Would like to hear about your experience.
1. Does E85 build heat in the motor quicker, the same or slower than ALKY?
2. Is E85 .... more corrosive, equally corrosive or less corrosive?
3. Does E85 need a vacuum pump, header E-vac or no crankcase evacuation system?
4. If E85 is available in your area and cheaper than ALKY, would you consider it as an ALMOST equal replacement for ALKY?
5. Any other insights would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Is E85 easy to get in your area.

Yes. E85 is easy to get. 12 miles from home. It's at a big "SHEETS" gas station right off an interstate. Lots of big rigs around. It's $2.09 per gallon. The winter blend is E75 and summer is E87.

More corrosive. The only way I'd run E 85 is if I wanted to street drive a fairly hi-compression engine on the street. I'm doing an E85 combo like this now for a guy so I've researched it. Highly corrosive, we have two carbs for this car, at the end of the weekend, the owner is gonna switch to a gasoline carb and make a couple laps around the block at idle and store the car with gasoline in the tank until next use.

Another guy we know just switched to methanol for super pro bracket racing after a couple years on E85. Won the first night out on methanol, mixed success on E85, so he made the change.

I have been using it for years now. I find it will build heat a little faster than alky but not as fast as gas. I don’t think corrosion will be a problem. I live in central Georgia with high humidity in summer and don’t have problems. I changed to e85 over alky because the carb conversion was cheaper. As long as e85 is still available at the pump I will continue to use it as it is cheaper than alky. I see no reason to use any of the race blends of e85. My 13/1 small block runs on anything from e70 to e90. No big performance difference. Now if e85 becomes unavailable I will most likely switch to alky. I run a pan evac going to the herders and it does just fine like it did on gas. Never had a vacuum pump. I lowered my et about.15 compared to vp c12. I don’t have consitancy problem with pump e85 as long as I have enough of whatever blend I have on hand. I/e start the day on e75 stay on that don’t change to say e85 in third round. I buy enough at a time to cover the race weekend. If I have any left it can be stored in a sealed container out of the sun for months and still be good. When I switched I found that a lot of the “ you can’t do this or can’t do that” cake from here say and people who never used it. That was what I discovered through my own trial and error.

As far as corrosion is considered,e85 will absorb moisture from the air just like alky. If it sits in you fuel tank with an open vent for an extended time(more than I think 48hours), I will drain the fuel tank then fill tank with non ethanol pump gas,remove the lines from the bowls then flush the system with gas. I will drain the bowls then it’s good to go. If you let e85 get “wet” then it will cause corrosion just as will alky.

Wooley brought a good point to mind. If they stopped making methanol I'd run E 85, or If methanol got to be $400 a drum, I might. There's nothing wrong with E85 Wooley don't get me wrong. I bet you do well with it.

I just can't see burning $12 $14 a gallon gasoline tooling around to car shows on the weekend, so we came up with this idea for a fairly high rent high compression street driven engine.

my experience with pump e85 pretty much every thing wooley said don't be afraid of it

Not terrible. Have to admit that I did better in gas. Maybe because I ran it longer. I am my own worst problem because I like to experiment and try different stuff. I guess I want to figure it out myself even if that means beating my head against the wall for a while. Thought is that someone else’s preconceived ideas don’t affect my efforts.

quote:

Originally posted by Wooley:
Not terrible. Have to admit that I did better in gas. Maybe because I ran it longer. I am my own worst problem because I like to experiment and try different stuff. I guess I want to figure it out myself even if that means beating my head against the wall for a while. Thought is that someone else’s preconceived ideas don’t affect my efforts.

There's a lot of satisfaction in that approach, I get it.

Thanks, Wooley for sharing your experience. If you go from E70 to E90, do you need to re-jet? If so, a few #'s maybe?
All of my ALKY friends insist at the end of race day, get the coolant temp to 180+ and shut it down. Then remove breathers from valve covers to allow evaporation. Did you do the same?
You recommend flushing E85 from the tank after 48 HOURS? or did you mean DAYS?

I don’t change jets except for June to August when it’s 95 plus outside. Then I drop one or two numbers. My e85 carb is a 4150type 1050. Jets are either 100 or 102 depending on weather. 48 hours on tank drain. I always even on gas got engine up to at least 180 better yet. 200/205 for a few minutes at end of day.

quote:

Originally posted by 62Galaxie:
Would like to hear about your experience.
1. Does E85 build heat in the motor quicker, the same or slower than ALKY?
2. Is E85 .... more corrosive, equally corrosive or less corrosive?
3. Does E85 need a vacuum pump, header E-vac or no crankcase evacuation system?
4. If E85 is available in your area and cheaper than ALKY, would you consider it as an ALMOST equal replacement for ALKY?
5. Any other insights would be much appreciated. Thanks.

1. Builds heat faster than alcohol, slower than gas.

2. Less corrosive than alcohol, no different than gasoline. I saw absolutely zero difference in motor tear downs between gas and E85. I never drained the bowls and never had any signs of corrosion in the bowls or issues with needle and seats. Just simply didn't happen. Tank was never drained ever, and I never had any issues even with an open vent.

3. I ran the same header evac that I did with gas, and never had any issues with water in my oil, ever.

4. It was $1.69/gallon around me in Pittsburgh, no brainier vs. $8/gallon 110. However, we recently switched a similar car over to alcohol last race last season and it picked up way more than E85 and was deadly consistent.

5. Every fear that was told to me by people who never ran it was false. If someone hasn't had extensive use of it, stop taking their advice.

dead on with a zero a39corenett

Been running it for over 5 years and my car is deadly and runs cooler. I never drain it, even in the winter.

One thing I did learn is to not add any top lube it will gel up in the carb, that is the only time I had any issues with it.

The other thing is you don't have the big swings in ET from Spring, Summer, & Fall.

Not trying to hijack your thread, Galaxy. I am considering doing what Mike R talked about, (E-85 for a High-Squeeze street cruiser).
It did get me wondering, WHY IN THE H-E-L-L IS RACE GAS STILL SO RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED?? They jacked the heck out of it when pump regular hit $4+/Gal, but pump fuel has dropped in half from 10 years ago. so why not race fuel?? (OK, rant over, but I am NEVER going back from Methanol in my race car, unless the greedy baztards get realistic)!
Keep us posted if you make the jump, I've known some guys that were killer on e-85.

I ran E85 at the end of a season a couple years ago, about 40 runs. The only issue I had was that it would get gummy and stick the needle and seat. That led to fuel gushing out of the booster without me knowing when I went to start the engine. I filled #7 with fuel and locked the engine up. Scared me pretty good cause I thought I had a hydraulic situation, but it didn't. From then on, I started the engine with the fuel pump off. My garage is pretty damp so maybe that had something to do with it and it had been 3 weeks since the engine ran. Learn how to deal with it if it sits for a while.

quote:

Originally posted by 62Galaxie:
Would like to hear about your experience.
1. Does E85 build heat in the motor quicker, the same or slower than ALKY?
2. Is E85 .... more corrosive, equally corrosive or less corrosive?
3. Does E85 need a vacuum pump, header E-vac or no crankcase evacuation system?
4. If E85 is available in your area and cheaper than ALKY, would you consider it as an ALMOST equal replacement for ALKY?
5. Any other insights would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I've been running Ethanol since around 2009. I agree with Wooley & A39Coronet. I did an A-B test with an ethanol carburetor to a Ken Jones Methanol and the Ken Jones was faster in the 1/8 by over a tenth. I dont drain my fuel system but i do put a cap on my fuel cell vent and a plastic cap on my carb if its gonna sit a while.

quote:

Originally posted by the rain maker:
I've been running Ethanol since around 2009. I agree with Wooley & A39Coronet. I did an A-B test with an ethanol carburetor to a Ken Jones Methanol and the Ken Jones was faster in the 1/8 by over a tenth. I dont drain my fuel system but i do put a cap on my fuel cell vent and a plastic cap on my carb if its gonna sit a while.

Whose alcohol carb was it? If you were faster on E-85 the methanol carb wasn't right or was smaller. JMO from what I have seen.

Curtis

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:

quote:

Originally posted by the rain maker:
I've been running Ethanol since around 2009. I agree with Wooley & A39Coronet. I did an A-B test with an ethanol carburetor to a Ken Jones Methanol and the Ken Jones was faster in the 1/8 by over a tenth. I dont drain my fuel system but i do put a cap on my fuel cell vent and a plastic cap on my carb if its gonna sit a while.

Whose alcohol carb was it? If you were faster on E-85 the methanol carb wasn't right or was smaller. JMO from what I have seen.

Curtis

Eric Niefert @ Horsepower Innovations Ethanol carb, Ken Jones Methanol carb. You are correct the methanol was faster...