Topped up the Disco with 105 octane!

[ptschram]

I don't know what the long-term effects on the aluminium components will be, but I doubt that half a tank every other tank will cause any major problems and it does make me feel good paying less once in awhile.

Now, to find a source of huge amounts of cellulose and a way to make my own cellulase!

 

[D90DC]

20 MPg you drinking that E-85? Good corn liquor yum yum.... Serious wont that stuff rot out the plastic tank and possible fuel line

 

[ptschram]

I tend to consider the solvents in gasoline to be as aggressive as alcohol. As far as I can tell, all of the gasoline sold hereabouts is at least 5% alcohol and most is listed as being 10%. I'm only adding a little more and alternating fuels when I fill up. The tank is HDPE-it's impervious to a lot of things, I'm less concerned about the tank than things like the injector o-rings and the fuel pump basket.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

You can't really say that gasoline contents are more aggressive than alcohol. They're both aggressive, but in different ways. Something that could live happily for a lifetime with alcohol in it, could be destroyed quickly with gasoline, and vice versa. Modern cars are generally constructed of materials resistant to both, but they aren't really designed for E85 levels of alcohol, and long term use could be a problem.

The most important, instant issue with running E85 is that if the fuel injectors and pump don't have enough headroom, they will not be able to richen up the mixture enough to run on E85 which requires something like 50% more volumetric flow than straight gas.

Normally , they try to size the injectors as small as possible for emissions and NVH reasons. Larger injectors are less accurate at idle, and noise as hell. You can hear the 42's on my Focus over and above the flat-tappet-lifters-DOHC-and-plastic-valve-cover noise.

 

[ptschram]

I beg to differ. While one could argue that like dissolves like and therefor they may well be of equal "Aggressiveness", it is equally valid to say that gasoline, being a blend of everything that comes across the tower between a given somewhat arbitrary boiling range, gasoline contains a wide variety of alkanes, aromatics, alcohols, etc and as a result, would likely be unfriendly to a wider variety of materials.

I tend to look at alcohols as being fairly innocuos, whereas the aromatic and cyclics in gasoline are of more concern to me on many levels.

Cheers,
PT

 

[ptschram]

W/R/T the injectors, while there seems to be some controversy as to the maximum flow rate, AFAIK, the injectors are rated at 19 PPG while at a typical pulse width, flows in a Lucas truck will be in the range of around 16 ppg.

The Lucas EMS from what I've been able to learn, is capable of varying the A/F ratio at a rate of +/- 0.625.

My truck was running stupidly rich. Who knows, maybe the E-42.5 will bring it to stoichiometic.

 

[RovinAround]

I have never seen ethanol in gas in se OH. We are supposed to get a new ethanol factory soon so that may change.

Not really SE at all, but I've seen stations in Wilmington and Washington Court House with it. I'd be surprised if at least some of the stations along SR23 didn't sell it...I had heard of plans of a plant, but never heard exactly where they were thinking of putting it. I know some of the CarGil guys in Wash. Court House that speculated one in that area.