updating my experience with e85..

i've been running the car successfully on e85. i recently attended a track event in Savannah GA and i got e85 from a local gas station and my car started running lean and i had to adjust the fuel map. im sure the % of ethanol was lower at the pump in GA which sucks.. i wonder how consistent it's here in South florida

i am new on this forum, but I have been running a supercharged rx8 for a few years. Dang 10:1 compression ratio. I am not boosting that much--less than 9psi and my whp is only at or a little above 300. I road race the car several times a year. I do have a snow progressive water meth system but I have been interested in E85 for all the obvious reasons.
I have had the rotors cut to accommodate the taller apex seals from the 3nd gen turbo and i have the iat's under control etc etc, but this engine is still fragile for road racing.
E85 is easily available for me.
My reservation includes lubrication issues? The Rx8 only has 2 oil injectors per rotor meaning that pre mix is also required. What pre mix oil is good to use with E85? Does fuel contamination affect the engine oil any differently than gas?
Spark--will a factory ignition system handle e 85 conversion ok?
Thanks all.
OD

Lift Pumps
 

[QUOTE=RXTASY57;10738412]Just experienced a problem with E85.
I run a Walbro in my main tank that feeds a sump which has 2 Bosch 044's coming off of it.
My 044's started cavitating the other day. I thought it was due to the heat outside.
Took my fuel system apart and found the sock on the Walbro was all gummed up and wouldn't allow enough fuel to flow through it.
The fuel socks on Walbro or stock pumps were never mean't for E85.
My 044's developed air pockets and that caused them to cavitate.
[QUOTE]

For those of you who are dealing with the issue of lift pump filter socks gumming up, I may have found a solution. The Bosch 040(109lph) and 023(168lph) intank pumps are built with an open bottom design, and that open bottom design has a metal filter screen which is compatible with E85, granted its not made of aluminium. I realize that these pumps really don't flow all that great compared to the 044, but for those of you using a surge tank, I really don't think your lift pump needs to flow 255lph or 300lph for that matter. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I was planning to buy the 044 and mount it in tank and use the Fuelab stainless filter sock, so I bought a filter sock to test fit it in my tank, turns out, it doesn't really fit without smashing it up quite a bit, it doesn't fit inside of the fuel tub inside the tank. So this little problem put me on a search for a better lift pump, and that brought me to the 040 and 023.
If you guys have any reason that I shouldn't go this route let me know before monday!

Dan, You can modify the pump assembly and make the 044's fit right in there.

sweet, I'll have to give you a call and you can explain to me how its done.
Thanks Bruce

Too bad where I live, E85 is not an option!!!!

Heard LOTS of goodies regarding e85.

Goodies?! How so?! From what i've read e85 is bad for ALL engines that have any sort or rubber fuel lines...
:scratch:

30 years ago, sure. Hardly an issue these days.

^Hrmm, reeeally? Read these links...

http://www.eaa.org/news/2006/2006-11-01_faa.asp

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...514_058678.htm

These to articles don't really apply to the Rx-7 performance community, avation and what we are doing is apples and oranges. The second article is stating that automotive manufactures haven't considered ethanol blended fuels prior to manufacturing, which is pretty silly. I think what you have here is someone that is pretty upset by the government funded ethanol industry, not someone that is using ethanol on a high performance car.

If you would read the alternative fuel section you would learn the way that we have gotten around the negative effects of ethanol on our fuel systems. The corrosive nature of ethanol is not as bad as these articals state, as a matter of fact I've had a raw peice of aluminium sitting in a sealed jar of E85 for 3 months now, and there hasn't been any changes in the aluminium apearance or the way the surface feels. So I added 5cc's of water to the aluminium and E85 two weeks ago to see if this would start some sort of pitting or anything for that matter, and it hasn't yet. So don't believe the negative hipe about this fuel, because if you read on you will find that everyone that has switched to it has loved it.

Seems that this thread is about direct E85 experience. Unless you have something specific that you can contribute based on your own direct experience then it may be better to lurk rather than post any old muck up from the internet waste land, which is why I'm going to shut up and back away from the keyboard now ...

They haven't used rubber in cars since the early 80's.
E85 is not as corosive as people are stating either. I have had it in my car for two years now. Nothing has been eaten away.
Lot's of false literature on this stuff. Not sure why?

Bruce, a lot nowadays is people posting their internet experience.... :lol:

My oil control rings failed because of E85.

how would your oil rings fail because of e85 if people have been running them in their cars for years without problems? do they even make oil control rings out of a different material?

OEM oil control rings are natural rubber (I think) and on my new build, I am getting viton oil control rings. All as I know, I need a new engine because my rings swelled and failed.

Davin, How long have you been using E85? What premix were you using? Did you leave the car sitting for a long time? how old was the engine, and how many miles did you have on it... Any other niformation would be great too.

Thanks

Great article concerning E85: http://www.injectordynamics.com/AlcoholArticle.html

for those of you running auxiliary injection with E85, just stop... ditch the AI, it is unecessary unless you're running rediculous amounts of boost and then you will want to run water and not alcohol on alcohol.

think about it, you're spraying alcohol which is also a fuel through a roughly metered orifice based on line pressure. it is not an accurate method of injecting a fuel into the engine. switch to water if you need the additional knock suppression as your AFRs will not greatly depend on the water for tuning.


it gives me a headache when i see people using AI injecting methanol/ethanol when running the main fuel injection system with ethanol. block in hole.

E85 works fine. No paper filters. Use hose made for alcohol. Bosch 044's all come with a screen on the bottom. The factory FD pump works fine completely submerged in E85. Just need to swap the hose with one for alcohol. Premix with alcohol compatible oils otherwise the oil will not blend properly with the fuel.

Done deal.

p.s. Been running E85 every day for two years now in my FD.

Interested in hearing more on this discussion.

my experience with e85 all i can say is just great. just had a couple of customers complaining about rust in tank , but im sure the rust was the before the e85. other than that just make sure you use the right hose . i love it

rust is way before i know this because the inside of my fuel tank looked like a piece of the titanic after it was in the bottom of the ocean for a while. i don't know how but my prob was way before e85.

Wished I lived closer to a pump. Closet one to me is about an hour away. If it wasn't for this I would've been using long ago

Im in the process of converting over. There's lots of e85 pumps here in vegas and theres no humidity here for rust in this dry desert lol.