Switching to E85

[fastford]

so you had to ask. i thought you already knew every thing, any way I call BS on you and your buddy, but any way i can see you do not posses the intelligence for me to keep arguing with you on this subject, so ill stop beating the dead horse,

[old17ford]

so you burned 5 times more alky than gas? my experience is about 2:1 on methanol , e85 is less than that. Down here racing fuel is 8 bucks a gallon , e85 is $1.79 right now . even after buying some strait ethanol to calibrate with , it is way cheaper than racing gas.

2:1 sounds about right.

[Lizardracing]

Typical racing alcohol has a lower BTU content so it requires approx 2.2 times as much to make the same heat as typical race gas. Heat is energy. Assuming the A/F is stoic for the test, you need X amount of Air and Fuel to make a certain amount of power. You can argue all day long but you can't hide behind basic math.

SCR could be right in the context that his buddies engine could be poorly set up for the fuel his using. Wrong cam, wrong carb settings, or some other variable between the two engines, drivers and set ups causing the large disparity in fuel consumption. SCR is still an arrogant ass and proves it with most of his posts so I don't take him seriously either way. Now in 1...2...3...

[JustAddDirt]

So if you are running the Alky in a crate motor with less compression than a real race motor, I can see it possibly using a bit more fuel, but still not 5:1

I run a 15º open UMP mod motor on 112+ race gas, and I use about 6-8 gallon a night on average say on a big fast 3/8 track.

Years ago on alky with a 23º motor on same track I was using about 15 gallons a night.

[50j]

Three things to think about. 1) Nobody races at stoichiometric a/f. It doesn't make best power there and you'd hurt the engine. 2) carburetor size has bearing on fuel consumption. 3) track conditions, idle time and caution laps also have bearing on fuel consumption. Looking at bsfc and consumption at w.o.t. doesn't factor in everything. SCD dyno tests his stuff. I'm willing to bet that the tune up was right with both fuels, and that the gas carb was punching way above it's weight.

[dave41]

size of carb, gear ratio, torque, rpm's , size of track , weight of car. compression ratio , engine size and good setup = less practice run. = amount of fuel. he!! ,let it go

[fastford]

size of carb, gear ratio, torque, rpm's , size of track , weight of car. compression ratio , engine size and good setup = less practice run. = amount of fuel. he!! ,let it go

i stopped beating that dead horse 3 days ago, but i would love to have one of those magic carburetors that burns 5 times less gas than alky though.

[50j]

Does a car warm up faster on gas or alcohol? Does a person pull out onto the track with a cold engine? It isn't "magic", but a very small group of carburetor builders know what to do to maximize power while keeping fuel consumption to a minimum. That was always a big objective with the carbureted NASCAR stuff. If you can take away one pit stop it's huge. He happens to have a very good one. In theory the difference is close to 2:1 but there's a whole lot more to it. It doesn't really matter. People will run what they want to run and will always question something they're not used to seeing.

[50j]

E-85. It can run very well if you have a good carburetor and the fuel and fuel system is set up right. Cut one corner on it, and it will run horribly. Using the right carburetor builder and following all of the recommendations will yield the results you want. Tread carefully here, there are more bad E-85 4412 carbs than good ones. By far. Conversion kits don't work. You'd be wise to call a few of the good builders and see who knows E-85.

[dave41]

fuel left in tank this sat. not real good next sat. ethanol is bad to evap. in a week

[superstock50]

50J who do you recommend for a E85 builder? Need to be 4 barrel, single inlet, non double pumper. ( due to rules)

[MLR19]

We have ran pump E85 for the last 8 years, carbs by JDR. Check every batch for ethanol content. Have ran in 604 Crate & 750HP 14-1 Open late model and mod engines. we use about 10 gallons per car on an average night.It makes more torque than gas , is easier to cool, and usually around $2 per gallon in our area.

[GRT62]

Billy at Willys carb and dyno told me when I had them build me an e85 carb for our crate that if your buying it from the pump your wasting your money. The range on that stuff out of the pump from my own testing can be anywhere from 60-94 ethanol not to mention they are cutting with the worst of unleaded fuel available. Do yourself a favor find you a renegade fuel dealer and buy the renegade race E85 leaded fuel. We've used 5 drums this year and every drum has tested dead on 85 and its only about 250 a drum.

[50j]

MLR has good advice. E-85 should always be tested but a small change in ethanol content makes very little real difference. E-85 in a drum is fine too, and Sunoco or VP have it. I wouldn't use ethanol with leaded fuel, but different strokes I suppose.

[GRT62]

Why not use ethanol with leaded fuel?