E85 convertion

[austin]

I have an 86 with a g63b, I am running a weber 38/38 carb. What all do I have to do to be able to run E85? I know I will have to tune it, and change the gaskets in the carb, but what else should I be concerned with?

[Josh2g]

Usually you need bigger fuel lines and pump on fuel injected engines, so I would assume the same on carbd engines.

[pennyman1]

Jetting will need to be changed for e85 - timing can be advanced a bit because of the increase in octane due to the fuel. Change over to an electric fuel pump - the mechanical pump will die quickly due to e85 swelling the pump diaphram. also run an aftermarket inline fuel filter compatable with alcohol fuel. You will loose fuel mileage running e85 due to the lower power output of alcohol fuel, but jetting can minimize it.

[LSR Mike]

If I remember my fuel ratios correctly, E85 (alcohol) needs to be tuned for a 12:1 AFR as opposed to the GAS AFR of 14.7:1. bigger jets and all the other stuff.
E85 doesn't really have a benefit other than being "Green" unless your in a supercharged/turbocharged environment where it cools the intake charge making it more dense, thus packing in more fuel.

So unless you, or someone you know owns a Ethanol plant, why would you do it?

[austin]

It was just something I was thinking about. I was hoping that I could get a little more power out of running E85.

[camoit]

My neighbor has a "flex fuel" E85 car. it get 18 MPG on E85 and 26MPG on gas. He said it is the worst thing he has ever bought and would never recomend it to anyone but his mother in law.... Here gas runs $3.89 gal and E85 is $3.65 not any savings in that department if you fill up more often.

[pennyman1]

On the flex fuel cars, just wait until you needs a fuel filter or other fuel system parts. Try 4+ times the price of a gas only car and their not interchangeable.

[4doorciv]

Haha. Sorry, that mother in law crack was pretty funny. X2 on it'll hurt your wallet. Got the same results last time I was in the mainland on vacation.

[capev86]

dodge dabbled with E85 cars in the early 90's. the only dodge non-turbo 2.2/ 2.5 with mpi in the states was the flex fuel vehicle (ffv) Spirit. they took a 2.5tbi motor, added the turbo intake manifold and electronics, reworked the engine internals and used more corrosion resistant materials, notably the all stainless version of the turbo fuel rail (have one of these for my k car project). other items were a plastic fuel tank and a special sensor near the tank to tell the electronics what exact mixture of fuel was being pumped to the engine to make for proper running. another cool thing is flex fuel injectors flow the equivalent of +20% injectors that the aftermarket makes for the turbo cars.

what all these "green" preaching people fail to realize is ethanol has 1/2 the combustive energy of gasoline, is more corrosive, harvesting takes a lot of energy, and the fuel has a short shelf life. regular gas lasts for years, but this new junk gums up fuel injectors faster, corrodes fuel systems on older vehicles and gives you less power resulting in the burning of more fuel to get the same amount of performance. it's like spending big bucks on a brand new Prius when you could buy an older 4 cylinder Camry, Civic, etc and reduce the demand on resources. it is counterproductive to replace a vehicle that works perfectly fine (scrapping programs). ok...now i feel like a spokesman for SEMA