Alternative Fuels Discussion and Tech on using alternatives such as E85 or Hydrogen or other fuels and/or supplements to Gasoline in Rotary Engines

E85 Experience

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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 02:32 PM
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E85 Experience

Thought I would post this just to spread the knowledge.
Have been running E85 for about a year now and have learned several things from it.
E85 is different than gas in respect to AFR's. You can run way leaner with E85 than you would with gas.
With gas, I would try to keep in the 11's as far as AFR's go. I assumed E85 would be the same. Found out yesterday it isn't. I leaned my AFR's down to 12.3:1 and my car instantly became a different car. Before, I was running in the mid 11's and it seemed pretty fast, but when I lowered it, now my tires just spin in 2nd and 3rd when I punch it.
I found out that running rich with E85 is actually worse than running lean.
A few months ago I actually had E85 and meth injection running at the same time.
One day I was out playing around and punched it. Right when my meth injection came on, I heard a POP! I took it home and found a cracked rear iron.
The result of too much liquid in the chamber and a misfire.
E85 is very hard to detonate and is very forgiving. Every rotary should run it. It's a no-brainer.
I dynoed my car at 545 RWHP last Fall. I would estimate it's in the low 600's now just because I leaned it out.
Now all I need is some rubber behind me so I can hook up!
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 02:47 PM
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what other modifications did you need to make to run e85?
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 03:12 PM
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E85 is ok, but with less than 1 gas station having it in every surrounding city and you use alot more of it than 93 kinda sucks..so i thikaround here in my area it equals out. You can drive 20miles to fill up, 20miles back home. you already used a few gallons just going to the gas station. Also going on road trips you have to map out gas station routes. Other than that... very nice fuel.
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 05:45 PM
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Wouldn't use it for fuel on a DD.
For high performance, you can't beat it.
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 05:46 PM
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Originally Posted by ballinnmiami240sx
what other modifications did you need to make to run e85?
4XID2000 injectors
2XBosch 044 pumps
FPR
Thats about it.
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 07:25 PM
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Just a weekend driver ya know. can't drive to dgrr comfortably. How is your gas mileage with the 4 ID 2k's? Im going to run 4 ID 2k's Twin 044's.
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 07:40 PM
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Originally Posted by just startn
Just a weekend driver ya know. can't drive to dgrr comfortably. How is your gas mileage with the 4 ID 2k's? Im going to run 4 ID 2k's Twin 044's.
Gas mileage sucks of course. I don't use my car to drive around in tho. Just to race.
I ocassionaly drive my RX-7 on the streets just to show off. It can eat just about anything on the road.
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 07:57 PM
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Well said Bruce, Nice fuel set up....wonder who else has that????Hmmmmmm...
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Old Apr 28, 2011 | 08:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Slammedblk7
Well said Bruce, Nice fuel set up....wonder who else has that????Hmmmmmm...
How do you like E85? I wonder why more people dont convert to it, just for the simple fact that it is almost detonation proof!
If everybody that had owned a rotary, converted to E85, there would be a lot more rotarys running around to this day.
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Old Apr 29, 2011 | 06:09 AM
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Originally Posted by RXTASY57
How do you like E85? I wonder why more people dont convert to it, just for the simple fact that it is almost detonation proof!
If everybody that had owned a rotary, converted to E85, there would be a lot more rotarys running around to this day.
Oh i love the fuel, after multiple 30psi+ spikes and no knock. I knew it was meant to be.lol
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Old May 1, 2011 | 11:49 PM
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Do you guys think a ID1000/2000 setup plus a little meth would be enough to run 500rwhp on E85?
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Old May 2, 2011 | 09:44 AM
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Just get the ID2000 for the primary spots. No idle problems what so ever.
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Old May 2, 2011 | 05:25 PM
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Originally Posted by RXTASY57
Just get the ID2000 for the primary spots. No idle problems what so ever.
Even with a PFC?
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Old May 2, 2011 | 07:16 PM
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Posted in a different e85 thread

Originally Posted by pluto
I actually have a rx7 here running 4 ID2000 inj on pump gas. It idles at 13.4:1 w/o any issues. This is on a haltech Platnium. NOTE to others, 4 x ID2000 won't work well on PFC due to the ECU limitations
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Old May 2, 2011 | 09:28 PM
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Yeah I'd toss the PFC, I run the ID2000s and mine idles really good.
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Old May 2, 2011 | 11:20 PM
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nice info will be running that soon
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Old May 12, 2011 | 08:18 PM
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E85 is a good fuel. Just don't let it sit in the tank for extended periods of time or it will turn to a jelly like residue in your fuel filter and clogg the fuel system and cause the car to lean out under boost. This is what happened to mms this week. E85 is very forgiving..............
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Old May 12, 2011 | 08:24 PM
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wat is long periods of time?
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Old May 13, 2011 | 06:00 AM
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I have had E-85 in the tank for three years now and with three winters of storage (4-6) months I have never seen any adverse effects. No sludge, no tank dissolving corrosion.
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Old May 13, 2011 | 06:11 AM
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I think I did go small on my injector setup. I'm running 6xID1000s (with an FJO box) and at 20PSI on a TO4Z, I'm near out of injector. I'm also running 2x044s.

What are you running for base pressure? How much boost are you running and what are your duty cycles up top?

I'm probably going to swap to ID2000s for at least one set of secondaries. Though you say the 2000s are OK, I'd think you'd have better fine tuning in cruisabillity by maintaining the 1000s in the primary spot.

I'm about 480whp on my setup. I'm at around 11 AFRs as well.

BTW, I'm on a PFC.

EDIT:

NM...I see your sig.
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Old May 13, 2011 | 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Railgun
I think I did go small on my injector setup. I'm running 6xID1000s (with an FJO box) and at 20PSI on a TO4Z, I'm near out of injector. I'm also running 2x044s.

What are you running for base pressure? How much boost are you running and what are your duty cycles up top?

I'm probably going to swap to ID2000s for at least one set of secondaries. Though you say the 2000s are OK, I'd think you'd have better fine tuning in cruisabillity by maintaining the 1000s in the primary spot.

I'm about 480whp on my setup. I'm at around 11 AFRs as well.

BTW, I'm on a PFC.

EDIT:

NM...I see your sig.
Do you have any idle issues using that primary injector size and the PFC? I assume you must be running a little negative lag? Will you be running E85 only? As much as I love my PFC I'm considering a switch to a Haltech Platinum Sport for my E85 conversion as I'd like to just run the four ID2000's everyones suggesting and not have any issues. Plus I'm going to have a daily driver map for gas since I've only got one station that carries E85 in my area. Of course I could just run four ID1600 secondaries. How much of a pain in the *** is it to run four secondaries on the PFC?
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Old May 13, 2011 | 08:27 PM
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Not a pain at all. They're just wired in parallel so I just change the setting as such in the PFC.

IIRC, I am running neg lag, though I don't recall what exactly. They respond to changes pretty well so I'm not too concerned about it so much. It does idle really well...on a half bridge, I've got it to about 1300-1400 at about 12 AFRs.

As of now, I am strictly E85. It's relatively easy to find in my area, however, as my car and I are seperated for the forseeable future, any changes to play around with settings are going to be far and few between.

I'd definitely recommend a gas map. I think I can squeeze 14MPG on the highway with E85. And that's tuned to about 14-15 AFRs in cruise at 80.
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Old May 15, 2011 | 04:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Railgun
I'm near out of injector.
What duty cycles are you seeing with your setup?
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Old May 17, 2011 | 12:27 PM
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Railgun, you're running an FJO box????

If it's an injector driver box you are referring to, please remove it!! It is designed to convert to peak/hold style drivers for low impedance injectors. ID injectors are high impedance saturated injectors, so you should NOT be running this. The PFC will drive the parallel ID1000 secondaries fine without resistors or peak/hold box.
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Old May 21, 2011 | 08:12 AM
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I'm going to take a look at my fuel filters today, after sitting all Winter.
Let's see what this stuff does.
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