IF you were to build an E85 motor....

tomslik · September 02, 2007, 09:43:58 AM

what kinda compression would you have?

been thinking about that for a limited street/bracket car with a sbc...
maybe a 377 if i can scrounge up a 400 block...
4speed/4.10 gears too...

jaybee · September 02, 2007, 11:05:16 AM

I'd say around 11.5-12 to 1.

1FATGMC · September 02, 2007, 01:01:43 PM

Quote from: "tomslik"what kinda compression would you have?

been thinking about that for a limited street/bracket car with a sbc...
maybe a 377 if i can scrounge up a 400 block...
4speed/4.10 gears too...

I would think it should have better cooling properties than reg. gas, so you could go up on the compression some, but don't know how much. Guess you already had all of that figured out or you wouldn't have been asking the question

. Popular Hot Rodding or Hot Rod recently had an article on this. I'll see if I can find the article.

Also in the new Oct 2007 issue of Popular Hot Rodding Vizard builds a 470 hp motor for just over $3000 using a late model roller block and he even tells how you might be able to do it for less. Take a look at it as I think it would be a perfect low buck street/strip motor for what you are looking at. Build it with the 1/2 point higher compression ratio that he talks about in the article.

BTW is the strip going to be salt or pavement???

c ya,

Sum

Flipper · September 02, 2007, 01:24:31 PM

I'm chomping at the bit for E85 to start showing up in my neck of the woods (and along the interstates). I wanna build a killer alky burning motor for the streets.

Leon · September 02, 2007, 02:07:37 PM

Out here we have ONE public E85 pump in the state, down in San Diego. The governor signed a paper declaring E85 the answer to our problems and talked about how we should all look into going with the new technology, all with one public pump! There are several corporations converting, but they have their own facilities for refueling.

wayne petty · September 02, 2007, 02:11:44 PM

i saw the artical also..

this might be of some help.

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/carbs_acc/pdf/carb_app_chart.pdf

i have also seen a few multi fuel motors showing up in the junk yards lately... someone else has gotten the injectors everytime.

a little off subject...but i just found out the blue top ford 5.0L cfi injectors flow 59 lbs per hour. the grey top 5.0 HO cfi injectors flow 62 lbs and the green top 3.8l v6 cfi's flow only 36 lbs. someone even makes adaptors for the top to install them in normal fuel rails...

river1 · September 02, 2007, 05:03:41 PM

Quote from: "1FATGMC"BTW is the strip going to be salt or pavement???

c ya,

Sum

i think he answered that

Quote from: "tomslik"4.10 gears too...

later jim

PS sumner, did you get the pics??

1FATGMC · September 02, 2007, 08:17:38 PM

Quote from: "tomslik"4.10 gears too...

Guess I didn't read his post too well :cry:

Quote from: "river1"PS sumner, did you get the pics??

Yep, I'm getting DSL hooked up this coming Wed. and hope to have the story and videos posted then. Thanks, nice pictures, but I knew they would be,

Sum

Crosley.In.AZ · September 02, 2007, 08:41:13 PM

as I recall E85 is about 105 octane. More compression builds more power... How about 12 to 14 : 1

The fellow in Tucson AZ with the turbo'd Ford Falcon with a 250 cid six cylinder engine runs E85 in the car. Falcon has run 10.80's near 125 mph.

Gale Banks likes E85,,, he was chatting about it on Jay Leno's web site...... Twin turbo big block pickup truck as I recall.

tomslik · September 03, 2007, 08:44:35 AM

thanks, guys.
and now for my next question,what about the care and feeding of the fuel system?
(holley carb, no efi or edelbrocks)
will it be like methanol?
if so, that'll suck....

why i think i want to go down this road is that theres a couple of E85 stations locally (2.299 a gallon)

1FATGMC · September 03, 2007, 11:37:15 AM

Quote from: "tomslik"why i think i want to go down this road is that theres a couple of E85 stations locally (2.299 a gallon)

And what about when you drive over to see me??? None here :cry: .

http://www.e85hotrods.com/

-----------------------------------------

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/alternativefuels/articles/120863/article.html

Gas Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back, we used 36.5 gallons of regular gasoline and achieved an average fuel economy of 18.3 mpg.

Gas Cost: We spent $124.66 for gasoline for the trip. The average pump price was $3.42 per gallon.

E85 Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back we used 50 gallons of E85 and achieved an average fuel economy of 13.5 mpg.

E85 Cost: We spent $154.29 on E85 for the trip. The average pump price was $3.09 per gallon

Gas/E85 difference:The fuel economy of our Tahoe on E85, under these conditions, was 26.5 percent worse than it was when running on gas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you thinking about it because it might save money, looks like it doesn't, or as a cheaper "power adder",

Sum

tomslik · September 03, 2007, 12:22:23 PM

Quote from: "1FATGMC"
Quote from: "tomslik"why i think i want to go down this road is that theres a couple of E85 stations locally (2.299 a gallon)

And what about when you drive over to see me??? None here :cry: .

i'll bring the truck;)

http://www.e85hotrods.com/

-----------------------------------------

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/alternativefuels/articles/120863/article.html

Gas Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back, we used 36.5 gallons of regular gasoline and achieved an average fuel economy of 18.3 mpg.

Gas Cost: We spent $124.66 for gasoline for the trip. The average pump price was $3.42 per gallon.

E85 Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back we used 50 gallons of E85 and achieved an average fuel economy of 13.5 mpg.

E85 Cost: We spent $154.29 on E85 for the trip. The average pump price was $3.09 per gallon

Gas/E85 difference:The fuel economy of our Tahoe on E85, under these conditions, was 26.5 percent worse than it was when running on gas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you thinking about it because it might save money, looks like it doesn't, or as a cheaper "power adder",

like i said, it'll prolly be because premium(or better) is a buck+ more a gallon....
i'd think it'd run cooler also..

Sum

purplepickup · September 03, 2007, 01:01:05 PM

This isn't exactly on topic but on my trip to Bonneville I was getting 30-31mpg in the Caddy (V8

) until I bought a tank full of 10% ethanol in Iowa. We don't have that in Michigan and I thought I was just buying midgrade gas. Mileage dropped to 21-22. It took a couple of tank fulls of regular 100% gasoline to get back into the high 20's - low 30's. The car was sluggish on the ethanol too.

Per that experience, the ethanol mix would have to be $2 per gallon to break even on cost.

jaybee · September 03, 2007, 07:00:40 PM

I can't see going with E85 for cost reasons at this point, it seems as if the price is always just a little too high for that. Over time I'd be willing to bet that will improve with upward pressure on oil stocks and improvements in Ethanol supply and distribution. I do like the idea of using E85 for the 105 Octane and superior cooling. It would have to be a locally-driven car, however, at this point the availability just isn't there for a car that's driven all over the place. It would be fun and if I were building a barely-streetable car for terrorizing the local pavement or as a street-track car I'd sure consider it. Except that I don't know if the stuff is legal for a lot of compteitive classes. :?

Crosley.In.AZ · September 03, 2007, 08:13:06 PM

Gale Banks talks about "optimizing" an engine for E85 and the mpg would be better yet still lower than gasoline.

E85 has less btu in it than gasoline , so the mpg would be less.

IIRC there is 1 or 2 E85 pumps in Phoenix and those are private or Gov pumps. Tucson had a few more.

THe turbo Ford 6 guy in Tucson has run E85 for a short while. He also has the new aluminum cylinder head on the 250 six cylinder engine .