Adapt Your Vehicle to Run on E85

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why? E85 just means we get to burn people's food in our horseless carriages. better would be to just use a smaller carriage, so both the carriage has fuel, and people can eat. (is this political???)
 
Eat my seals, burn my food, make more trips to the pump, suffer poorer starting, rob my fuel pump and top piston rings of lubrication, and gratify a poorly thought out and unsustainable energy strategy?

All to put money in ADM's pocket and satisfy some badly informed, misguided, and intellectually lazy eco-freaks?

When do I start??

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I don't think that the above posters read the article. It would answer all the questions they asked. I just felt it to be an interesting device that actually works. They started selling E85 near me at 30 cents per gallon cheaper then regular gas. Economically it wouldn't benefit me.
 
It seems that way at first glance, but all the "answers" are simply opinions and assertions. There isn't one single objective measurement of how the car operates; there is no discussion of possible side-effects on some cars; the discussion of the environmental benefits conveniently omits most of the relevant information; the author doesn't say *how* this device will bridge the gap to renewable energy sources; etc.

Long story short, it's so full of holes that you almost can't say it has any substance at all.
 
what renewable resource: corn growing uses huge amounts of oil, natural gas to make the fertilizer, potash which is running out.
reduce reuse recycle. instead of justifying with renewable, try thinking of just using LESS. oh, but that means less profit for the CEO. well, who cares!!!
 
No idea how true it is or not, but last week an employee at a Chevy dealership told me that they had received information that the government is going to pull out of the E85 program due to bad press and its supposed negative impact on the ecomomy. As I said, no idea of that information's validity.
 
Originally Posted By: ronbo
They started selling E85 near me at 30 cents per gallon cheaper than regular gas.
But what is the cost per mile? Forget about cost per gallon, figure cost per mile. With the lower efficiency of ethanol, there might be no cost savings with E85.
 
The compression should be about 11:1 + or plenty of boost to take advantage of E85. Fuel flow will need to increase by about 20% by re-jetting or installing one of those piggy back systems to enable the pulse width of the injector to increase when needed.

Yes you use more E85 than the blended fuel we have now. A little E85 in the tank will just about go unnoticed, at about 40% you see a more fuel use but no more use than if it was straight E85 in the tank. E85 expands more than gas without the side affect of gobs of heat. "Heat energy" is good to heat a house but it is waste energy in an engine.
 
That article is clearly the result of advertising $$$. The whole thing looks like it was wrote up by their marketing department. It's so obvious that I cannot believe how nobody mentioned it before me.

Installation took 20 minutes? Are you kidding? Have you guys even looked to see where injectors are? I dare any V6/V8 owner to do this in 20 minutes, as the injectors are often buried inside the V, underneath the intake manifold, air intake, wire harness, etc. It takes me a couple hours just to change my spark plugs as they are buried in the V. The injector harness would require even more digging. Even most 4 cylinder's injectors are under the intake manifold, out of reach. This is not something for the typical DIY mechanic.

Increase in performance? [censored]! We all know E85 has less energy density than gasoline. The only way to create power is to take advantage of E85's higher octane. Without increasing compression or adding boost once can only accomplish this with timing. While modern closed-loop operation can make adjustments to AFR based on O2 sensor input, timing is generally pulled off a map (based on sensor inputs and sometimes base timing) and only adjusted (retarded) when the knock sensor detects preignition. Without tuning the engine yourself, you'd see a decrease in both mileage and power output.

The author attributes the increased power to 105 octane. Absolute [censored], 105 helps no more than premium does in a car recommended for 87 unleaded. Doesn't make the combustion more efficient, stable, controlled or whatever adjective you care to use; just harder to ignite. He makes mention of harder to start, but misses the reason why. It has nothing to do with fuel delivery as he states.

All told he actually had a 12% increase in mileage by using LUBRILON. It reduces engine friction to increase gas mileage. [censored], what have I been missing all these years of owning automobiles? This would really help in my 50 mile commute back and forth each day! What a crock of $#!%.

Then he suggests taking the 17% of corn allocated for export and turning it into renewable fuel. Sounds great on paper, but way to add to our already grossly enormous trade deficit!

It is outrageous to think anyone believes this stuff!
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00
=All to put money in ADM's pocket and satisfy some badly informed, misguided, and intellectually lazy eco-freaks?

When do I start??

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Don't talk about the best and brightest elected government officials that way
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