90 No Ethanol

I have run the ethanol free 91 at Fas Trac that Big John is talking about in both cars,the runner and my 36 Terrplane,my vintage snowmobile,outboard,generator etc.Everything runs better on it,a small bit of stabil and it last a long time.To me it's worth the extra money.
 
zupanj said:
Why do all you guys think ethanol free gas is so wonderful. It should be more or less the same. Don't get me wrong the politics and economics of using ethanol are sheer stupidity but the chemistry is solid. I don't know gas chemistry all that well but apparently if you use an oxygenator in gas it reduces emissions or that's the way I understand it. Not too many years ago they used a chemical that quickly was found in everything they measured including human tissue so an alternative was necessary. Ethanol has a pretty high octane rating which should be a good thing because you don't have to add as much other stuff which would be hydrocarbons to boost the octane rating. The down side is ethanol is not a good fuel since it only has 2 carbons vs. the 8 you have in gasoline so gas mileage would be somewhat reduced though I don't know if you could measure the difference. On every car site I read about how bad ethanol is with no data just talk. I don't understand why.
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Ethanol like Methanol has less stored energy than gasoline so you will need something like 1.4 more ethanol to produce the same HP as gasoline. The reason your motor dynoed so well is that Edelbrock carbs are so rich out of the box that the lean condition caused by the ethanol actually helped you. If you were to run straight ethanol/methanol you would make a lot more power than gas but the fuel system will need to be much larger to move 1.4 more times the fuel than gasoline. Here in California there is an alternative fuels program that will grant you smog exempt status if running ethanol/ methanol. I tried it and my 400 hp motor made another 40 ft/lb torque and went 4 tenths faster in the quarter. The problem with any of the alcohol is that they are terribly corrosive and will eat all rubber parts and rot any metal parts. When I ran methanol I had to drain the cell after each race and put gas in and run the car until it started to pump black smoke out the exhaust (because of the bigger jets for methanol) Ethanol has been a very misunderstood animal. The problem is that the government wants to keep upping the ethanol content until the older cars cant run on it. which is about where we are. Most older FI engines dont have the adjustability and don't learn like todays cars and that is why John had trouble with his Bricklin. E85 is 105 octane and will up the HP in your car and if you have the very expensive teflon lined hoses and specially treated aluminum hard lines in place you can run hopefully trouble free for years, that is if the rings dont wear prematurely due to the lack of lubrication from gasoline. The conclusion I came to when I ran my car on alcohol was that it certainly isn't worth the hassle.
 
Just rejoining this site and noticed this thread, I just started using ethanol free and have to say it really helps with the car and my lawn mower which I was having problems with in the spring.
 
Even in my small 4 stroke marine engine I have moisture issues as mentioned, storing our non daily drivers the fuel here in USSR California, it leaves such an extreme coating on carbs, nothing seems to cut it to clean, Using StarTron and StaBil seem to be one method, yet it still requires a DRY fuel system. Aren't our newer cars with sealed or more specifically the fuel tank caps are sealed, thus preventing out gassing.

I am located in Central Valley of Northern CA and our San fransico Bay area is even more extreme on fuel issues.
So MOPARCHRIS I again thank you for the detail info, never thought of flushing an alcohol drag car, and YES elimination of older cars seems to be the PROCESS.
 
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