Administrator

[Hot Air]

As the Administrator of E85 Technical Forum, I wanted to introduce myself to each of you. I am a 60 year old mechanical engineer that has been fascinated with the high performance car since the late 50's. I have been a contributor on this forum from the very beginning.

While I have not yet run E85 in my 84GN (w/87 drivetrain), it is only because my TR motor is currently torn down for a major upgrade. Antifreeze in the oil and readily visible metal in the oil filter forced me to admit that the unopened motor had seen one too many high boost runs. I will readily admit that ethanol is not the answer to our dependence on petroleum, but it is very attractive (to me) due to the chemical intercooling effect AND the high octane rating.

I look forward to separating fact from fiction on running E85 in a GM Turbo V6. I think we have a good start with many of you sharing your E85 experience with all of us.

Conrad Carter
'alphaenvirmgt'

[MrMNTTA]

Welcome to the board alpha as the admin.

and to give you a little background, ethanol was never intended to be 'the answer', but rather, it was intended to be a value-added alternative for farmers to get more money from the corn they grow. Now it's being twisted in to something it was never intended to be.

By producing ethanol out of corn at a high level for the past 15 years or so, by gaining all of this experience, it is going to help develop the 'cellulose to ethanol' plants in a big way from everything that's been learned while producing ethanol from corn.

E85 is a great fuel to set your car up to run. I know I'll enjoy $2.50/gallon compared to over $5/gallon for 110 octane 'race gas'.

[86george]

Originally Posted by alphaenvirmgt

As the Administrator of E85 Technical Forum, I wanted to introduce myself to each of you. I am a 60 year old mechanical engineer that has been fascinated with the high performance car since the late 50's. I have been a contributor on this forum from the very beginning.

While I have not yet run E85 in my 84GN (w/87 drivetrain), it is only because my TR motor is currently torn down for a major upgrade. Antifreeze in the oil and readily visible metal in the oil filter forced me to admit that the unopened motor had seen one too many high boost runs. I will readily admit that ethanol is not the answer to our dependence on petroleum, but it is very attractive (to me) due to the chemical intercooling effect AND the high octane rating.

I look forward to separating fact from fiction on running E85 in a GM Turbo V6. I think we have a good start with many of you sharing your E85 experience with all of us.

Conrad Carter
'alphaenvirmgt'

Conrad, Nice to meet you. It's good to know I'm not the only baby boomer that still enjoying playing with cars like we did as kids. Maybe we can all learn the pros and cons of e85 as a performance fuel with out ticking each other off to much. Thanks for your efforts and time spent. George

[SGRIM]

Conrad is the main one campaigning for this forum. He has always been a great member! He is a great asset!

Welcome Conrad!

[Hot Air]

Thank you one and all for the vote of confidence. I hope that everyone that is running E85 will share their successes and failures with us. Some have already but more data points will be invaluable.

I keep hoping that the manufacturers of various fuel system components will be more forth coming with their E85-approved products. However, we all need to recognize that most of our vendors are small businesses with limited resources. Most simply don't have the chemical and metalurgical expertise in-house to conduct research on and long-term testing of their components with E85. That pretty much leaves it up to us.

Conrad

[WHEEZER]

Boomer here too Conrad. Welcome to your newly attained position. Have enjoyed your posts for quite some time. I've been using E-85 105 octane rated ethanol for about three months now with stock type fuel filter and hardware monitoring and trying to learn. Actually I have been using a mix (mostly 50/50) of 100 unleaded and ethanol. I intend on slowly weaning off the Cam2 to all E-85 noting the effects to the car, performance and parts. May need injector upgrade later but will cross that bridge when I come to it. Twisted the boost up to 24 lbs one time on the Te45a with no knock but was a tad lean on o2's.

[Hot Air]

Wheezer,
Thanks for the info. Sounds like you are having too much fun! Keep us posted on the weaning process.
Conrad

[jwillettgn]

Good luck with the new forum Conrad. So you are a mechanical engineer doing
environmental engineering, sounds like Zack. LOL He is a mechanical engineer doing civil engineering, working for Summit Engineering in Charlotte. Zack is really wanting to work with E-85 or even 100% but our setup up for now will not allow it. Hope you get the car back together soon.

Jim Willett

[Jeasen]

Glad to hear we have an administrator for this section of the board, and a young man to boot. Welcome aboard.

I will be 65 in a couple of months and started working on cars in 1954 when I was 11 years old. Started drag racing in the early 60s.

I have been gathering parts to set my 1989 Turbo Trans Am up to run exclusively on E85. The only thing I still need is a chip from Eric at Turbo Tweak.

Of course I still have to install the parts that I have collected.

I am going to change out my short block and use a Grand National short block to raise the compression ratio of my motor. Then I will install bigger injectors, bigger turbo, a big neck intercooler, a bigger cam and the new E85 chip. I also have a Razor's alky kit to install.

Then we will see how it runs.

I welcome any and all suggestions in regards to my E85 project.

[MrMNTTA]

Originally Posted by Jeasen

Glad to hear we have an administrator for this section of the board, and a young man to boot. Welcome aboard.

I will be 65 in a couple of months and started working on cars in 1954 when I was 11 years old. Started drag racing in the early 60s.

I have been gathering parts to set my 1989 Turbo Trans Am up to run exclusively on E85. The only thing I still need is a chip from Eric at Turbo Tweak.

Of course I still have to install the parts that I have collected.

I am going to change out my short block and use a Grand National short block to raise the compression ratio of my motor. Then I will install bigger injectors, bigger turbo, a big neck intercooler, a bigger cam and the new E85 chip. I also have a Razor's alky kit to install.

Then we will see how it runs.

I welcome any and all suggestions in regards to my E85 project.

Sounds like a fun set up!!! (and fast!)

One question though: now that you're going to run E85, is Razor's alky kit necessary?

[Jeasen]

Originally Posted by MrMNTTA

Sounds like a fun set up!!! (and fast!)

One question though: now that you're going to run E85, is Razor's alky kit necessary?

I am not sure, but I think it would only help in high boost situations.

Maybe some one with some experience with both E85 and alky injection could chime in here and share their experience.

Jeasen

[tom j]

The only reason you would need alky on top of e85 is to increase the volume of fuel as if you your fuel system was to small. I have run razors kit and I'm currently running straight e85. You could run the same amount boost if not more with e85 from my experience.

[Hot Air]

Jeason,
Thanks. Few people on TurboBuick.Com - The World Wide Web under BOOST! - Buick Grand National, GNX, T-Type can think of as young at age 61. You are truly an exception! Congrats. I prefer to think of myself as "experienced".
Conrad