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E85 Can we use it?


TurboTuna

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Off the top of my head I cant imagine why you'd want to...my gut tells me the answer will be no, mostly because none of these cars were ever made to use it from the factory...we can look into it if you really think there's a reason why it should be allowed.

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Off the top of my head I cant imagine why you'd want to...my gut tells me the answer will be no, mostly because none of these cars were ever made to use it from the factory...we can look into it if you really think there's a reason why it should be allowed.

 

The number one reason I can think of is that it is cheap! Cheaper than 87 octane by about 20 cents/gallon where I live. Cheaper than premium pump gas. Way cheaper track gas or race gas. It also has a higher octane (104 generally) which is always good for a track car. Since we are not overly concerned with fuel economy in this racing series the only real downside is converting to run it. Since we penny pinch everywhere possible here why not save some money on the fuel we burn? I would hope that most if not all of us here would embrace a cheaper source.

 

Jeff,

 

I guess that depends on your point of view. Either way, I would rather not get into the political aspects of E85 here in this thread. We enough heated debates here and this one could get real hot, real fast.

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The pumps here say "May Contain up to 10%".

Isn't E85 nothing more than environmental-feel-good marketing?

 

jb

E85 is 85-percent ethanol, the pump gas you're talking about would be E10. E85 has about a 30-percent lower energy content than typical 87-octane dino-juice, so I really can't imagine a reason to use it, other than if you want to make even less power than you already have with a CMC car. And as Al says, most modern cars, especially injected ones, aren't designed to run on it and would need to be recalibrated.

 

Cheaper than 87 octane by about 20 cents/gallon where I live.

 

Yeah, because it's subsidized by the government to prop up corn prices, but you're right, let's not get into that.

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E85 has about a 30-percent lower energy content than typical 87-octane dino-juice, so I really can't imagine a reason to use it, other than if you want to make even less power than you already have with a CMC car. And as Al says, most modern cars, especially injected ones, aren't designed to run on it and would need to be recalibrated.

I never said it was plug and play. It would take some effort to convert. Probably more so for the fuelie guys. Us carb users have the parts already available to us from the carb'd alchohol racers. Either way, it is not insurmountable. I would like to build my CMC motor to use it because it is cheaper and more available to me. I think the benefits outweigh the modifications necessary to use E85.

 

That 30% loss is when you compare equal volumes of each fuel. All the vehicles, that I know of, that use E85, ethanol, or alchohol has to use a larger quantity of that fuel to make up the difference. So that sacrafice is fuel economy, not power. Fuel economy isn't a large priority to us here in CMC. If anything, it would enhance power and engine longevity because the risk of detonation in our cars would be virtually non-existent. Not to mention it would still be cheaper than equivalent octane race gas. See http://www.flextek.com/links/article.htm for the finer tech on the subject.

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I don't see any reason why you'd want to use E85. We don't need race gas or high octane. I ran my car on pump 87 last year and it loved it even when it was 90* and the motor was at 235*.

 

That's assuming you're talking about a 3rd gen with low compression and iron heads, which it sounds like. You don't need E85 or even premium with 9:1 compression ratios. Besides, you don't save any money when you have to burn 30% more fuel to save $.20/gallon.

 

PS- I figured fuel economy would be pretty big for you light, ballast with fuel Mustang guys since you can get it further back. Why would you want to burn off your ballast

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I use 30 gallons a weekend in my car tops, usually more like 20-25. At 20 cents a gallons savings that's 6 bucks a week max. Is it really worth the hassle, especially when you show up somewhere and can't find E85? Plus TJ makes a good point. If you need 40 gallons of E85 to get the same mileage as 30 gals. of gasoline, you're in the hole. However you spin it, it looks like false economy to me.

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