e85 Carbed maybe?

[Domestic Disturbance]

Well I know I'll be needing to upgrade my carb on the 69. From what I've gathered a 650 Holley double pumper isn't enough for my 12.5:1 408. I like the idea of e85 and was wondering if anyone here had any experience with it in a carb setup? I know that the octane levels change and it needs to be tested before filling, but from there would I need to adjust the carb every time the fuel changed? Would it be more work than the benefits? Just trying to steer away from race fuel.

[sparkles]

Get it from the same station.

[AutoMods]

I'm not a carb guy but I think the octane will stay high enough where the e70 and the e85 both will have high enough octane to avoid knock. i think e70 is only around in the winter. As for afr's, you should be able to calculate the different stoich values between e70 and e85 and your car will probably run fine on both with no jet changes. For example I know if you tune for straight gasoline 14.7 afr, stoich, at cruise and dump in the 10% ethanol 91 octane stuff at the gas station your car will cruise around at 14.1 afr in which you won't really notice a difference in drive-ability. During the summer your e85 mixes will probably be within 5% between 80 and 85% ethanol.

[Grr]

buy a 850 DP that is specifically setup for e85, bolt it on, never touch it again. been there done that, only retards test their fuel at the pump, we have made over 1300whp on pump e85 and never tested it once, no need to retune, ever. E55 and E85 have the same anti-knock properties and are almost indistinguishable

[FiFdYnUtZ]

AND 1300whp on e85?!?! You never cease to amaze me!

[Domestic Disturbance]

The more I look into it the more I'm discouraged. I love the idea, but the initial price of the carb looks like it'd put me at nearly 1k. Not to mention I may need to upgrade the rest of my fuel system more than it is to accommodate for the extra fuel needed. I'll probably just get an 850 DP for now.

[AutoMods]

well if you have a lot to do before you get your car running, i'd take the cheap route and get it running. but its worth a lot of $$ to be able to run on race gas all the time, especially if its boosted. meth injection is a good also, not sure how well that works on carbs

[DustinsDuster]

why not drop compression down closer to 11:1? run a cam with a lot of overlap so you could bleed off some static compression so you can put around town on pump gas or a mix?

[stangvortech]

do you think pump will hold that 12.1 big cam motor and have enough timing to make ok power? I would go e85. I had to redo my entire fuel system and dish out the coin. I feel your pain!

[Domestic Disturbance]

Dustin - Thats the plan way down the road possibly. I'd like to eventually get some aluminum heads, get a bigger cc, and see if I couldn't get into pump gas range. Aluminum would help tons too.

John - ya I'd hate to redu the fuel system. It may already be e85 safe. I think its all holley black stuff

[Clinical]

As you stated, getting the fuel setup is going to be the hard part.

testing-wise, i really don't worry too much.

I and others here that are/have been on E85 never have tested it, any station has always worked fine.
I did a ton of pulls on the winter E70 blend and never had an issue either.

The only thing I've heard of see stations doing is 'gunk buildup' on injectors (obviously you arent worried about that, but I dont know if that gunk also collects in lines), now personally I don't understand how different stations can cause gunk and others cant. It's simply the 'rumor' / myth that goes on around the gunk. We all get some gunk buildup here, just cleaned it every now and then.

[FiFdYnUtZ]

From my understanding you would be testing it to be sure the ethanol level is correct so you don't run too much timing and start knocking...why would you risk it when e85 is notorious for fluctuating ethanol percentages station to station?

[Clinical]

From my understanding you would be testing it to be sure the ethanol level is correct so you don't run too much timing and start knocking...why would you risk it when e85 is notorious for fluctuating ethanol percentages station to station?

Thing is I've never heard of many problems with E85 from that, at least not actual cases where a car had an issue.

I do know that is true for premium at the pump though.
The talon I tuned on 91 shell v-power, while I was in Des Moines I got gas at a HyVee gas station, supposedly 93 octane. Car knocked at the top of 2nd, and variating through 3rd if I got on it. Also ran Circle K 93 in it once from town here and had the same problem, put the shell back in and it did fine. Then my buddy told me to try Cosco's 93 here, and even though its about 20 cents more expensive than all the rest, I was able to bump timing up another 1-2 degrees without any knock. Putting v-power back in it brought about 3-5 knocksum every time I'd try a 3rd gear run.

So from firsthand experience, I've seen regular pump gas variate a lot.
I can't really say so for e85 as my and my friends cars all have ran on e85 and we've filled up from different stations and never had an issue.
Who knows if the ones around here have similar suppliers though, you guys up there might have way different sources.

So yeah, testing it would probably be the safest way.

[black88gt]

Keep a dizzy wrench in your car and don't bump it to the ragged edge and you should be fine with most variations.

Swap it for an engine w/ the distributor in the front would be my reccomendation.

[Caleb]

Thing is I've never heard of many problems with E85 from that, at least not actual cases where a car had an issue.

I do know that is true for premium at the pump though.
The talon I tuned on 91 shell v-power, while I was in Des Moines I got gas at a HyVee gas station, supposedly 93 octane. Car knocked at the top of 2nd, and variating through 3rd if I got on it. Also ran Circle K 93 in it once from town here and had the same problem, put the shell back in and it did fine. Then my buddy told me to try Cosco's 93 here, and even though its about 20 cents more expensive than all the rest, I was able to bump timing up another 1-2 degrees without any knock. Putting v-power back in it brought about 3-5 knocksum every time I'd try a 3rd gear run.

So from firsthand experience, I've seen regular pump gas variate a lot.
I can't really say so for e85 as my and my friends cars all have ran on e85 and we've filled up from different stations and never had an issue.
Who knows if the ones around here have similar suppliers though, you guys up there might have way different sources.

So yeah, testing it would probably be the safest way.

My friend has told me the same thing, but in fact, just like your story and his, both cars are 4 cylinders tuned on a specific 91 gas. If both cars are turbo'd then I can see this being an issue. All I know, my car has never knocked on either Caseys 91 or Road Rangers 93 after putting either in. I've even filled up with BP's 91 and no issues. Granted my car is a Gen 1 N/A V8 and it cant take about any premium around I throw at it without issues. But meh who knows. I honestly wish I knew how regular street engines perform on e85. I'd imagine high compression would be the key to run that stuff.

[LT1Dan]

Keep a dizzy wrench in your car and don't bump it to the ragged edge and you should be fine with most variations.

Swap it for an engine w/ the distributor in the front would be my reccomendation.

I wouldn't listen to a word this guy says.

[AutoMods]

^ how long was your car down???

[LT1Dan]

He recommended putting a Ford motor in a 1st gen Camaro! I think that should be reason enough to ban him for-ev-er.

[snickerlicker]

I second black88gt thoughts about a Ford motor in a 1st gen Camaro, I mean DomesticDisturbance wants to actually have a fast car, correct??

[Domestic Disturbance]

He recommended putting a Ford motor in a 1st gen Camaro! I think that should be reason enough to ban him for-ev-er.

There is no better reason to ban