E85 ethanol conversion?

[kc0tma]

I am the proud owner of a 1990 240sx with 170k miles. I live in Nebraska and there are a bunch of gas stations installing pumps for the 85% ethanol blend. I've been using the 91 octane E10 ethanol with a little bit of an increase of economy (from 22 to 24 mpg). I know my car is too old to run on the E85, and I was wondering if it is possible to do a conversion. If so, can I still use the E10 or even regular unleaded if E85 isnt available? What are my chances of this conversion fitting my college student budget? If it is any help, the only upgrades I've made are a full exhaust, K&N air filter (not cold air), and some of those dual electrode spark plugs. I also use regular oil and not synthetic or synthetic blend. E85 is about 40 cents cheaper than everything else, so if I can I'de like to make my car "flex fuel" compatible.

[c-rad]

Funny you mention that.... float6969 and I were just discussing this on AIM yesterday. I can't imagine there is THAT much that has to be done. ****, if a diesel can run off vegetable oil, then I am sure a regular unleaded powered car can run off ethanol.

[themadscientist]

have no fear, Google is herehttp://www.engr.unl.edu/~ethanol/unl-sae2.pdf

[originalsin]

would will this stuff affect performance? better? worse?

[c-rad]

would will this stuff affect performance? better? worse?

Should increase it.... E85 is like 103 or 105 octane.

[float_6969]

Not to rain on the parade here, as this is a good thread, but do you have a CA18DE(T) installed in your car? If not, I kinda gotta move this to the right area of NICO. Damn the responsibilities....

[Nismo_Freak]

I am the proud owner of a 1990 240sx with 170k miles. I live in Nebraska and there are a bunch of gas stations installing pumps for the 85% ethanol blend. I've been using the 91 octane E10 ethanol with a little bit of an increase of economy (from 22 to 24 mpg). I know my car is too old to run on the E85, and I was wondering if it is possible to do a conversion. If so, can I still use the E10 or even regular unleaded if E85 isnt available? What are my chances of this conversion fitting my college student budget? If it is any help, the only upgrades I've made are a full exhaust, K&N air filter (not cold air), and some of those dual electrode spark plugs. I also use regular oil and not synthetic or synthetic blend. E85 is about 40 cents cheaper than everything else, so if I can I'de like to make my car "flex fuel" compatible.

Your car would run horribly on a 85% ethanol blend.

The stoichemetric mean for a 20% ethanol blended octane-hydrocarbon based fuel is roughly 13.5:1. At 85% you are looking at something in the neighborhood of 11:1



The oxygen content is increased the greater the ethanol concentration and has the same effect as the oxigenated blends you see in California for reducing emissions. This has the secondary effect of enleaning the mixture somewhat to cover the gap between methanol and gasoline stoich. means. At 14.7:1 the ratio is considered for a non-oxigenated fuel.



At 85% the engines ECU needs to be recalibrated to efficiently trim the combustion efficiency.

The result is burning a cheaper fuel, cooler combustion temps (reduced NOx), and resulting in less carbonous emissions by volume (CO2 more readily than CO due to greater oxygen content in fuel)

The cars fuel system will need to be evaluated as the natural lubricity of gasoline is factored when designing fuel pumps, injectors, and lines (elastomer swelling). By nature alcohols are "dry" and are less oleophilic, meaning cylinder walls will have a harder time maintaining oil... increasing friction.

I know for certain Volkswagon has produced vehicles built specifically to run on higher than normal ethanol concentrated fuels (10 - 30% by volume). They changed many things about the cars setup.

E10 has been tested here in the US and so far hasn't shown to have any ill-effects such as corrosion (ethanol holds water moreso than gasoline), etc.

[sdtouge]

to run this at WOT you need to have almost twice the fuel, so to utilize this you would need about 800cc injectros lol but you can run more boost:)