Converting diesel to run on E85?

[jtbo]

I have not been able to find any good references for this, but I did read from few places that turbodiesel can be converted to use E85, by ditching the pump and injectors, installing spark plugs and brain and throttle body injection. They say there is even study from it that motor would be 40% efficient, same as turbo diesel.

So, if, purely theoretically speaking, I would slap turbo to D24 (240 diesel motor) lower compression a bit to turbo diesel levels, do a rest of conversion, then I would have 2.4l turbo six relatively similar to gasoline 2.4l turbo six, but with similar mileage as turbo diesel?

As RE85 (recycled E85, made from biowaste) is under 1€/l that would mean that even if it would cost some to do the build, it would save itself quite fast and be rather sweet sounding thing with pretty nice performance figures that costs next to nothing to drive.

Just if thing really is possible to make.

Ignition and injection by megasquirt which would be no big deal really, machining and turbo setup I would consider more of challenge. But perhaps possible to make with long time frame. Even turbo I could take from french crap.

Might be that will never happen as closest RE85 station is far away, but considering cost savings it would not be big issue to travel far to get fuel and fill many containers to bring into garage.

Would require very much of welding as 240 has quite bad body.

Do you think that there would be any things that make such completely impossible?

[valman]

didnt the 240s already come with a 2.4 diesel engine? or am i mistaking it for a 740?
wait i think i got the above wrong - you want to go diesel to (low quality)petrol?
why not just burn chip fat? its an easy conversion to do - you need to up the fuel rate of the pump (i believe it needs to be a bosch fuel pump) with bio diesel i think its something like 30% power loss and turn up the boost if needed. some guys at my college even talked about cracking old tires to use as fuel! its all possible. having said that, i guess here in the uk its different as bio diesel ( chip fat) is everywhere thanks to dirty fast food places

[jtbo]

Here petrol companies have took chip fat under their systems, so that stuff is not available here so well, besides it is rather poorly working in our weather (cold or colder).

E85 would mean less taxes also, when burned in ex diesel motor, with high compression it will have efficiency up to 42% and efficiency of 40% at most of the usage loads, so it is better than burning E85 in originally petrol engine.

It also is not very difficult conversion, of course some machining is needed and EGR recirculation needs to be high, but it would not be hugely complicated, that is if one is familiar with megasquirt or such.

E85 is possible to make yourself, but best part is that there is tax already in E85 fuel so no need to pay diesel extra taxes.

[antiekeradio]

why not use a B20 engine with flat pistons instead of domes ones?

[classicswede]

I get asked the question a lot for converting to LPG. It is only in very rare cases that it is worth the effort. For example London Taxi due to emissions reasons and with some HGV's/buses where there is no petrol engine alternative.

The best think for running E85 is to alter a petrol engine as all the hardware you need is there. Compression is best increased to get best milage as with LPG but E85 does need a custom map. Thinking about it you could use a LPG system ECU to change the injector pulse width to ideal and use a LPG/CNG timing processor to adjust the spark - would be cheaper than MS but maybe a bit of a hard way of going around things.

[mat_91]

valman there is no loss of power from running veg oil, when its warm i run my range rover 100% and it runs better, quieter and less smoke
if i had room and time i would do a twin tank conversion were the veg oil tank is headed by engine coolant you just switch over when youve warmed the oil up a bit only need when rely cold as warm weather theres no difference apart from the smell haha
sorry for the hijack

[jtbo]

E85 gets lot of benefit from increasing compression too, consumption drops quite a bit and it has a meaning when goverment will add taxes to it, after everyone has made investments and changed over.

I think that only thing I lack of is few bits and odds + tbi injector itself, spark plug coils and proper spark plugs of course, not very hard to come by or even hugely expensive. With coil on plug you don't need a distributor either. EGR mod and spark plug installation to replace injectors + injection pump removal is perhaps biggest part for me, or would be.

There is no suitable petrol engines around to use and engine swapping is quite a big job, installing megasquirt and wiring etc is not much of a job, rather easy compared, but that is perhaps because I'm familiar with data and stuff, mechanical things and hand skills are not my best area, so they take time and are rather load of work so to say.

There is study from diesel conversion to E85:
http://www.nord-com.net/stoni/docs/SuTCAF.pdf

It does have some issues of course and consumption is going to be higher than with diesel fuel, but relatively close to what it is with similar petrol engine if I have understood correctly.

Of course best part would be straight six sound

Thing is interesting as not many have done such, so it would be different and also it would be close to half price of current petrol prices, in practice running costs of diesel I believe.

http://papers.sae.org/871149/

I only use diesel because it is so much cheaper than petrol, would prefer more petrol like engine, but running costs today just are way too much for petrol to be honest.

[classicswede]

Shame LPG is not vailable to you going off this site

http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/

Can you buy FLT cylinders in Finland?

Oh and who wants to move to Algeria with me????

[tim-andre]

Shame LPG is not vailable to you going off this site

http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/

Can you buy FLT cylinders in Finland?

Oh and who wants to move to Algeria with me????

me!!
fuel prices in norway is the most expensive btw, still we drive cars who uses 1-2l per 10 km

[jtbo]

Mexico might be quite nice too I guess. At least their food is one of the best and from my understanding it is a lot more free to build things yourself and use them on public roads etc.

We can't even build sensible electric bicycles here, they have put lot of limitations and if building something usable it will be moped which required inspections and who knows what, costs few thousand. I'm telling you, we are putting ourselves to chains...

LPG is really not possible here, they even put heavy taxes on that one and stations were just about to be increased, but with taxation they killed it before it started. E85 we have in few stations, but it is not very widely available, however it might be worthwhile to get from distance.

I did pay over 1.7€/l from diesel and that just is too much, even price is now back to 1.5, it is summer quality and after the summer price might be quite bit higher. With heavy modifications I can make car go perhaps 3l/100km, but it is not exactly legal either. At the weekend I made modifications and air resistance is down 24% already, but more is needed, I seek reduction of over 30% from drag, maybe close to 40%, but it gets only so far, when prices will skyrocket at next 10 years, I'm sure there is something drastic needed.

Oh and ethanol is not too difficult to make garden waste etc. by yourself, which of course too is illegal, like wiping your own arse in WC soon I guess.