Looking to change Carbs/Intake...Any suggestions

Well, I have just done a prilimary search on E85, joined the ProE85 site and will continue to look into this. We only have six service stations that dispense E85 within a 150 mile radius of San Jose, not a lot. Also looking at the various sites they are all saying that E85 is between 102 and 105, still a long ways away from supporting...........at least my current 408ci motor and that on stock type vehicles they see 10/12% increase in HP/TQ at the rear wheels.
Just some interesting information is that there are 600 service stations nation wide that dispense E85, and 300 of them are in the MidWest...no surprise there.
Thanks for the information.

 

no problem...not sure how it will support it but it does maybe because of the ethanol and the fact that it runs colder but there are people on the board running e85 with 14.5:1 with a 200 shot nitrous as well with no issues. its all in the tuning.

 

Guess I have just been running all motor since my SS/IA days with my Camaro.................just don't have very much knowledge of power adders. Kind of like drag racing heads-up................it's really hard to change.
I do have a friend with a 70 Camaro and built 454 that runs a two stage 250shot............although his motor is only running 10.5to1CR he has been in the low 9's.

 

i was told by someone that knows a lot about the e85 in the race world that your general and average thought about compression and octain rating is out the window with e85. you are able to run such higher compression because the fuel burns colder and slower so there is never a risk of detonation. Basically its like comparing apples and oranges there just two totally different animals and you cant compare similarities. it just works and works well

 

ive been considering running e85 on my next build. one of the facts that i came accross is that the octane of the gas and the alcohol dont mix and average out. what they were saying is the 15% gas used in e-85 will be at what ever octane its at and the alcohol will be at the higher octane. im not sure what to make of this info. lots of racers use it with great sucess and no damage. most even say its beter because its cleaner in the motor. the turbo guys love the stuff around here. i have every intention to use it. i will be using it on a 11.5-1 motor with a supercharger if every thing pans out the way im dreaming of.

 

it will work out great with the higher compression and blower with the e85, see it done all the time...works great...good luck Bryant on the future build, any word yet on whats going on with your car?

 

I am still on the edge of the fence on this, but then again I'm stuck back in the 70's/80's anyway. There are a lot of Turbo guys using the E85 and I have seen a couple of guys that run Kenne Bell Superchargers on the 4.6 that are using Alcohol/Menthanol injection under boost. I had a Kenne Bell on my 97 Cobra for awhile, and at 12lb boost I started to break the ring lands on the stock pistons...............couldn't hear the detonation because of the uncorked headers and it was mostly a street car anyway.
I have heard a couple of the drag racers say that they can run 2 to 2.5 points more compression with the E85. One guy started out with a 10.5CR normally aspirated motor and put a turbo on it and ran E85..........he is running a 347 in a Fox body and dipping into the mid 9's...........
I also wonder how much maintenance you have to do running E85, and if it is the same as running straight alcohol/menthanol.
After pulling my motor down which was run on Alcohol for some time (I don't know how long) and running 116 it was pretty clean inside for a race motor that was put together in 1999. The tops of my pistons looked almost exactly the same as a friend that runs race gas and then a staged 250 shot..........sooty, but not a lot of carbon.
Would certainly be interested in hearing more about your dream motor.
John

 

the e85 is supposed to be allot easier on parts than methanol. when i started looking into it a few people who only heard things said not to use it with aluminum fuel cell and lines. but people on line have been running it for 7 years in aluminum fuel cell have had no problems.

ive had to get legal help to try to get the true value of my car and to get my medical taken care of. its a big pain but it should pay off and enable me to rebuild another car to replace mine.

 

One of the things about any alcohol fuel is that everyone says it's "easier" on parts...when in fact the fuel can allow the engine to make more cylinder pressure which obviously makes more stress on everything (rods, cranks, blocks, etc). Where the "myth" comes from is that many just run them slightly richer and with the same or similar lead curve as it would be as if it was still running "gas". It'll still make more power, but it won't be optimal, and many times easier on everything. Alcohol fuels....are very tough to "see" detonation as compared to gas. Plug reading is about the only way short of a wideband and some sort of electronic "ear". One of the hard lessons I learned with alcohol fuel is that even though it burns cooler and has a much higher octane, it's easier to hurt parts with it because the engine won't really tell you something is wrong the same as with gas. With gas, it's easy so to speak. Learned this with mine...found the "sweet" spot with the injection (best MPH and almost the best ET) but in a pass or two it started running poorly...chased my tail for a while and found that a plug was burnt. Classic sign of detonation but no other signs. Luckily nothing else was hurt. Typically nowdays I'll tune for consistency and LEAVE it. I'm not chasing every tenth and there's really no need to with bracket racing.

 

Keep the original carb and intake. Dominator won't help much on your new combo. If you're still not sold on E85 then try Q16 from VP. You will typically need to jet up four-six sizes over your original setup since it is oxygenated fuel but the end result is very impressive.

 

Not to say I don't believe anything people say, but I haven't seen any hard proof (actual proof with my own eyes) that this 15:1CR motor I am putting back together will operate on E85 and my gut tells me it won't. I know it will run on Alcohol and race gas but doubt very much that it will run on anything below 114octane.................and I'm not going to jepordize the $3k I've spent on the motor to grenade it.................at least not until I have the other motor built to take its place, so for now I will stick with race gas, but I do appreciate the comments everyone has made.
As for the new carb, I will break the motor in with the old carb because I know it worked well and was set pretty close. After break-in and some good passes on the new drivetrain I will switch to the dominator. I have also decided to make a new aluminum intake for the motor, kind of a short tunnel ram and have already sent my friend the drawings and dimensions........................so we will see what he comes up with.
I am really getting excited about getting the motor back so I can put it together and get the Maverick back to the track.
Thanks again for all of your comments.

 

15:1 is about 1.5 to 2 compression points too high unless you compensate for it with the camshaft- even then you may have a range in your RPM upper band that will have problems with detonation.
Paul

 

Well, the next motor I build will have a CR of around 12.5:1, so maybe I'll give it a try depending on the cam and heads I choose.

 

Well going by the stickers on the pump E85's minimum octane rating is 105 this includes the winter blend of E70 in the north. Although let me tell you one thing I have found to be critical when using E85 for racing is you will need to test each batch to determine the alcohol content for consistency and jet appropriately. This season I have gotten two batches of E85 from different stations and both tested out at 90 percent Ethanol and as such I’m running 99 squared right now. Although running a point and a half lower then you, this fuel has worked real well for me without all the hassles of corrosion and volume of Methanol.