Flex fuel conversion

[Rick]

Interesting info on E85 at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

 

[Rick]

Sure would be fun to crank up the 4.0s compression to 14:1 to gain the most HP from the incredibly high octane

 

[exploded99]

The write up at Wikipedia is pretty dang thorough!

I have discovered a new crisis we must solve immediately, however. Per the Wikipedia writeup:

"Coors Brewing Company is producing 1.5 million gallons per year of fuel ethanol from waste beer and is expanding that output an additional 1.5 million gallons per year in the near future."

WHO IS WASTING ALL THIS BEER???!!!

 

[stang99x]

A quick set of facts, more to come later

E85 is best used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of ethanol. Such flexible-fuel engines are designed to run on any mixture of gasoline or ethanol with up to 85% ethanol by volume. The primary differences from non-FFVs is the elimination of bare magnesium, aluminium, and rubber parts in the fuel system, the use of fuel pumps capable of operating with electrically-conductive (alcohol) instead of non-conducting dielectric (gasoline) fuel, specially-coated wear-resistant engine parts, fuel injection control systems having a wider range of pulse widths (for injecting approximately 30% more fuel), the selection of stainless steel fuel lines (sometimes lined with plastic), the selection of stainless steel fuel tanks in place of terne fuel tanks, and, in some cases, the use of acid-neutralizing motor oil. For vehicles with fuel-tank mounted fuel pumps, additional differences to prevent arcing, as well as flame arrestors positioned in the tank's fill pipe, are also sometimes used.

 

[Fordguy2000]

I have a stupid question. With regard to the in-tank fuel pump, why won't the electrical conductivity of the ethanol short out the stock pump? Just curious. I am surprised a standard in-tank electric fuel pump will work just fine with E85.
Thanks.

Factoids...Some may think that I've responded to this forum only to gain some sort of notoriety or spread some sort of rumor only to benefit from the rumor somehow.......
Fact:
I've been running E85 in a basically stock motor for five years running with no noticable corrosion or ill effects
Fact:
The same motor puts out about 290 - 300 horse on a dyno with premium unleaded gasoline - Runs at about 340 horse on E85
Fact:
Running E85 in ANY computer controlled fuel injected engine will automatically adjust itself as to fuel mixture to throttle positon as needed.
Fact:
I've personally used E85 in my vehicles and have only noticed a positive change in performance horsepower wise - I did notice my mileage went down from 19.4mpg to 19.3mpg in my Chrysler - my only vehicle with an onboard computer thing.

I'm not sure that using the term 'Factoid" was correct in evaluating my previos posts, but thanks for reading them anyhow.

 

[Fordguy2000]

Anybody have any input on this?
Thanks.

I have a stupid question. With regard to the in-tank fuel pump, why won't the electrical conductivity of the ethanol short out the stock pump? Just curious. I am surprised a standard in-tank electric fuel pump will work just fine with E85.
Thanks.

 

[SVO42]

Well, if any of you are thinking about switching to a standalone engine management system, you can do a flex-fuel conversion with Megasquirt: http://www.megasquirt.info/flexfuel.htm

MS home page: http://www.megasquirt.info

MS Forums: http://www.msefi.com

I'm going to do it eventually. First on my Mustang SVO and then to the X (once I have the spare cash).

 

[r37ribution]

Honestly...I will probably not convert my truck to flexfuel.

I like my body non charcoaled and in one piece.