Anyone running E-85?

[TRITecate350]

I have been running E85 in atvs for over a year. It makes about 17% more power than gas, and you need to use an alcohol carb at a leaner setting than alcohol. The only problem is it will pit and warp your plastic floats in your carb. Methenol makes about %20 over gas, we have been running about 2 times the fuel though the bikes. The only problem is consistancy, it doesnt attract water as bad as methonal, but you can have anywhere from 70% to 90% varying alcohol content which makes jetting alittle difficult from one batch to the next batch. If anyone wants a E85 carb setup let me know, I have them for $350. (Lectron)

[sandman829]

Makes more power and the motor runs cooler. Cooler motor more totale timing before pining. Sand rail runs 48 deg total timing.

[Aka_am]

We have e-85 around me!

Since you have to pump more gas though is it actually cheaper?

[madmanwithmouse]

My bike is what TRITecate350 is refering to. Yes it requires 30ish% more fuel but, it has 15-20% more power. Also ive got an egt probe in mine now and i cant get it over 400 but thats in 20 deg weather. Ill just have to see what it runs come summer, but the fan rairly came on last summer. The cost is about 2/3 that of premum gas so if you figure the cost in mpg its about the same as premum, only with more power. you will probly need to replace your fuel lines with alky cpmpatable, some it eats others it wont bother. also you can raise your compression ratio to around 15/1 since it wont pre detonate as bad, and get probly anouther 5% HP. I havent done it yet due to cost but, thats my next step.

[Tri-ZNate]

"it has 1/3 of the BTUs of Gas"

Wrong. Ethanol is gasoline and ethyl alcohol (drinking corn).

Yes i was wrong on the actual BTUs since I was too lazy to look it up and compare but dont bother teaching me about alternative fuels. Ethanol is corn alcohol, E85 is ethanol and gasoline (ethanol must have atleast 5% gasoline to denature it).

Either way it has ½ the BTU/gal of Biodiesel which i can make cheaper and faster than a distiller and not need a license to make it.

Madman - How much is your ethanol? Around here its only around $.10 cheaper than Gasoline (e85).

[madmanwithmouse]

Yes i was wrong on the actual BTUs since I was too lazy to look it up and compare but dont bother teaching me about alternative fuels. Ethanol is corn alcohol, E85 is ethanol and gasoline (ethanol must have atleast 5% gasoline to denature it).

Since ive switch to running E85 Ive only needed to change spark plugs about 1/3 as much. It sucks that they have to put gas in it at all or it would burn with NO carbon Emissions

Either way it has ½ the BTU/gal of Biodiesel which i can make cheaper and faster than a distiller and not need a license to make it.

I think Bio-Diesel is the way to go for diesel engines, but it won't run in your typical gas engine.

Madman - How much is your ethanol? Around here its only around $.10 cheaper than Gasoline (e85).

Im not sure what it is right now, but when the 91 was $2.50 it was $1.80some. I think it helps that theres a ethonal plant less than 10miles from here.

[TRITecate350]

Part of the reason there is gas mixed with it is to stop people from drinking it.

[mullet_boy]

I've been running my 200x on it for about 6 months now. Seams to work pretty darn good for me, aside from cold starting issues(i prime with gas about 2-3 times, keep in mind its in the 20* range here while i have to do that). I'm running 12:1 compression so I wanted to run higher octane, but methanol was getting expensive so i switched to E85. Not sure if I did my jetting entirely right but i read that straight ethanol is 1.8 x the size of your gas jets to get ethanol jets. So since the E85 is 15% less i just multiplied 1.8 x .85 x gas jet size. (seams to run good, so i havnt bothered it)

[madmanwithmouse]

my bike wouldn"t run correctly untill i got the jettting way up...not sure of the ratio. but it does like the fuel. alto it relly doesnt seem to burn asmuch fuel as when the jetting was abit lean. also did some running the other day in 40deg weather never saw anything over 700deg, even at WOT it was only running 500-550deg.

[bigpimpin]

ok so you need to just use a bigger carb, metal floats and jet it correctly?

[OldSchoolin86]

ok so you need to just use a bigger carb, metal floats and jet it correctly?

Don't really need a bigger carb just bigger jetting. Don't need metal floats either, E85 is not that corrosive. Sometimes the needle needs to be changed out for an alky needle to get it 100% though.

[81Rmachine]

From what I understand the whold concept of gaining power with alcahol is that you can run a higher compression ratio because of the octane but what the major advantage of alcahol is the engine runs way cooler. The added fuel vapor in the intake air combined with alcahols awesome heat dissipation yields a cooler denser charge which will expand a hell of alot more in the combustion chamber and therefore yield more power.

[bigpimpin]

Don't really need a bigger carb just bigger jetting. Don't need metal floats either, E85 is not that corrosive. Sometimes the needle needs to be changed out for an alky needle to get it 100% though.

where does one get alky needles? so with the proper jetting it should be a lower cost alternative to run e-85 and a high compression piston instead of race gas?

[UlsterATCFan]

Just saw an episode of American Chopper, they built an E-85 powered bike and apparently the reason 15% of it is gasolene is to stop people drinking it lol, I found that amusing

[Tri-Z 250]

The Gov. is now supporting the bottom line to refine E85. The fact is E85 cost more than 1/3 more $ than crude oil to refine. Why do you think the price of fuel is stuck at 4.00 across the country( getting America adjusted to except the price)...Then the Gov is going to make all of us change our old fuel injected cars over at the local garage to boost the economy. This is not an alternitive it is simpily a way to distance ourselves from the Middle East. The USAF (airforce) is looking to a coal and fuel mixture to burn in there fleet...It's worse than the current fuel after it's burnt to the air we breath. Can I get an educated person as apposed to a political pocket to decide how to spend my tax $?