changing an old car to E85

[beaulieu]

I was wondering if its possible....

for me its not practical because there are only a handful of stations in SoCal ,
but its an interesting idea if you could change over a car , be considered "green" and maybe drive in the carpool lanne by yourself

anyone try it yet ?

Beaulieu

 

[RonMacPherson]

Depends on how old the car is. Lots of problems with the rubber, hoses, fuel pump valves, plastic and fiberglass gas tanks, needle and seats, etc....

 

[Dave Russell]

Ethanol is the main ingredient in E85. It is not nearly as destructive to fuel system parts as is methanol.

To get E85 to work, you would need to increase fuel metering flow by about 40%. Larger carb jets. To go with this, power would decrease, & miles per gallon would decrease say from 25 to 15, unless the compression ratio were greatly increased. To go along with the mpg decrease, you are paying a heavy government subsidy to the producers & processors of E85.

Not such a great idea in my opinion. Don't intend to start an argument.

It's an entirely different situation with cars that are computer controlled & designed specifically to run on E85.
D

 

[beaulieu]

Hi

I agree E85 right now is not worth it , and is really not "green"

Just in the "wondering" state of will it work ,
and what are the problems ,

Brazil has been using sugar cane based fuel for over 20 years but their cars are built to use it ,

Beaulieu

 

[LarryK]

Why? You'll actually use more fuel and then when the old car sits in storage the alcohol and fuel will separate. Alcohol is water and the settled junk in bottm of tank will eat up the metal tanks. That's why all the new cars have plastic tanks.

 

[beaulieu]

I am just looking for info ,
I only know of the VW bugs and how they work in Brazil ,
they used normal steel gas tanks,
yes they use more fuel per mile so the MPG looks bad ,

But who knows what E85 vs gasoline prices will be in a few years, if E85 was half the cost per mile then it might be intersting,,,,,

I guess the same questions could be ask of Propane or natural gas that comes to your house ,

If you could drive for the old price of $1.50 a gallon by using another fuel in the same car how many would do it ?

Beaulieu

 

[kennypinkerton]

If you could drive for the old price of $1.50 a gallon by using another fuel in the same car how many would do it ?

Everyone would!

 

[LarryK]

But, how many people will drive their LBCs like they have eggs under the gas pedal and shift at lower revs constantly to maintain a better fuel economy? I can't it gets boring!

 

[eschneider]

Incidentally -- ethanol, methanol, CNG, LPG -- all produce higher quantities (20% and higher) of CO2 per gallon burned than gasoline. Just a thought for the global warming advocates.

Ironically, diesel is the only common fuel that produces less CO2 per gallon of fuel burned compared to gasoline.

Of course, HC and NOx used to be important issues, too - but you don't hear much about them anymore.....

 

[DrEntropy]

Whatever the pollutant du jour of the media is what we hear of. CFC's seem to have fallen out of favor as well. I guess we dodged that bullet. We can all now be assured we'll not be vaporized by El Sol.

 

[PAUL161]

Isn't it amazing, we have 25, 30, 35 year old cars and older that get from 20 to 35+ MPG. I looked at a new 08 car the other day, won't mention the name, and the salesman was seemingly overjoyed about it getting 27 MPG. Oh yeah, it was only $36,000.

 

[philman]

My '59 triumph was rated at over 40 mpg. My '95 Range Rover classic LWB gets over 20mpg on the highway. I don't see any reason to pay $36k for a clown size car that barely gets more mpg than my Rangie does.

 

[HealeyBN7]

Philman,

What are the secrets to getting 20 MPG in your RRC. I have a 95 in what I believe is in top tune and we have never broken 15.

Dean

 

[Guest]

Push it?

I average 12 in my LR3.
I get (maybe) 18 on the highway...

 

[MGBGT_noob]

Incidentally -- ethanol, methanol, CNG, LPG -- all produce higher quantities (20% and higher) of CO2 per gallon burned than gasoline.

Yes, but all the carbon in alcohol comes out of the atmosphere, so burning it gives you no net gain in CO2. Only fossil fuels add carbon to the atmosphere.