I didnt know if the rotary was very flexable on fuel but might aswell ask im sure everyone should know.

 

Not on a stock engine..



E85 has low BTUs, so you would need to inject alot more..


But if you are asking if a rotary will run E85 properly tuned? yes it will.



-Zach

 

cool, im not much on the less emissions unless it dont hurt performance, then i think its great. accualy E-85 will help your 1/4th by .1 of a sec and thats proven even in 0-60 tmes too.

 

Actually that is not completely true.


E85 produces less BTUs so you have to inject ~30% more for the same power level. This takes away room from air that could be there. So it produces less power in that respect..

But E85 is 118 octane allowing you to make more power then 93 octane gas if you take advantage of it.

But you will also be required to carry ~30% more and at 7lbs a gallon you are making your travelled distance shorter or you are carring more.


-Zach

 

lol, i heard e-85 was 105, 30% more.... i hear a supercharger.

 

I'm not flaming you, but have you read the owners manual for your car?

 

dont have one

 

I'm at work so don't totally quote me but I think the manual says no more than 15% ethonal and no methonal is recommended.

 

I can't see why the fuel system couldnt' be modified to run E-85.. you'd need to retune the ECU too.. but sure, it could be done.

the better question is: why would you want to?

 

I'm not sure the extra work involved would be worthwhile. FC's were developed before "oxygenated gasoline" was common. Many of the flexible lines in the system aren't compatible with ethanol. You would also need to re work the ECU and or put in bigger injectors. Because Ethanol has fewer BTU's and the system needs to pump more fuel, you lose fuel economy big time. The cost savings is about $.15/gallon- not a good tradeoff.

One of my vehicles is a newer FFV that can take advantage of E-85. On regular gasoline (10% ethanol because it's MN) I get about 22 mpg average. With E-85 the economy is in the 15-17 mpg range.

E85 is considered a "clean air fuel" because its made from a renewable resource, and it burns cleaner than gasoline. It's also heavily subsidized by state goverments, which means that if the subsidies go away, it is more expensive than gasoline.

 

only reason i liked it, is no performance loss, better enviorment, and the next step to the country being non dependent on the midle east!

 

I'll drink to that!



-Ted

 

you can come dependant on Canada. we have more oil then the middle east

we just can't mine it because we'd probaby kill an animal or 2 and we couldn't have that

dam country full of hippies and tree lovers

 

HAHA, you crazy Canucks!

 

We've also got a lot of corn & wheat.

I'm in MN right now on business and happened to catch something on TV about E-85. It was the first time I've ever heard anything about it. Nice to see ethanol is finally catching on!

 

if i rember correctly, cars usto run on ethnol a long time ago...?
and Canadia always has something smart to say.
We wuldnt buy oil from you even if it meaned opening the unused alaska pipeline!

 

Canada supplies more than 70% of crude petroleum to the United States, more than any other exporter.

Please educate yourself before such silly comments.

 

and then we buy it back at 10 times the price because we're st00pid...

hehehe

 

Holy thread ressurection!

I thought I'd bring this topic up again because I was itching to discuss it a bit more.

I have put some pretty low octane gas in my GXL (lowest around here is 85, 10% alchohol) and it ran just the same as it did on the 89 I usually get.

I also pre-mix, which raises the octane rating of the fuel.

I know alchohol creates less energy then gasoline, but wouldn't that be slightly offset by the fact that our N/As run super freakin' to start with? Right now my ECU is just dumping fuel in there and it's not burning as efficient as possible, so dumping a fuel in there that's less powerful could even things out a bit more, right?

 

Ok, I'll throw in. With 100% Methanol you need about double the fuel volume as with gasoline. You might be able to throw in injectors with twice the flow rate and get the car to run, but the fuel pump wouldn't be able to keep up under load and you'd start loosing hoses, the PD, and gaskets/o-rings throughout the fuel system. Ethanol needs only slightly less volume than methanol and E85 a little bit less again.

If you want to run alky your ignition better be in really good shape and you'll probably wear out the engine sooner since the alcohol will take all the oil off the housing walls. There are alcohol fuel lubricants that would help though. And cold starting an alky motor is a PITA.

Oh, and who the h*ll said premixing raises the fuel octane? Oil is bad in the combustion chamber. It promotes detonation. There's just no way around it for a rotary, yet.

If you want to know more about fuels especially alky and nitro read this:
http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel.html

 

Neither Methanol or Ethanol are compatible with our fuel system. You can get away with 5% ethanol but methanol in any amount is a no-go.

 

ok since this thread gets resurrected every 2 years here we go again. i am wondering, because it isn't that clear to me, what harmful side effctsrunning E85 will bring.

i have friend who tunes a lot of cars mostly hondas...(i know i know) but anyway he has done multiple tests with some of the cars and it has proven that E85 is producing higher WHP numbers than even race gas. so because our Rotary is SO different how would it react to running it.

p.s. i have a rebuilt Jspec TII, RC 750cc primes, 1200cc seconds, Walbro 255lph, and a Microtech LT10s...if it's tuned right what will happen?

 

I've heard ethanol can harm standard parts connecting to gasoline motors, specifically lines and seals. I think you would have to replace a bunch of tubing and such to make it safe.

 

Octane has only one thing to do with power: anti-knock. Octane has absolutely nothing to do with BTU generation. Higher octane simply means:
higher compression + heat = less detonation.

#2: Aluminum + Ethanol = pitting in the metal. Ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline to some metals. There goes the intake.
Have fun with ethanol.

 

Ok take this with post with a grain of salt. I do not have a car running e85. I was considering doing this but it is just to big of a pain to get the power numbers that i am looking for. That being said this is what i dug up in my research.

Alcohol is corrosive so that means you have to go through your entire fuel system and replace all the lines. You may have to replace your fuel tank as well. Walbros are not rated for alcohol so you probably shoudl get an alcohol compatable pump which is pretty pricey. To get a pump capable of 600hp you are looking at using 2 sx(i think) or a aeromotive one. All in all its gunna be like 8 or 9 hundred. Also, you are going to need to change the o rings on the injectors to flex fuel orings. marren has these. Also, you are nto supposed to have aluminum come into contact with alcohol so fuel rails might have to be replaced. Also, you are going to have to run a lot more injector to get the desired hp numbers with alcohol than wiht gasoline. Marren fuel injection has a calculator to figure out how much hp your injectors can handle. In theory you should be able to get more power out of an alcohol engine with out having det problems because the alcohol cools the intake charge. Any way thats my $.02 worth hope this helps and i hope i didnt get anything wrong.