Has anyone tried E85?

[mgblue79]

Most of what I have heard and experienced with E85 so far has been positive. Has anyone tried it in their LBC yet? The (92) Tracker seems to like it and the lack of exhaust fumes with the top off is quite nice, the (04) Verona seemed not to care one way or the other no noticable improvement or drop in performance or economy, the lawn mower (01) SST 18 did not run so well on the first tank maybe just cleaning out all the old gunk.

My understanding of E20 and E85 is that the ethanol dries out plastic parts in the fuel system and short of adding something to provide lubrication these parts will fail in short order. Having said that this reminds me of the old question about leaded v. unleaded and additives and so on. I have heard of people running E85 in vehicles intended for leaded without problems either with the carb or the valves, and in more modern vehicles not intended to be flex-fuel vehicles without trouble.

Not having the Midget on the road, I can't say how that works. Help me out if you can.


Thanks,
John

 

[jlaird]

Ethanol does not burn as fast nor provide as much power as gas. Eat corn burn gas.

 

[Luke_Healey]

I never run 89 ocatane E10 (sold in Iowa cheaper than 87 octane) in my old vehicles. Especially air cooled ones. Ethanol burns hotter it seems.

I think E85 is really only for specified E85 friendly vehicles. But hey, that heat might harden your valve seats so you can run unleaded gas indefinitely /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

I get worse fuel economy with every vehicle I've ever put E10 into. I don't have anything that will run E85 (or is supposed to be able to at least.)

 

[sparkydave]

E85 corrodes metal fuel system parts, unless they are stainless. Plastic parts are OK, though. Don't do it. If you read up on E85, it is not recommended that you try it in vehicles that aren't designed to use it. Since your Midget's gas tank will corrode easily (ask me how I know, I rinsed mine out with water once; BIG mistake), then E85 will not be good for your steel tank, steel fuel lines, fuel pump, or carburetor. Also, since E85 needs a significantly different air/fuel mixture, you may not even be able to adjust your carb to make it run properly. It will run lean unless you can enrich it. Then again, since Strombergs are somewhat notorious for running rich, that may not be an issue. Still, I wouldn't do it.

 

[AweMan]

Environmentalists think e-85 is at least part of the answer to combat "Global warming". Bieng made from agricultrual products,
there is one thing that IT WILL DO for sure! And that is drive the price of agriculture products up! And it has already started! {ask your wife about the rising cost of groceries especially grain and produce products}. Not to mention animal protien {meat}. I don`t profess to know what the answer to cheap environmentaly friendly fuel is, but I don`t think e-anything is it! {Pay at the pump or pay at the grocery store} or in this case pay both!!
The price of a gallon of gasoline in Saudi is 91 cents {you do the numbers} Someone is ripping us off BIG TIME!!!!!

 

[Dave Russell]

The price of a gallon of gasoline in Saudi is 91 cents {you do the numbers} Someone is ripping us off BIG TIME!!!!!

Check how much of the pump price is taxes.
D

 

[Baz]

Eat corn burn gas.

Seconded.

 

[Morris]

Not to tread a dangerous thin line that will thrust this into a political debate... but:

E85 is a stop gap measure (at best) engineered primarily by the auto industry and Bush administration, not environmentalist.

The future of ethanol (if there is one) is not grain but garbage. It is now possible to distill ethanol from food, lawn and paper waste. The race is on to see who can roll this technology out fastest and cheapest.

Ethanol is actually an excellent fuel if an engine is set up to take advantage of it's burn properties. It burns much cooler and slower than gasoline and therefore can be run at much higher compression ratios.

And, finally, groceries are more expensive primarily because diesel is more expensive.

 

[mgblue79]

Good info, thank you, all...but if this is going to start a enviro/politico debate that no one can come out of feeling good, let's just drop it.

Once again, thanks for the input.

John

 

[jlaird]

The answer is:

Our little antiques were not desgined to run on anything but gas.

Many mods would be necessary to use meth.

The small amount of fuel you use on an anual basis is nothing in the great scheem of things.

 

[BIBBER]

John...unfortunately every year of engine was designed on the current availability of their type of fuel..I still put lead additive in some of my oldies.....rather than run E85 in your collector just shove your hard earned US$'s into the tank...it'll run just as good as with E85 in the tank and in the end you'll have saved a bunch of money!

 

[mrsprite]

I won't debate the pros and cons of corn-based ethanol as a fuel.....it would be long and boring (I did several research papers back in college while getting my economics degree). I will say that I actually did pump in some E85 into my Bugeye. I put approx. half a tank of E85 and half a tank of premium and it immediately ran like crap. DON'T DO IT!!!

It would not idle and I had to adjust the choke constantly just to get it to stay running. There were occasions on the highway that it felt like it had a lot more juice, but those thoughts were few and far between. I had to drive the car for many hours to burn the stuff off and then it took another tank or two before it started acting normal again.

So once again.....don't put E85 into your LBC!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[Morris]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]...but if this is going to start a enviro/politico debate that no one can come out of feeling good, let's just drop it. [/QUOTE]

So very wise... and my apologies for pushing the boundries of forum etiquette.

 

[mgblue79]

Hmmmmm,
"It would not idle and I had to adjust the choke constantly just to get it to stay running"
..almost like you have an 18 hp Briggs in yours, too hehehe

"So very wise... and my apologies for pushing the boundries of forum etiquette"

Morris, I meant that toward no one in particular. I believe we have all been on BBS long enough to know when a discussion is going in the wrong direction.

Forget I asked,
John

 

[PATR8]

Just for info, gas closer to 25 cents a gallon in saudi, under that in Iraq and Kuwait.

 

[jlaird]

And substized by the govt over there.

 

[racingenglishcars]

Gas is around $6.80 per gallon here, and I don't care what it costs in Saudi.

The bottom line is what Jack said earlier. The engines were designed to run on petrolium based hydrocarbons with an average carbon count near that of octane (eight).

If these cars were produced in millions of copies today, they would use different technology in the engine. But they aren't. Use gasoline close to octane rating of 95 and it will do fine. A little less and it will do less fine. If you want to drive it 30,000 miles a year or more, get a Toyota.