E85 (ethanol) for 360?

[valdemaras]

Has anyone tried to make a cocktail of 95 petrol and E85 (ethanol) for a B200 engine? I'm thinking of mixing 50% petrol and 50% E85, won't it do something radical bad to my engine o fuel lines or fuel pump.
I found some information that E85 effects fuel lines made until '92, so i wonder if anyone have some not theoretical information
As i understand to run fully on E85 there is need for some modification in ignition and injectors as it's needs more E85 than standart petrol
So i'm just wondering if i can run on mixture of E85 and A95? because the E85 is 30% cheaper

[classicswede]

I know there is a fair bit of information available from turbo bricks.

The following is just from memory so please do not consider this gospel

You will use more E85 per 100 miles compared to pump petrol. (possibly around 20% I think)
The ignition curve will need to be adjusted. A 360 with renix will be a problem. Perhaps changing to 240 ignition would be th best solution for a cheap way around it.
The fuel map would also need to altered, again the mapping on the 360 is no where near optimum for petrol so perhaps making a bad situation worse. If you are running a carb then some carfull tweaking would get you there.

As with everything I would just try suck it and see. Start with say a 20% mix then gradualy increase the ratio making sure at each stage there are no noticable running problems and noting fuel consumption.

[valdemaras]

yea I know that engines require more of E85, so i just was wondering to solve that by replacing injectors maybe from 2.3l engine, to get more fuel in cylinder
and now i checked and correct me if i'm wrong but the distributor has a fixed mounting position and theres no way to correct the ignition timing mechanically?
and also i have read that the ethanol can damage rubber fuel lines is that wright?

[Ride_on]

Can't you just increase the mixture setting to get the usual CO content? At the end of the day its about getting the perfect (or near perfect) ratio of fuel to air which will be a little different depending on the chemistry of the fuel. I guess there might not be enough adjustment in the mixture, but then you might need to worry about the fuel pump aswell.

Now that we are all running unleaded now, would a O2 sensor + gauge be a cheap add-on?

[jtbo]

It will kill your carburettor if you have one. All rubber/plastic in contact with stuff would need to be replaced or fire hazard is in order.

It still tends to eat even new rubber / plastic more than old petrol did old parts.

It is acid and corrodes aluminium, so I don't know how good idea it is to put that into engine.

In Brazil they (VW) learned to coat parts so that corrosion was not as big issue, but before that threatment engines did fail even around 30 000km because of small metal chips ethanol took off from intake manifold + cylinder head.

My 360 has symptoms too, even I have used 98e that has maximum of 5% of ethanol, there are metal chips at bottom of float chamber, float chamber is corroded.

Also note that it will increase CO2 production of your vehicle (and in total inceses food prices, reduces rainforest and making it consumes more energy than it contains), if that is some importance to you.

Oh and if you get cold winter there was some limit in range of -10C to -15C where it is unlikely to get car started anymore as ethanol will not vaporize properly in cold weather.

Sure there are good points too, you can make it yourself from old vegetables etc.

[trabitom99]

Came across E10 super 95 for the first time today at my local Esso, with a sign on it saying "are you sure your car can take this petrol? If in doubt, please fill up with our 100+ octane super-duper fuel". E5 had been blanked out. I'm sure they didn't have my little V300 in mind when writing that notice, maybe a Golf Mk4 or something.

Up to a year ago I used to fill up with 91 octane camel pee until they stopped selling it in Germany (I noticed no difference at all on swapping to 95 super). Someone's really beginning to try and squeeze us older car drivers off the road.

Tom

[Speedy88]

91 burns hotter because there's more petrol in it, burns hotter but modern engines don't use it. Supply and demand I guess. They still sell 92 in asia though because they still run old POS

[macplaxton]

In Brazil they (VW) learned to coat parts so that corrosion was not as big issue, but before that threatment engines did fail even around 30 000km because of small metal chips ethanol took off from intake manifold + cylinder head.

Seem to have a memory of an Open University sort of programme going on about it. Only 1 in 50 of the production was a petrol motor. The rest had nickel plated carbs and a few other alterations to stop the ethanol eating everything up.

[jtbo]

Seem to have a memory of an Open University sort of programme going on about it. Only 1 in 50 of the production was a petrol motor. The rest had nickel plated carbs and a few other alterations to stop the ethanol eating everything up.

Yes, it was quite big project for that time, I believe.

There is also some rather interesting documentary about Brazil's road to Ethanol, but somehow our media is missing all that

Of course we must remember that in Brazil they use E100 or something like that, but I don't know if there is real difference if it is E85 or more pure, probably E85 is already enough strong to all that trouble.

It is actually bit of shame that there are such issues with that fuel as it would be possible to make that fuel from much more reasonable sources too than what is used these days, maybe in future...

[classicswede]

The number is percentage of ethenol I think from memory. So E85 is 85% E100 is 100% etc