gasoline V e85

A few years ago while bench racing Id been told switching from a race type gasoline to methanol can gain 10% in power but what about changing to e85? I understand there are so many variables but whats a rule of thumb on this

If you run only E85 you can jack up the static compression ratio much higher than with gas (or run more boost for forced induction). You will have to up your jetting to deliver about 30% more fuel though, E85 has less energy per volume as a tradeoff to its high octane equivalence.

I changed from E85 back to gas for the last race, the car went from 10.70s to 10.90s...And that engine only has 10.5 to 1 compression, so you don't necessary need a HIGH compression engine to see power gains, plus the cooling effects certainly help out here in the Desert..

Your carb needs to be changed over to run e85, more than just changing jets is needed..

That's right you don't NEED high comp. when I started with E85 I had 11.5:1 comp.
E85 LOVES dry air! Big increase in tq.

Don

I've dyno tested race gas against the local pump E85, I had a carb. done for the E85 and this motor lost 12 HP, 687 to 675 HP but gained 40 ft lbs of torque with the E85 I did have to change the jetting to get best power but that is not unusual when you live and race at 3500 to 2500 ft. above sea level the car is deadly consistent from early morning to late afternoon also, minimal changes in ET and MPH

Cab sounds good. Who did your carb? Was it a new build or a conversion?
Thanks, Don

Red79 & 70AARCuda are dead-on correct.
- Higher octane
- Must burn WAY more
- Cooing effect is nice
- Need to modify carb, fuel pump, maybe fuel lines.
- E85 does not make more horsepower, but will allow engine modifications that can make more horsepower

From my research, E-85 should make more power as long as the fuel system can deliver the extra amount of fuel needed.
The E85 BTU is lower than Gasoline, but you burn more of it with the same amount of air, so you end up with more BTU per unit of air. It looks like maybe around 5% more power on E-85 (I need to re-run my calculations, the original ones I did showed 3.3%, but I used a too low a BTU rating for the E85.)

Here is what I was looking at:
1 pound of air will burn 1/(air/Fuel ratio) to get amount of fuel. So 1/14.7 = 0.06803 pounds of gasoline, and 1/9.7 = 0.10309 pounds of E85. Using 6.2 pounds/gallon for gasoline, and 6.59 pounds/gallon for E85, this equates to 0.421769 gallon of gasoline, and 0.679381 gallon of E85.
Using 116,090 BTU/gallon for gasoline, and 85,000 BTU/Gallon of E85 (E85 varies in BTU depending on the blend, but the ranges given are between 73% and 83% of gasoline?) So the 85,000 value is near the low end.
Multiplying the amount of fuel in gallons burnt by one pound of air by the BTU per gallon results in:
Gasoline = 48,963 BTU per pound of air.
E85 = 57,747 BTU per pound of air.

This probably is not the correct way to do the conversions, but it makes some sense to me.

From the Stoichiometry wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometry

Percent of fuel by mass:
Gasoline = 6.8%
Ethanol (E100) = 11.1%

I had AJ Caselini at BG racing (SP?) convert a gasoline Holley 1150 CFM that I bought used on here to E85 To be fair I should have explained on the first post the gas carb. was a older Holley #9375 1050 CFM gas carb, the E85 had annuler boosters added with skirts so I'm sure it didn't flow 1150 CFM anymore, I had to jet it down 3 Holley jet sizes to get it to make max power on the DTS dyno in Klamath Falls, OR. It is at 4300 Ft above sea level so that has to be consider for these tests, the changing of the carb. and switching the fuel took about 25 minutes in the late morning so I considered the results to be valid The two main benefits I saw was the motor deosn't heat up as fast and the fuel costs are a lot cheaper for E85 compared to race gas out here, the car is way more consistent now also I don't think the motor would make more HP with the same exact CFM size carbs. on E85 Internal combustion motors need to make heat per stroke to increase HP, all the alcholol fuels I know of don't have the same BTU per gallon as diesel and gasoline fuel do. I know racers that have switch to straight methanol alcholol fuel and went faster, but they use about twice the amount of fuel per run also

I've never once seen a normal bracket type, properly tuned engine not make more power with e85 than non oxygenated race fuel. Except where hp per cube was better than 1.9 NA. After that race fuel started over taking e85. I think the reason is the extra fuel volume starts over taking the port. Ye ole 1000 hp bracket mill should really pick up, especially in the heat.

I will make the switch to E85 this year (street driven Indy headed 540, 13.5:1). The car has been off the road for over 3 years (body restoration), and the last time i had bought race fuel it was over $7/gal., haven't priced it lately, but i can't see it being under $10/gal. today. Compare that to the widely available $1.84/gal. E85. Even if i have to use 30% more in volume i'll save a boat load of money...it's a no brainer. Screw that race gas.

For you guys that have been running E85 for a while, how are your carbs holding up with corrosion? I worked on a blow through Deamon carb yesterday that has run E85 on the street for a while and it was full of white powder corrosion. I am working on a similar combination for my cuda and am worried about long term corrosion issues. Also if you buy E85 at the pump, the alcohol content may vary, my buddy who runs circle track buys E85 from the regular race fuel distributor so he can be sure of the formulation.

If you let the car set for any length of time, flush
out the E-85 and run some gas through it.. the problem
is moisture which the E-85 will suck in... even if it
sits for a week I pumped out my system.. I found out
the hard way the first year I ran E-85

A couple of winters I took my carb off, took it apart and cleaned it. A couple of other winters I just made sure to add some Lucas additive and I started the car once a month or so and let it get up to temp. I never had any issues with corrosion, but my plans for the future are to do what Mr P suggested as that's the best/proper way.

During the racing season, I run the carbs empty between races ..I drain the fuel system over the winter months, out here we don't have a problem with moisture...

I think we have been running e85 for 4 years now, using a QFT 950s, they seem to be no problem with them at all...

I switched to E85 years ago, summer/winter blends vary & summit sells a tester for around 10 bucks if your getting from pump, also use s.s. fuel filters, (peeps forget to change out there fuel filters, e85 eats paper, glue, & cheap rubber fuel lines) & using the Lucas oil additive really helps with the corrosion.... I wonder has anyone tried adding that dry gas stuff by chance? May help with the moisture issue?? I loaded a couple pics, inside after a season & the dual Dom set up on my 8/71

The Quick Fuel e85 conversion kits are amazing, I traded my dominators off to a guy for mechanical injection system, & wow is my first word after driving the car, thought my Son's had great throttle response, Ha... Almost needed to change my pants after that ride, anyhow the guy wanted me to change the Dom's back to gas, & that's about the only internal pic I have after running e85