Ethanol-85?

Anybody have experience with e85?
In addition to to the goodness of Made-In-America fuel, it has performance potential. Rumor has it there is a Willie Nelson gas franchise
When I lived in Texas, I had to ask: "Why do y'all love Willie so much?". The answer was "He's a hippie, but he's our hippie". Heh.

So... how to retrofit a 3.8 Litre V6? And corrosion-proof the fuel lines, etc.

[meissen]

Has a lot of potential, but you're looking at higher gas prices -- atleast from what I've heard. One of the local news stations, I believe WXYZ Channel 7, just had a news segment a few months ago about how something like 80% of the state vehicles run on e85 and there's only 4 or 5 e85 stations in the state. The station that most of the state vehicles have to fill up at (somewhere around Lansing) was charging a lot more for their e85 than a regular gas station. I believe the ones around us in the Detroit area were cheaper than the one in Lansing, but I think it still equated to more money per gallon of e85 compared to regular fuel.

[SS4Matt]

when i borrowed my friends 1500 hemi ram to take my rear end to the guy scott's house of "driveline solutions" i stopped at a gas station on northwestern to put some gas in the tank. i think i stopped at a BP or something? i don't remember what station it was, but i remember seeing that e85 at the pumps? and i remember that it was no more than premium? and that was a few months ago? cause i remember thinkin to myself "if this stuff is fancy how come premium is still more per gallon?" but maybe it's changed since then?.........Just my two cents.

[wezeles]

the thing is its actually cheep to make... alot of places in england are switching over to it... but they have to go full force... alot of times they use sugar cane to make it... just like alcohol... but from there they use the pulp from the sugar cane and burn it to run the power companys instead of coal.. so one company is doing great on it they make cars.. the fuel and use the waste from making the fuel to run there power company... so they are talking gas back in the 1.25 a gallon range when done that way... and it burns cleaner and will make an engine last longer "when built for it"... i have no clue why it hasnt caught on more in the states.. we have the land and need... might as well the only down side i guess is a premium mix burns pretty hott.. so unless the engine is built for it the friction will wear an engine alot faster than normal fuel.. so instead of lets say 175,000 miles on a car you might get 135,000 but they solved that with simple engine upgrades...

[archemedes]

it gets a premium normally. the reason we don't use it (and the cost is higher) is greed, look at our lawmakers most of them have interts in oil, why would they kill that?

[phoenix_rising]

Yeah ethanol is gonna be big. They just opened a plant nearby. I like Biodiesal the most! It can be used in existing diesels with little mods. I may own a Firebird but I am definitely concerned for the planet. I want to build one and then go show everyone else how. You can run it on kitchen grease of heavens sake! That f*ing awesome!

[regalracer]

I am entertaining the thought of building a carb'd 305 to run on e85. The infrastructure is not in place yet but hopefully it will be in a few years. you guys do know that the octane rating is 105 don't you. As far as what you have to have to mod to run it on a fuel injected engine I don't know, but on a carb'd car all you have to do is adjust your air fuel ratio when you run the corn. AKA change your jets.

[1bad83ta]

I don't think they knew that

[99ss]

we all have used it. sometimes in summer they put 10% in the fuel. The government buys suplus corn from the farmers and they make it into e85. Helps with the shortages of fuel too. The truth is if we change fuel types we need to change the whole infrasructure that is the main obstacle. I love the sound and smell of a mean gasoline engine, but I hate giving those terrorist countries and crooked politicions money for oil.

[02hawk796]

What are your maintenance projections for cleaning out the buildup of all the corn syrup gunk that it leaves in your engine?

[wezeles]

lol its not that kinda corn... its turned into alcohol... elthnol... same idea.. it will leave your engine cleaner than its ever been compared to gas... it burns hotter so less crud... but on an older style engine sometimes it burns to hot... so you have to make adjustments... new rings and small things so it can take the added octane and heat...

[phoenix_rising]

Yep its the same stuff you'd use in a drag car or on a wound. Ethanol Alchohol. I think I was reading a statistic that was saying that for any alternative fuel to work we need at least 4,000 gas stations to be equipped for the change. Thats why I like biodiesel! Diesel engines were originally designed to run on peanut oil but they can run on just about anything. Corn oil, Petrol, Peanut, Cooking, Vegetable, Olive, Lots of choices!!! And if you buy in bulk you could get it cheaper than gasoline! Great for the enviroment and for your wallet! I intend on building one out of an old diesel truck! I'll keep you posted.

[cobalt camaro]

There is a professor at SVSU that is crazy about Ethanol and e85, he converted his bettle to it, i guess there is a station around bay city that sells e85. I guess that there is a little bit of a powerloss using the biodiesel. But as for e85 i have no clue. Ethanol is like a basis from alchol, it's a molecular form of alchol, just different levels of certain elements in it, than alchol, burns cleaner, is cheap, and michigan has a ton of it. Also ethanol can come from sugar beets as well. So in the end, it helps out michigan farmers, creates more jobs for processing stations, and hopefully lowers gas prices.

[CHMLEON]

This site has all the current refill stations.

http://www.e85refueling.com/

[willasc]

For a mechanic standpoint, there are little that are needed to convert a car to run on E85, EFI cars a bit more complicated. Due to its chemical makeup, the O2 reading will defnitely be different, but would offer great performance since it's higher octance. Saab's E85 car actually get higher horsepower rating when running on E85. Few modifications that would be needed to convert a regular car to E85, first thing would be the fuel tank and lines all have to be changed due to its corrosive nature and reprogramming. E85 is a great fuel, but due to its energy content, which is 20% or so lower than gasoline, you will see lower fuel mileage. It would take an equivalent lower fuel price for E85 to make economic sense. The ability to get away from dependency oil however, is definitely worth it. As far as biodiesel, I have seen an article on CNN recently that they are developing making biodiesel out of algae growing out of a controlled greenhouse, great idea! Cost is still a bit prohibitive though.