Who's sharp with E85?

[Bill Martin]

My old Lotus TC1600 has been thru major freshening and the builder's getting ready to dyno. Is this a candidate for E85? Can dual 40DCOE's flow enough fuel? Will E85 support 12:1 compression? What would be the payoff compared to conventional race fuel? Feel free to add anything else I need to know.

-- TIA, Bill

[Bill Schenker]

My old Lotus TC1600 has been thru major freshening and the builder's getting ready to dyno. Is this a candidate for E85? Can dual 40DCOE's flow enough fuel? Will E85 support 12:1 compression? What would be the payoff compared to conventional race fuel? Feel free to add anything else I need to know.

-- TIA, Bill

No magnesium or unanodized alu. in the system; Nitrile rubber, also known as Buna-N rubber, only.

I got a ~6% bump over 91oct. - the same as when I ran VP MS109 - but at 1/4 the price and far less brain cells killed like what would happen every time I opened a can of that vile MS109!

[Bill Martin]

Thanx Bill. I was aware of issues with rubber but not the aluminum. That could be a problem as I'm sure I have a lot of unanodized aluminum. Head, pistons, manifolds, carbs...but I suspect I can get around those issues by draining and flushing the fuel system for storage between events. Maybe my fuel cell should have a petcock and drain hose to make it convenient so I'm not tempted to blow it off.

[Marshall Grice]

heads, pistons, manifolds aren't so much a concern. things with small holes are, like aluminum carbs, or things the fuel sits in all the time, like fuel lines/fttings, tanks, etc. Also fuel cell foam won't play nice with the e85.

...but it's cheap!

[Bill Schenker]

heads, pistons, manifolds aren't so much a concern. things with small holes are, like aluminum carbs, or things the fuel sits in all the time, like fuel lines/fttings, tanks, etc. Also fuel cell foam won't play nice with the e85.

...but it's cheap!

What Marshall said.

I made my system E85 compliant, but nonetheless pump out the E85 after events and let some 91 run through for a cpl. of mins.

[Toby Larsson]

Also fuel cell foam won't play nice with the e85.

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[Bill Martin]

Can it be driven around on gas? Like to tech, on/off the trailer etc? It would be god-awful lean. Obviously no hard throttle. I don't know how much inside Webers would be susceptible to alki and don't particularly want to find out. So I'd be inclined to keep gas in it whenever practical.

[Marshall Grice]

Also fuel cell foam won't play nice with the e85.

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Link battle!
http://www.fuelsafe.com/store/enduro-cells.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And it probably won't start on gas when jetted for e85

[Bill Martin]

And it probably won't start on gas when jetted for e85

Really? Nosing around on the internet I'm finding a handful of brave or foolish souls who are running E85 in unmodified vehicles. No jetting changes or anything else. While everybody is telling them they'll be sorry, they seem to report typically no problems. One had 105,000 on a standard Blazer V8 on E85. But he was a farmer -- I think he had a dog in the fight.

And of course I had it ass-backwards. It will be rich, not lean, putting around on gas.

[Steve Ekstrand]

Isn't it 14 to 1 gas versus 8 to 1 on E85? Where those unmodified vehicles EFI such that a computer had some ability to adjust? I know they couldn't make up all the difference depending on the application, but enough to get in the runnable range.

With a small carb race car, you'd be running roughly 45% more fuel. Can the fuel pump deliver? The fuel line? Will the fuel bowl starve? Especially under g-loading? Can you even get jets large enough (not that you can drill out your own)?

Is there any internet findable data out there on your motor/carbs running methanol?

[Bill Martin]

First shot out of the box you need 25-30% more fuel flow approximately equal to a 13% larger jet diameter. And then fine tune from there. In my case that means running 170 main jets instead of my 150's. No problem. Also, there are larger needles & seats that can be swapped in if needed. But fuel flow's not a big deal. Remember, it's only a 1600. Now it will swallow fuel like a 2000. Not a problem.