E-85 / Alcohol / Racing Fuel

[JDR Performance]

E-85 stays pretty close to 85% if you buy it from the right place. Some people blend their own. It's not as corrosive as some people would like for you to believe but you do need certain parts in the fuel system that'll work with the fuel. After building E-85 carburetors for 12-13 years, and a lot of them, I've only seen a couple of people go back to gas. They just couldn't wrap their head around testing the fuel and setting the fuel system up for E-85. Methanol will make more power, but you'll use a lot more fuel and you need a good pump You'll also need larger lines, and it takes more maintenance because it is so corrosive.

[levisnteeshirt]

quite a few people here mix their own ,, a mix of 90/10 gets better results on a dyno anyway

[Chevyfan70]

I appreciate all the info. I had a friend refer me to Mark Sullens in Mo. Several people from my area are running his carbs with good results for several years now. The obvious advantage is cost difference between E85 and racing fuel but another is consistency with the proper set up and tuning. Perfect combination for the weekend warrior.

[GOSFAST]

I appreciate all the info. I had a friend refer me to Mark Sullens in Mo. Several people from my area are running his carbs with good results for several years now. The obvious advantage is cost difference between E85 and racing fuel but another is consistency with the proper set up and tuning. Perfect combination for the weekend warrior.

Get a copy of the April 2013 "Super Chevy" magazine and check out the "Damn Yankee" write-up on pg 32. I just got mine tonight.

Terrific article on my friend's '56 Chevy running on E-85. It's the one I referred to earlier in this post.

Originally run on "race-fuel" only it had cost about $11.00/$12.00 to make one pass down the quarter-mile, it now costs about $3.50, and it gets about 9-10 MPG with the 3.54's out back.

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. It is my job to keep his powerplant "together", it was Mark Sullen's job to help keep it tuned. He had it running some excellent times, mentioned in the mag. It is now injected and can be driven on almost any fuel, however it gets raced on E-85 only!

[jmarkaudio]

I appreciate all the info. I had a friend refer me to Mark Sullens in Mo. Several people from my area are running his carbs with good results for several years now. The obvious advantage is cost difference between E85 and racing fuel but another is consistency with the proper set up and tuning. Perfect combination for the weekend warrior.

Where in the south are you?

[Chevyfan70]

Mark I live in Noeth Alabama

[Chevyfan70]

North Al

[CovertSpeed]

I was thinking about this. I looked up websites and they make it look attractive. Then I talked to some people in the fuel industry, they are not so hot on E-85. The consistency at the pump, needing a fuel checker as previously stated. Ethanol plants are closing all the time. The federal government pulling aid ($) from these plants. Corn is better for food than fuel. The cost of manufacturing ethanol is going up.

[Chevyfan70]

I wouldn't think those guys in the fuel industry would have anything good to say about E85. But rest assured that if the cost off E85 goes up so will the others. Everything I've read on websites pertaining to racing fuel makes it look like its the way to go. But I'd much rather take advice from the guys who've actually used the diff fuels and can tell me the pros and cons. Consistency don't seem to be an issue from the guys using E85 and I haven't heard/seen one person say their cars ran slower times because of E85. And then there's the cost difference...

[Mike Croley]

The " fuel industry " is who makes ethanol. Most if not all of the major oil companies are in the ethanol business. Remember, ethanol has been added to pump gas for many years so obviously the major oil companies have been involved.
As for the high percentage ethanol blends being almost the same every time, that's only true of certain brands and depends entirely on where you live. Ethanol, and to a lesser extent methanol, are difficult to light. Cool or cold weather makes the problem much bigger. So if you live in an area of the country that gets cool or cold in fall or winter, the E-85 you purchase is not going to be E-85. It will always be less ethanol and more 87 octane pump gas to make cars easier to start.
So testing every time you purchase is important if you're concerned with performance and consistency. And as the ethanol content goes down, the octane rating also goes down.
Contact Quick Fuel ( or other similar companies ) and purchase a tester. Very inexpensive and very easy to use. They also make ethanol carbs and carb kits.

[JDR Performance]

The stations that blend it at the pump will have it all year. They offer different blends so you have to pump a couple of gallons out first before you test it. Carb conversion kits don't work well and won't give you an idea of how well it could run.

[Eric68]

The octane rating of e85 is not significantly effected by gas% content between e70 and e85. There is an excellent article by Delphi engineers and published in the SAE in 2010 that explains this well.

The article is titled "Investigation of Knock Limited Compression Ratio of Ethanol Gasoline Blends" SAE article 2010-01-0619 Published 04/12/2010. Authors to credit are:
James Szybist
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Matthew Foster, Wayne R. Moore and Keith Confer
Delphi Powertrain Systems
Adam Youngquist and Robert Wagner
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Refer to the following exerpt from page 4

It is interesting to note that the blending response of RON
and MON as a function of ethanol content is highly nonlinear.
There is a substantial octane improvement between
RG and E10, and between E10 and E50. However, between
E50 and E85 there is very little difference in either RON or
MON.

[Mike Croley]

That's great news for everyone looking for E-98. It isn't necessary after all.
The really interesting part of that paper is the octane numbers they published.

[jmarkaudio]

We have run up to 14.5 to 1 with no issues, I still have more testing to do with my 15.5 to 1 engine. The cooling effects make the octane numbers deceiving.

[Mike Croley]

So far, there seems to be no upper limit for static compression with E-85. I've seen a number of claims of up to 17.5 with no problems. Same goes for turbo, blower, and nitrous applications. I know those are easily done with methanol, so we'll see how the R&D on ethanol shakes out.