2.5L built to run on E85? Has anyone done it?

[Dex]

OK experts:

I recently installed a 'freshend' 2.5L in my 86 S-10 that may or may not last long. My 'deceased' engine is sitting in the garage, and with the price of gas lately, it got me to thinking about building a purpose-built 2.5L for E-85 using the stock components (TBI, ECM etc.)

In doing some reading, I know that E-85 is around 106 octane and slow-burning, so obviously a compression boost (new pistons) is needed, a cam change, base timing should be advanced possibly.....what other things would stand in the way of doing this?

Thoughts? I don't need a 120hp engine, just wondering what it would take to run E-85 and not lose MPGs doing it...... don't bring up those converter kits. I'm talking all stock engine components. Anyone tried it?

[kamesama980]

tried it? no. Thought about it on a few cars tho.

needed to not lose mpg/hp:
-increase compression (esp since the 2.5 is pretty low to start with)
-advance ignition timing

highly suggested:
-replace all aluminum and rubber hoses and seals in the fuel system with hoses rated for E85. (the alcohol is more acidic)
-richen mixture a bit. E85 likes a richer mixture to run stoich than straight gas

[tectron1]

I have ran two tanks of e85 in my 90 2.5 as an experiment and it runs like a scalded ox,no more pinging etc. Mileage decreased a little but not enough to negate the savings. The biggest problem I experienced was the cold starting. If I could figure that out I'd run it all of the time it's $1.10 cheaper than regular around here.

[-DouG-]

where are you?

[chevyman95]

[kamesama980]

well I've tried it now. cause I ddn't fill it up with a gallon to go I only got to about 50% ethanol but it ran fine. I coudln't tell any difference driving down the road. my mileage went from 26 for my daily commute (some in town, some highway) to 22 which includes a longer highway trip. ends up costing less tho... in the range of 13.5 cents per mile for e85 (getting 22 mpg spending $3.05) and around 15.5 cents per mile running regular (getting 26 mpg spending $4.05)

[smoky86]

I kno that E85 is gonna help 4 some of u, but where I live there is no E85 stations. I have been wondering about the hydrogen hybrid conversion

[kamesama980]

Quote: Originally Posted by smoky86

I kno that E85 is gonna help 4 some of u, but where I live there is no E85 stations. I have been wondering about the hydrogen hybrid conversion

you mean the water electrolosys/HHO stuff? 8 out of 10 of the people pushing that stuff don't know anything about it except it worked for someone else. when done right with a few other tweaks it does work but it's not as easy or cheap as it's made out to be. google's your buddy here.

E85 does more for worse condition pinging engines because it's roughly 105 octane (by USA measurement).

[Steady Eddie]

I'm gonna wait it out. Here, in The Great Pacific Northwet,
it rains...alot. Just using the 10% alcohol "blended" gasoline, the Marine Guys are having headaches with it. The alcohol absorbs water like a sponge. It attacks aluminum everywhere in the fuel system. Fuel tanks, alloy fuel injection parts and rubber o-rings, and etc. There are many using the E-85 in GM rigs and they report no problems..yet.

I say heavy on the "yet"..

I also believe that the ethanol, as produced in the U.S., is on its' collective way out. It is driving the price of corn products WAY up. Brazil is often used as an example of how to get to the point of being self-supporting on fuel.
But they are moving ahead and getting out of the sugar cane to fuel business. Brazil never got into the alcohol from corn deal, they always used sugar cane, which they had a surplus of.

[kamesama980]

^^^ to go with that, corn-based ethanol produces several nasty carcinogens that sugarcane-based ethanol does not (one of those emissions that isn't measured or mentioned in the ads) AND takes around 6x as much energy to produce as SC ethanol.

I read an article someone wrote about testing a 00 or 01 tahoe non-flex fuel (with aluminum heads)... 2 trucks, one running 100% gas for 100k miles, one running E85 for 100k miles. both highway and city driving. then they tore the engines apart. end result: the one running e85 was running better and cleaner internally with no leaks or problems. Besides, how much aluminum is there in our trucks :-p

[HEHE]

What about running a low rpm Turbo to increase compression?

[Steady Eddie]

Quote: Originally Posted by HEHE

What about running a low rpm Turbo to increase compression?

You certainly can run a low-boost Turbo set-up, but then you run the risk of grenading the little Iron Duke's bottom-end. The cast crank and famously weak rods with their cast pistons, plus the extra boost, is a receipe for disaster. It often becomes a matter of when not if.... ...you really need to do a build-up first, Marine Crank, forged rods and pistons, along with a Turbo-specific compression ratio. It's a lot of work, just to be able to use E-85 ethanol gas, which I firmly believe is on it's way out. They had a big meeting yesterday, called the G-8 Meeting, where high food prices were discussed by the world's leaders, movers, and shakers, and corn-to-ethanol
production was dissed as being the root cause of world-wide high food prices...

[lesterl]

We ought to be able to drill locally, IF and ONLY IF the oil will stay DOMESTIC. If they ship it of it doesnt do US a whole lotta good.

[Steady Eddie]

The "flex-fuel" GM cars are purpose-built to handle the E-85 fuel, the S-10 First Gens are not. My Owner's Manual DOES say that a 10% Ethanol Blended Fuel is OK to use.

I have found that the ethanol blended fuels run right thru my rigs, the gas mileage takes a dump...

[brakenit]

Quote: Originally Posted by lesterl

We ought to be able to drill locally, IF and ONLY IF the oil will stay DOMESTIC. If they ship it of it doesnt do US a whole lotta good.

We are drilling domestically, I doubt were getting enough to put much of a dent in our demand though. There was an article on Yahoo! news recently about new oil wells being drilled in North Dakota. People are 'finding' it in their backyards more or less, and on average the state is gaining one new 'millionaire' every day from oil wells. They're expecting ND to break it's old record for yearly oil production of 56 million barrels, but considering the U.S. consumes 20+ million barrels per day I doubt it will have any tremendous effect.

[lesterl]

I was mainly referring to large scale local drilling, there are all kinds of wells around here (even some around the city), I was talking like Ahnwahr SP? or Gulf of Mexico etc. That other people take advantage of. It has been said that the oil field in Alaska is larger than the Middle Easts field, the only problem is that BP has the rights to that and they would just pump it and ship it elsewhere, while I would ASSUME some of it would come here, not all of it will, and you know these Oil types do make a good profit off what they have now, I am not about to get into an argument about the Oil companies/ Sepculators/ Aliens/ ETC, but that is my .02 and I wish we had an easy way to fuel our propulsion other than having to have the black bubbly.

[Steady Eddie]

I went to trade school in LaMarque (sp?) Texas, 13 miles south of Houston, towards Galveston. There were capped oil wells everywhere you looked. Seeing how there were Texans attending school there at the same time, I thought I'd ask them about the "dry" wells.

To my great amazement, I was told that those wells were NOT dry. They were producers. But just not "enough" producers. These oil wells, when they were up and pumping, their output was sub-par. So they got capped off.

In today's nearly $5 per gallon world, it seems that we need every drop of oil we can get out of the ground.

I wonder if any of these capped wells got put back online??

It is my understanding that a vast majority of the Alaska North Slope Oil is shipped overseas. If true, I think this business practice could be labled as
un-American....