DanaT

Well, it looks like I will finally have a chance to get the car out after the upgrades to see how much they helped.

To really see what the power difference is, the best way is....

....yes a drag strip...

If the trap speed goes up power went up. Those are real world numbers. I wont abuse the thing off the line but and more looking for trap speed.

My thought is since it is a "new setup" maybe I should run some race fuel. "testing" on the street I have no indications of knock, but maybe mixing some VP100 with the pump gas would give a safety margin.

Now, I would really like to get out and try the car with the 100% race fuel and more boost or E85 and more boost but for a first time out, i think just running the "street" boost is the way to go...

Of course the one of the closest stations to my house has E85 pumps so that could be my "street boost".

-Dana

JDS968

Did you specifically convert your fuel system for E85 use? If not, you can't safely use E85, as it will cause corrosion and kill your fuel pump.

333pg333

^^Funny how there are lots of people running on E85 without doing any major hardware changes. You do of course need some software changes and possibly increase inj and fpr.

Rogue_Ant

Bollocks.
E85 here for years, no such corrosion.

333pg333

Lol, 'BOLLOCKS'. You've been watching too many Guy Ritchie movies Rogue!

Rogue_Ant

Haha

333pg333

Dana, what mods have you recently added? When are you going to the dyno or strip?

toddk911

Dana:

As mentioned, with E85 you will have to adjust your a/f about 15-20%. If it were me, I would want to keep the variables to a min for testing. Just run some race gas/xylene, etc for a safety margin without making any adjustments.

Then, run E85 and adjust a/f accordingly after testing is done; and crank up the boost!!!

DanaT

The E85 should be a "flick of a switch" away. I have the Vitesse V-flex software so there is already E85 setting they are just "experimental".

Since i just got the AFR meter in, I havent had time to play with anything except pump fuel. When I "flick the switch" to E85 it adds lots of fuel and with gas it goes really rich.

-Dana

67King

E85's biggest issue in a production environment is seat wear. On the valves AND the inserts. Gasoline contains some natural lubricants, E85 does not. It can also attack the back side of the insert where it meets the pocket in the head. Again, this is in a production enviroment, where you expect hard components to last he life of the vehicle. As E85 is hydrophillic, it can absorb water, which can lead to corrosion, but it is not a widely seen thing.

A/F is very different. I don't recall the gasoline numbers, but compared to octane, it takes 4.17 times as may moles of ethanol as octane, which translates into 1.68 times as much ethanol by volume, which translates into 1.58 times as much ethanol by mass. Having said that, that is stoich. What works in ethanol's favor is that it doesn't need the kind of enrichment gasoline does to make max torque. I had run these numbers for fuel economy, rather than max power, and they boxed closely with the development engines.

Anyway, you can run the numbers yourself, or you can talk nice to Rogue or some of the others, and they might share. But you need to make some big time fuel calibration changes to run E85. To take full advantage of it, you should increase your CR.

V2Rocket

king, while normally i wouldnt question your experience (heard another 5.0 yesterday....ahhhh!), i thought the gasoline lubricants were in the days of leaded gas?

86 951 Driver

In leaded gas, lead was the lubricant. E85 is very dry.

Just throw some 2 stroke oil in it. Should be fine. DON"T DO THIS as it was a joke.

toddk911

Ok, if you are already mapped for it then you will be fine.

I think every day that E85 is not close distance to me I die a little inside... LOL

blown 944

Dana, I wish you luck in whatever direction you go with.. When are you thinking of goingup??

I am possibly going to head up on Weds if everything goes OK this week.

67King

Lead made life easy on everyone. I don't think they even had to harden the seats (later iron heads used induction hardening to harden the parent metal). But unleaded does still provide some librication. Ethanol is another matter entirely.