E85 Conversion

[Modern71]

I have done a search on Google, both for Ethanol and E85 conversion and the majority of the responces are that yes it is possible to convert but its not recommended due to emissions standards. However, I am not concerned with the emissions standards in my case, simply because emissions were never intended to be a standard of operation on my 71.

I know some people have done this, because several people run alcohol in thier drag cars that I have heard of. So i know it can be done, but my question is what is required to perform the change. I have had some responce that rubber lines need to be alcohol approved, and I am about to put a new Holley 4 barrel in my car and figured if i need to rebuild the carb to run alcohol then i'll buy a used and rebuild it to run E85. So the questions are as follows:

1) Will my fuel pump be able to handle E85?
2) What changes do i need to make to be able to handle E85 Overall?
3) Is the burn rate much higher for E85 compared to Gasoline, and thus do pistons need to be able to handle a specific temp to run an Alcohol based fuel.
4) Is Carburation the way to go with an Alcohol system or would fuel injection be my only option?
5) Is there anything I am not taking into consideration?

Anyone with alcohol experience at any level (as a fuel only ) can help me on this, and thanks in advance.

Shane

[EFI69Cam]

I have done a search on Google, both for Ethanol and E85 conversion and the majority of the responces are that yes it is possible to convert but its not recommended due to emissions standards. However, I am not concerned with the emissions standards in my case, simply because emissions were never intended to be a standard of operation on my 71.

I know some people have done this, because several people run alcohol in thier drag cars that I have heard of. So i know it can be done, but my question is what is required to perform the change. I have had some responce that rubber lines need to be alcohol approved, and I am about to put a new Holley 4 barrel in my car and figured if i need to rebuild the carb to run alcohol then i'll buy a used and rebuild it to run E85. So the questions are as follows:

1) Will my fuel pump be able to handle E85?
2) What changes do i need to make to be able to handle E85 Overall?
3) Is the burn rate much higher for E85 compared to Gasoline, and thus do pistons need to be able to handle a specific temp to run an Alcohol based fuel.
4) Is Carburation the way to go with an Alcohol system or would fuel injection be my only option?
5) Is there anything I am not taking into consideration?

Anyone with alcohol experience at any level (as a fuel only ) can help me on this, and thanks in advance.

Shane

I know that ethanol absorbs water, and corrosion is a problem. Some epoxies used in electric fuel pumps can be dissolved by ethanol. Also ethanol carries less energy per gallon than gasoline so jetting etc would have to be changed.

Most E85 cars are EFI and have control strategies to sense and compensate for the ethanol concentration in the fuel. I don't think you could run both fuels, you'd be married to E85 without the compensation.

[toxicz28]

I could be wrong, but I believe when they talk about alcohol dragsters, they are talking about methanol, which is wood alcohol, not ethanol, which is corn based,basically moonshine. I think they might refer to ethanol as gasohol, or that might be the blend of the two (gasoline/ ethanol). Do a search on all four (including moonshine). You might be able to find out how to brew up your own. [note: make sure you get the proper permits from the ATF. You wouldn't want them knocking on (down) your door in the middle of the night.]

[Modern71]

The thing is there are 4 Gas Stations that carry E85 in the area, and its a little over $1.15 a gallon right now. The info about corrosion and electric fuel pumps helps alot and although the Flex Fuel Systems can run both, I won't tackle that on my car so being locked into Ethanol is what i would be considering if I did this.



As for the Dragsters, they deffinatly run Methanol in alot of them, but the difference between E85 and Methanol is one hydro-carbon. The consistancy and combustibility are the same. I found that alchohol burns alot hotter than gasoline, and as such I want to make sure my current setup (a basic 350 bored .40 over with some ported Chevy heads) can handle the extra heat.

Basically the whole motivation behind this is to do something different, but not too different. I don't want to brew my own fuel, but I am very interested in using what is available at the pumps in town, and for some reason i think an Alternative Fuel'ed Classic is a pretty cool idea.