My at home E85 conversion...early thoughts

[BB73Challenger]

Hi all,

Been a while but still kicking.
As the title says I completed an E-85 conversion, and I''l walk you through what I did and this would be a great platform for any to add known FACTS please.
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but alot of my "home work" led me to threads that would start well enough and end in a keyboard war of why E85 is bad for this reason or destroys this and that.
I not only surfed the web but chased down guys at local cruises and shows to ask them about there conversions.
I obviously limited this to carb scenarios as that was what I was concerned with.

So the back story..
I have a stroked and bored 500 ci B series block in my Challenger that's on the verge/beyond straight pump gas.
I did not want to change the engine for dynamic comp or cylinder pressure, nor de-tune.
When I did finish the engine install, like a bonehead I didn't upgrade the fuel system, so earlier I did enlarge fuel lines and pump.
I am still running a high volume Eddy mechanical pump.
So my carb was a basic Holley 850 DP that I had done an extra 50 cc pump, and had served pretty well.
I had been using 94 premium with an additive that seemed to work well. As premium and my additive climbed last season it made it very expensive.

I opted for the DIY piece meal for 2 reasons.
1 - I could buy pieces here and there at little high out of pocket
2 - I have all of my original un-molested pieces if I should want to go back

My buy list was not too long, and I spent the winter shopping.
I found what I believe the most important piece on E-bay, a Rob Mix Proform body "sized" 1050 with enlarged down leg boosters.
For 200 bucks that was money well spent, and now i had adjustable bleeds.
The next most expensive and no short cut piece was Quick fuels 4150 E85 metering blocks. 140 from Summit that I coupled with a coupon I had ( 10% off! )
I picked up Quick fuels alcohol rebuild kits 3-204 off Ebay for 60 - this gives me the high flow needles, seats, 65 PV, gaskets the whole nine yards.
I did need some small bleeds, .025 High speed, and just made them from blanks ordered through Summit again, and a set of .061 Air bleeds.
So once I had these pieces I used Quick fuels own E85 1050 carb for an idea of baseline tuning specs.
.150 needle and seat
.061 air bleed  .025 high speed
50 cc accel pumps front and rear with aggressive cams
45 squirters front and rear
65 power valve front plug rear
90 jet front 98 rear
squared transition slots
idle screws 1-1/2 turns out

I did get a 100 micron screen filter pre pump and 40 post pump, pre carb, again stainless mesh.

Now, I did already have new hard lines/braided stainless line through the fuel system, so I eliminated rubber even a while back.
The fuel pump, many felt that talks of negative effects are greatly exaggerated, and in my opinion, I'd agree to a point.
Heck, we have 15 percent ethanol in regular pump gas already and it has torn things like plastic sight plugs and rubber accel pumps on my old carbs before.
Most had said after at least 2 years of use there were no signs of any negative effects.

I ran my tank pretty empty before the change, trying to get right to the new E85.
I bought 5 gals at the station I will primarily use and tested it at E87/88.
I first fired the car and the use on AN fittings was worth it as no leaks!
I do have an O2 meter and running Lambda scale and when started was darn near 1.0 at idle, very lucky.
I let the car warm up, and had to back off the electric fan, as I read we need to warm higher than the 150 I was at in idle, now the fans kick on at 165.
The idle did richen up to .90 and I figured I'll run fat till I dial it in.
A quick round the block and everything felt pretty good. With gas when I had a lean spot you felt it no question.
I can "log" with my littel A/F meter and will do that next session.
The car felt so good and when Id check the meter it would climb a little fat on accel and seemed pretty good, so I put another 6 gals in at the pump.

I'm really excited about how this is turning out, and again if anybody would like to add anything that would be great, I think all the info we can add will help someone down the road for a conversion if they would like!

[teslasbrain]

Keep it up my friend.   There are a lot of ignorant people out there, but 100+ Octane rings in my ears for $1.6 a gallon locally.  I will be watching this thread 
Because any som bitc# that would rather give some arabs money versus American farmers, such as myself, are fools. 
If you have further questions contact these folks; http://www.raceone85.com/

[HP2]

 I seriously looked at doing an E85 conversion. Even built my fuel system to handle the high alcohol content. Before pulling the trigger to pulled some samples (my Suburban is a flex fuel vehicle) and wasn't too impressed with the consistencty of whats available locally. Additionally, once looking at a broader availability in my region, it  became somewhat risky to be locked into it should I end up somewhere out on some two lane  highway out in the boonies where they don't have it.  Instead, I  decided on a gas system with methanol injection as its  easier for me to score without hassle.

I'll watch and read how your doing, as its still an interesting conversion.

[Racer57]

Heck, we have 15 percent ethanol in regular pump gas already

E15 is marked "Flex-Fuel".


Glad to hear you didn't fall for all the "the sky is falling" ethanol bashing.   

[BB73Challenger]

Got out for a good round of driving, and overall things are looking pretty good.
I have one of those MTX-L wideband meters and I can log with it.
With a little more real world information I want to fatten up the idle and cruise just a bit, and I maxed out the idle screws
in the metering blocks, so Quick Fuel used and adjustable idle feed restriction that is currently at .043", so I think
I'll try 45's.
I'm right near .90 Lambda at idle/cruise and would like to fatten up to .87.
The mix gets fatter upon heavy acceleration and just a little heavy at top end with the secondaries at .74 and I think a secondary jet change will fix that.

The motor on gas always liked to be a little richer than stoich so I think I'm close!

I know that the E85 isn't everywhere, and not on the Turnpike, but I did find a cool website that lists E85 stations by area code, and there are enough around me anyways to try this out.
So the Barracuda will be my "distance" cruiser.
I'm also going to top off and monitor MPG, just for giggles.

[HP2]

If it was more widely available in my area, I'd give it a go.

I noticed in my Suburban, I get 4-5 mpg less with  E85 and I have to get it at $.60 less per gallon to break even over using gas.

['Cuda Hunter]

I changed back from E85 as the octane levels were never consistent from one day to the next at the pumps.
The inconsistency made for very inconsistent numbers at the track (PMI) upon different weekends.
That was my only fret with E.    It does smell nice when cruising compared to gasoline.

Glad your enjoying it.

[teslasbrain]

E15 is marked "Flex-Fuel".


Glad to hear you didn't fall for all the "the sky is falling" ethanol bashing.   

 
I am amazed that this thread hasn't degenerated to that.  The great thing about living in Minnesota, other than the weather 
is that E85 is available at just about every station.

[quagmire]

I too really wanted to go E85 when I went EFI (I may still with the next round of additions) so that I could run ridiculously high compression on the street.  My only reason for not switching was a lack of stations in a lot of areas, and with the amount of fillups I'd need with the fuel economy drop, I'm too afraid of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with no fuel.  Areas that have it often have numerous stations close together, but areas that don't have hundreds of miles in between the clusters.  If it gets more widespread adopted I'd do it in a quick second so I can run 13+ compression with low EGT's.