled.Net Inc.
