there are a couple of really good posts over on turbobuick.com about running e85 instead of c16 on turbo motors. a few of the guys there have cut bait on c16 alltogether and have sorted out the transition from c16 to e85 with aftermarket ecms (XFI/DFI). on the whole, the are using ~30% more volume in boosted areas of their maps, at idle and cruise they are keeping things fairly normal.

i may investigate this after i get my twin turbo'd motor up and running a bit more.

 

Oh ya. I'll agree to that. Just getting the engine fired up when it's cold is hard enough. At least with a carb, you have accelerator pumps to help prime the engine to get it started. A gas primer system is normally a welcome add on to any alcohol engine. Watch someone start up an Enderle hat system when it's cold. Butterflies are opened the a crewmember uses something like a liquid soap container to squirt into the butterflies. That's gasoline to get the engine fired up. It's an old school method but still works.

When an alcohol engine is first fired up and the engine is cold, it runs very rich. Once heat is built up in the engine, it leans out. With gasoline, you need to use a choke when the engine is cold because it runs too lean. Alcohol is just the opposite. Typically a leanout valve is used to lean the mixture by creating a vacuum leak with a cold engine and help build heat. I agree that the E85 system probably won't have these issues or at least not to the same extreme.

I'll probably do the whole season with my alcohol carbs. Within a couple of days my dual Toilet system will arrive. As nice as I'd like to get them on ASAP, I'll need to get a base tune up setting first to know what size nozzles, pills etc to use for my combination of parts. No more dumping fuel into the intake. Injector ports right at the base of the runners aimed directly into the cylinders. Just going to be a lot harder to start on those cold mornings.

 

Places to check out:
http://www.rune85.com/
http://www.rune85.com/turbocobra
http://www.rune85.com/cornvette.htm
http://www.dynotuneusa.com/

 

FWIW I have a flex fuel truck and was running E85 for a while. Unfortunately I was getting 70 miles less to the tank with E85 over regular gas. When I did the math I would end up spending more money a month on ethanol than regular gas. Now whether or not the gas mileage issue would apply to your situation (race gas pricing vs. ethanol pricing, 3.0L V-6 in my truck vs. your high compression motor, tuning capabilities, etc.) but every little bit of info helps. Hope this does. Good luck with your project and definately keep us informed.

 

I just bought a couple of drums of methanol for the race season, ~$2.10/gallon Of course, adjusting the price for the needed AF ratio takes it to ~$5/g. Still, that's still about 1/2 the cost of high octane race gas and it works better!

Ethanol production for a motor fuel gets heavy subsidies/tax breaks, BTW.

Rich

 

95firehawk: I'm not at all concerened with mpg, this is a race car first and foremost that gets street driven, 2 yrs ago when I drove it to the track, made 5 passes, then stopped at the station prior to coming home I got 2mpg...so obviously this would not be a daily driver LOL!! Have to mortgauge the house to operate it for a month

I've read multiple stories of folks dropping mpg with ethanol, which they should, since it has less BTU than average gasoline, so it naturally takes more to make the same amount of power. Mathmatically, all the other stories I've read said even though they use more E85 vs regular gasoline, they still come out ahead at the end of the month once they average everything out...and that is why there's a big psuh for E85, better for the environment, and cost less, even though you have to stop sooner to refill...if that was'nt your case, that's very strange when compared to most of the stories I've read with flex fuel compatiable vehicles.

For my example/case Say I burn through 20 gallons a week which is street driving and racing on regualr 110 octane, that is going to cost me $105/wk with the price right now for the race gas @ $5.25/gallon

Everybody that runs E85 all agree they use about 1.5 the amount of E85 as they do regular gas, so basically I'll be burning 30 gallons of fuel a week with E85 than I would with regualr gas, so at my cost of $2/gallon I'm spending $60/week in fuel, so in the big picture I'm saving $45/wk in fuel costs, plus my motor will run cooler, and I get to be the first racer in my area running it, so I get the "fore front award" LOL!! not to mention saving myself $180/month in fuel cost at the very minimum.

Rest of my carb conversion parts will be in tomorrow, I pick the short block up Weds. (supposedly) and then we get to play on the dyno n a few weeks for A-B testing and tuning..looking forward to it

Josh