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Converting to E85 (ethanol fuel)

it's a 1998 peugeot 306 1.4 wooohooo :(
Then I am 95% sure that the mix of 40/60 will work.

It is naturally aspirated (no turbo), right?

If the Lambda-light or engine malfunction light turns on, then the blend of E85 is too high. I am most definitely sure that it will not be harmful to try it.
 
Another happy E85 user:

1991 240 B230F LH 2.4 (pink label 561), greentops from late turbo model 940 + resistors, stock n/a 2.5 bar fpr, timing advanced a bit with the selector-pins of EZK.
The greentops flow about 280 cc/min at 2.5 bar, the stock yellowtops flow 176 cc/min, so thats a 60% increase...
car ran rich on petrol with those injectors and shaked violently (so hard that the mechanical fan hit the shroud), but smoothed out after a few minutes. had to re-learn after every longer re-start (the next day eg). Engine had a slight knocking sound, like slapping pistons, but it went away i think.
I wired the resistors in the green-white cable at the ecu (pin 18 from LH), in parallel, works great.
With E85 in the tank it doesn't need to re-learn anymore and runs strong. i didn't check the mileage or the plugs yet, but the first impression (100 km of driving) is very good.

Fred, thanks for the article and support via msn etc!
 
I've been researching the steps involved in converting my 164 to e85 for a while now. I've got 2 SU carbs on there and from what I've been able to find these should be able to run E85with 30% larger jets and some needle massaging. I have also found B18-B20 & B30 distributors with an ethanol timing curve. I just have not seen it put into practice. Does anyone know of any carbbed Volvos running on e85? I know It can't be as easy as just throwing in new jets but if it is...
 
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I know It can't be as easy as just throwing in new jets but if it is...
It is that easy. Trust me.

I know of some carbed E85 Volvo?s, but I have not seen them in person. Only seen them on another forum (which crashed a while back).

It would be great if you could get a distributor with an ethanol timing curve. That will definitely help the power up a whole lot, and the milage will be conciderably better too.
 
This sounds great at first blush, I would love to try it. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to do in southern California. The *ONLY* gas station in southern California that offers E85 is Pearson Ford in El Cajon/San Diego (about 100 miles away from me, I'm near Disneyland in Orange County). Currently, E85 is $3.11/cash or $3.18 if you use a credit/debit card per gallon.

If I'm gonna take a ~25% hit on fuel economy, that means E85 would need to cost $2.77 to equal the money-per-gallon ratio of Premium 91 (which is currently at $3.69 near my house). It would only become a benefit if it cost LESS than $2.77/gal, in terms of money-per-mile.

But, it ends up costing more than Premium 91 octane. Not to mention, E85 simply isn't available yet. So what's the point?

The only way it would be "cheaper" would be if you ran 100 octane all of the time. Here's my comparison...based on local information, today...

VP Racing Unleaded, 100 octane
$5.89/gal
20 gal tank = $117.80 per tank
Roughly 18mpg (in my 940)
Roughly 360 miles per tank
Roughly 32.7 cents per mile

E85 Ethanol
$3.18/gal (credit/debit...$.07 discount if you pay cash)
20 gal tank = $63.60 per tank
Roughly 13.5 mpg (25% reduction from gasoline)
Roughly 270 miles per tank
Roughly 23.6 cents per mile

Gasoline, 91 oct.
$3.69/gal
20 gal tank = $73.80
Roughly 18 mpg
Roughly 360 miles per tank
Roughly 20.5 cents per mile

...I'm thinking maybe in a year or two, when E85 is commonly available, it might be a viable option. But for a So Cal resident, E85 is about as practical as commuting in a Saturn EV-1 and praying for a charging station every 50 miles.
 
This sounds great at first blush, I would love to try it. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to do in southern California. The *ONLY* gas station in southern California that offers E85 is Pearson Ford in El Cajon/San Diego (about 100 miles away from me, I'm near Disneyland in Orange County). Currently, E85 is $3.11/cash or $3.18 if you use a credit/debit card per gallon.

That very fuel station is 2 blocks from me. That's it, I'm converting.
 
my car doesn't want to start properly on E85 now... FFS. It isn't cold here, cars runs good (except for a slight piston slapping noise or something on low rpm clutch slipping?? thats since the E85 and a few 100 km driven with greentops)..

any advice on spark plugs? what color should they read?
 
This sounds great at first blush, I would love to try it. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to do in southern California. The *ONLY* gas station in southern California that offers E85 is Pearson Ford in El Cajon/San Diego (about 100 miles away from me, I'm near Disneyland in Orange County).
Too bad since Cali really strives to be the state with the best environmental friendly cars/equipment/etc.

We have E85 at more than 1/2 of all the gas stations around here... (sorry, I had to tease you a little...)

The only way it would be "cheaper" would be if you ran 100 octane all of the time.
E85 is 105 octane (103-104 at some times), and it cools better too so the benefits are great.

my car doesn't want to start properly on E85 now... FFS. It isn't cold here, cars runs good (except for a slight piston slapping noise or something on low rpm clutch slipping?? thats since the E85 and a few 100 km driven with greentops)..
Did that just start to happen suddenly?

any advice on spark plugs? what color should they read?
Reading spark plugs when running E85 is impossible (or near impossible). They will have almost the same color all the time. They will only shift between light brown and light brown/gray.

Since you are running E85 in an NA car, the sparkplugs to use for E85 is the stock heat range for your car. For turbo use, and when driven hard, you usually only need to swap to one step colder plugs.
 
Has anyone touched on the fact that Ethanol is harder to burn than gasoline? I've heard it has a higher flash point. What effects would this have on performance?
 
I believe Fred said it's something around 104 octane, so it's great to prevent knocking.

Flash point has nothing to do with octane rating...E85 is actually more resistant to ignition than gasoline, so it takes more energy to make E85 burn. In other words...gas burns easier. I'm just not sure what this means from a performance standpoint.

Imagine watering-down your gas a little...that's how E85 burns. Maybe more spark energy is even more crucial with E85 to help offset this? Any ideas on this?
 
Flash point has nothing to do with octane rating...E85 is actually more resistant to ignition than gasoline, so it takes more energy to make E85 burn. In other words...gas burns easier. I'm just not sure what this means from a performance standpoint.

Imagine watering-down your gas a little...that's how E85 burns. Maybe more spark energy is even more crucial with E85 to help offset this? Any ideas on this?
It is only marginally harder to light off a mixture with E85/air than gas/air under compression. It is nothing I would worry about.

It is all about temperature and pressure. In the combustion chamber the conditions for combustion of E85 are much better than in free air.

A problem that in theory will be bigger than that, is the fact that E85 runs at a lower AFR, and that it should be harder to light the mixture because of that. In the real world this will never pose a problem unless your ignition system is in very bad condition.
 
Friggin' "Caul - E - Foe - Nee - Uh" (Arnold voice). Too many republicans getting rich off dino gas so nobody wants to put an E85 pump in.

I would love to try it, but I can't buy E85 within a 100 mile radius of Orange County. :( Thanks Fred. I'm jealous you have so much green gas over there!
 
I guess I took 'harder to burn' just to mean octane which would have been 'harder to predetonate' ...or maybe I was just spewing words, I don't know, lol.
 
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