E85 petrol

[RONA]

Cold start.....

[JustenGT8]

The Witzl is waiting for Justen GT8 to add his comments.
I also read an article in Zoom about E85.... it has me thinking about having a play with it on the uber 18RG at some stage.

Your wait is over Witzl

I run 16psi thru a roots SC on a 10:1 comp engine with E85 and no sign of det....that's pretty impressive no?

Car starts fine even at -2 deg in Canberra winter (with no IAC) but it does take a few cranks.

For a track car you'd be mad to run anything else i reckon.

For a street car? Not unless it's a highly strung turbo and not until it's widely available would be my take. @ $1/litre it's a cheaper option than 98 for sure...even with the extra consumption.

[Joshstix]

Can anyone shed any light as to why the 15% additives/unleaded is neccessary, can you just run straight ethanol for even more performance?

To stop people from drinking it

[MR22ZZ]

Can anyone shed any light as to why the 15% additives/unleaded is neccessary, can you just run straight ethanol for even more performance?

To stabilise the Ethanol and give it a longer shelf life.

[JZA70 R]

Any idea of what the shelf life is sans additives? ...Im curious because id like to run ethanol from the drum as we wont have it on the pump for a while yet, if there were no real reason NOT to run straight ethanol then id considering doing just that. Additional performance and no need to worry about correct measurements when adding the 15%...

Id be tuning the car myself and im hoping i can find a way to get it to start reasonably well on straight ethanol.

Cheers.

[river]

Hi,

Does ethanol burn with a visible flame?

seeyuzz
river

[trdee]

hrmm. im not sure. most spirits ive ever seen burn with a blue flame but that could be due to impurities... but anyways, E85 has additives in it to make the flame brighter/more visible. methanol now has the same additives too.

[MR22ZZ]

Hi,

Does ethanol burn with a visible flame?

seeyuzz
river

yes it does, it's a little more yellow, it's methanol that burns the colourless blue.

This was one of the reasons that INDYCAR swapped from methanol to ethanol a few years ago.

[Joshstix]

Any idea of what the shelf life is sans additives? ...Im curious because id like to run ethanol from the drum as we wont have it on the pump for a while yet, if there were no real reason NOT to run straight ethanol then id considering doing just that. Additional performance and no need to worry about correct measurements when adding the 15%...

Id be tuning the car myself and im hoping i can find a way to get it to start reasonably well on straight ethanol.

Cheers.

Do you have a source to buy straight ethanol for cheaper than E85? I ask because one of the big reasons for puttung petrol in E85 is to stop people from using the ethanol to make alcoholic drinks and selling them dodging the exise and taxes.

[oldcorollas]

Any idea of what the shelf life is sans additives? ...Im curious because id like to run ethanol from the drum as we wont have it on the pump for a while yet, if there were no real reason NOT to run straight ethanol then id considering doing just that. Additional performance and no need to worry about correct measurements when adding the 15%...

Id be tuning the car myself and im hoping i can find a way to get it to start reasonably well on straight ethanol.

Cheers.

what Josh said.. you need a licence to buy good ethanol.. and putting it into a car is probably not a good enough reason for that...

well.. either buy E85 by the drum,
or buy methylated spirits by the drum... 5% methanol, plus bittering agents.. cheaper than drinkable ethanol, arguably higher "octane" rating than E85... more available than E85.. some methanol issues

[JZA70 R]

Ah I was under the impression people here were buying ethanol by the drum and mixing E85 on their own but apparently thats not how they do it.

After a quick convo with a friend who buys E85 by the drum, he said that he is buying premixed E85 (CSR) which is mixed with anti corrosion additives and 98 octane petrol which he said is higher than the 91 octane fuel mixed from the pump in the eastern states.

He also said its hard to buy E85 here, it comes from victoria and is much more expensive than U98 in perth. $550 for 200 odd litres of E85

Dreams shattered I guess ill just stick to U98 until E85 is much cheaper here.

[trdee]

get your hands on some toluene and shit and make your own race fuel

[oldcorollas]

$550 for 200 odd litres of E85

Dreams shattered I guess ill just stick to U98 until E85 is much cheaper here.

cheaper than race fuel... or a cheap race fuel...

[GU11TY]

He also said its hard to buy E85 here, it comes from victoria and is much more expensive than U98 in perth. $550 for 200 odd litres of E85

Dreams shattered I guess ill just stick to U98 until E85 is much cheaper here.

that cant be right. its only $1/L here

[JZA70 R]

thats why i was getting all excited about using it, thinking it was only $1 per litre. perth seem to be getting shafted.