Will Be Blown Again! | Page 18 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Will Be Blown Again!

Back here again, diverted myself with a paint and interior fix-up thread, Spiffing-Up the Rig and a cooling thread. Blown & Ventilated.........................

My latest thoughts on supercharging, daily driving, mileage/gas prices....................How much boost?

I have a 4 1/8" pulley on now pushing about 4.7lbs. I am running low grade fuel with Lucas octane boost. I am after some savings by running a lower grade fuel, lower boost and keeping it out of boost. It runs in closed loop more which keeps it at 14.7:1. It gets much richer under boost in open loop fuel. I need a bit more time with it but have added timing and decreased fuel for this decrease in boost. If I keep my foot out of it and can keep it in open loop fuel most of the time, I should see some improvement in mileage.

If I only get nominal results in better mileage, I will likely go to the 3 1/2" pulley and 7.6lbs at 5,500' elevation (8lbs at sea level).

With this testing, I will decide on which pulleys to keep and may purchase another size.........................I'll report back on this. It will help me determine if I want additional pulley sizes. I think maximum, with this build, is around 9lbs without more octane or cooling. I am not going to intercool nor add meth injection.
 



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Uhhh, blew this tank of gas regarding tracking mileage...................The gas savings of a little better mileage or dollars saved going to a lower grade fuel is not worth it to me. I topped-up with Premium and put on the 3 1/2" pulley for ****'s n grins. It pulled hard and was registering over 8lbs of boost. That's 15 to 19 horsepower per pound of boost. My build is likely at the lower end of that range with only headers and 75mm T-body as power adders. It is likely about 130 horses added with over 8lbs of boost..................I could save maybe 7 dollars per fill-up with lower boost, better mileage and or lower fuel grade.

The 4 1/8" will not provide enough power for me. I just ordered a 3 7/8" pulley for 5.7lbs of boost here at 5,500' and over 90 horses. I believe that will be low enough to keep it out of boost much of the time and help with mileage when I keep my foot out of it. I am selling all the pulleys on Ebay, I have and 3 3/8", 3 1/2", 3 11/16", and 4 1/8".

If E85 (Ethanol) gets much cheaper than gasoline, it would be interesting to tune for E85 and run more boost. I read that you have to provide 30% more fuel to make it run right and go the same distance. The advantage is the high octane and cooling of ethanol which allows you to run run more boost. With the hurt the world is in and headed towards, I bet ethanol get more expensive than gas as ethanol is food.
 






That's very thoughtful and should get you the best cost efficiency by balancing the boost and fuel type.

BTW, the use of corn for ethanol has become an increase in food prices since it became widespread ages ago. When there are any shortages of corn, it hits the cost of fuel and food greatly. We should have never mass produced partial alcohol fuel, it should have stayed a rare fuel, to protect our food costs and needs. There are better ways to make ethanol than from corn(food).
 






I could run 10lbs and maybe more with a 50/50 blend of Premium with E85. That equates to 94+ octane. I am sure mileage would drop, not just because of the ethanol but because I wouldn't keep my foot out of it. That's 165+ horses and it would cost about the same, currently, than running 100% premium.

I am thinking this is my next tuning adventure. It would be cool to swap pulley, swap tunes, and fuel up with E85 to gain an additional 60-90 horses and put her close to 400............................................................
 






Good plan, the premium here is about $0.70 more than regular in some stations. The pure premium gas was $4.70 the other day, which is what I'd use for a performance application. So the regular with alcohol at $3.30 is a bargain versus that, I'd bet the E85 is not that much more after retuning for more fuel. Note the pump might need some help, what size do you have now?
 






Yes, I would need to know if the fuel system is up to the task. I think there is enough pump and injector to do this but I would verify that. I also need to make sure components would hold-up to 85% ethanol.

There are composition changes in the amount of Ethanol used in E85 at the pump. The flex fuel vehicles use a fuel sensor so air fuel can be adjusted on the fly based on what's been pumped into it. I would have to buy that or make sure I had a set mix, not varied as it can at the pump.

We all run E10, meaning regular gas has 10% ethanol in it already. I think I could safely run a 1 to 3 mix of E85 with Premium which would result in 95 Octane. That octane and cooling should result in being able to add a couple pounds of boost = 30+ horses.

If I ran E85, I could probably gain a total of 160+ horses at 10lbs of boost! They say 20% gains over gasoline in a boosted rig.

I am not convinced of doing this anytime soon. All that power gained would be fun, but not having to mix fuels, test fuels for composition, find E85, and at a time in which ethanol will likely increase drastically in price. It would be cool if E85 was at a much better price than Premium as one could save money on fuel while gaining power in a boosted application.
 






I would go slow planning for that, I agree, learn what local fuel you have easily there before changing anything.
 






The snout length and support bracket there at the front are the Showbox jiofi.local.html tplinklogin biggest issue versus adapting to any other 302. The 94/95 Mustangs have a pulley location(front to back) that almost matches the Explorer, it's around a 1/4" difference.
 






The snout length and support bracket there at the front are the biggest issue versus adapting to any other 302. The 94/95 Mustangs have a pulley location(front to back) that almost matches the Explorer, it's around a 1/4" difference.
I agree, Kenne Bell sells snouts and I have seen a few around the internet for sale. I wonder if adding a longer snout would allow the Mustang kit to work, along with adding a custom crank pulley.....................The Crank Pulley addition was a machine shop trip, not cheap.
 






I finally got around to installing better injectors, not easy as the blower had to come off and I thought the new injectors were longer and wouldn't fit without modify the bypass. They are the same length o-ring to o-ring! I should have done this long ago cause I had installed cheap, single pintle rebuilds to get it going.

The new injectors are 43lb Original Bosch units and at 64psi fuel pressure these are putting out 55lbs. They are also known as Green Giants and were used in the Lightning. I got them in yesterday and get to fine tune today. The idle rpm went up, I think due to better fuel atomization. I have recently been tuning for MPG, should've done this earlier

Pics below of huge lower intake (Ford F150) and old single pintle vs newer style injectors:

fff4.jpg fff1.jpg fff3.jpg
 






The snout length and support bracket there at the front are the Showbox jiofi.local.html tplinklogin biggest issue versus adapting to any other 302. The 94/95 Mustangs have a pulley location(front to back) that almost matches the Explorer, it's around a 1/4" difference.

It's very close to 3/8" actually, Explorer is 3/8" shorter than the SN95 302's.
 






I agree, Kenne Bell sells snouts and I have seen a few around the internet for sale. I wonder if adding a longer snout would allow the Mustang kit to work, along with adding a custom crank pulley.....................The Crank Pulley addition was a machine shop trip, not cheap.

Which snout length do you have now? I'm hoping the popular Terminator snout is the best for a Kenne Bell I'm going to use. I want the blower as far forward as possible, to make extra room at the back for the inlet plenum etc.

The crank and PS pulleys I had made by ASP, the crank was $250.
 






I got to measure the snout.

My butt-dyno says I picked up power with these injectors. I have been able to tune them more precisely.

The 3 7/8" Pulley is great. It provides about 6lbs of boost and allows me enough throttle, down low, to keep it out of boost for mileage.
 






The snout is roughly 10 1/4" or around 260mm.

I keep thinking about 60-75 horses/foot pounds of torque by running E85. The cooling of the ethanol and high octane will allow much more timing and boost.

The thing is I probably wont run it but for fun around town as It is not available everywhere and the mix can vary. It is currently cheaper than premium, about 25% cheaper but you get about 1/3 less mileage so you actually pay a little more.

I want a 3 1/4" pulley for 9.96lbs of boost at 5,500'. I will look at fuel pulse width in a datalog under full boost and see how much of the injectors is being used. This to make sure there is enough for 30% more fuel. I think it's going to be fine with 43lb injectors at 64psi and the high volume pump I installed. I could be playing with close to 400horses and 460ftlbs of torque
devil.gif
. I am going to start a tune for it.
 






I ran out of injectors and fuel pump at 10 psi @5500
 






I got out an got some good data yesterday. The injectors are currently maxing at about 51% duty cycle at WOT and 5200rpm. I got enough pump and injector to run E85.

Tweecer's owner broke-out a Function in the tuning strategy for me to adjust stoic for E85. Stoic for E85 is 9.77and max power is around 6.975:1 I'll get the Tweecer update loaded. I am going to open-up learning more in adaptive, increase timing, kick-up cranking pulse widths, and set-up the Open Loop Fuel. It will be fun to tune, pick-up some power and look at the difference in IAT. I will order a 3 1/4" pulley for 10lbs of boost tomorrow.
 






The E85 is a great fuel to use if you have plenty of it. I've thought of it for a local use pleasure only vehicle, but the E85 isn't widespread everywhere. It's awesome for boost and it negates the need for an intercooler generally.
 






The E85 is a great fuel to use if you have plenty of it. I've thought of it for a local use pleasure only vehicle, but the E85 isn't widespread everywhere. It's awesome for boost and it negates the need for an intercooler generally.
I can see that traveling could suck for E85 availability and certainly mileage.

I think that for around town this would be fun to set-up. I can already see that 9lbs might be best as 10lbs puts it up close to 500ftlbs of torque. I don't want to tear-up the new tranny or running gear.
 






You guys are awesome
I love the detailed updates
 



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I got the 3 1/4" pulley for 9lbs of boost and I am headed-out for a shorter belt to drive it.

I should be getting a couple of bottles designed to test E85 today.

I got a tune ready to try with the 6lbs pulley first, then 9lbs.

I got about half a tank of Premium to burn through first..............................................
 






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