So after some pondering a research (college chemistry was a long time ago) I came upon the idea of separating the ethanol from the E85 ethanol gas mixture sold at gas pumps all over the US for @ the same price as gas at many of them.

Well the basis of the theory is that alcohol has an affinity for water, and gas doesn't.

A little searching has found that with just a few percent by volume of water added, gas and water will readily separate.

Hopefully the gas can then be easily sucked off the top, and used lawn mower or other non fuel sensitive vehicle.

Any insights?

 

Yeah i do this all the time at the dealership for idots that run e85 in there no flex fords. Why is my check engine on light basically. The e85 actually sinks i have a 100ml vile i file with fuel 75 percent of the way fill rest with water shake for a few seconds it seperates almost immeditly dont know how you would draw it out though in volume!

 

Is E85 better to run in our car? I'm curious.

 

I gave up on this as pointless and dumb. Strait methanol isn't much more per gallon.

But yeah sure e85 is a great idea for making reliable big power on a turbo vehicle, if you want to replace your entire fuel system with e85 compatible components or flush the system after every race day.

Just putting e85 in the tank without those considerations, or use in a non turbo car would be pointless and stupid.

 

So basically i'd need to swap to a 13BT to even worry about it huh?

 

To gain any advantage you would need to have a turbo.

 

Hmm... what kind of advantage?

 

higher octane allows you to pump up the boost, and inject a hell of allot more fuel.

no boost means use the lowest octane you can find

 

It's not all about the higher octane, ethanol has a higher energy constant. In layman terms that translates to a larger push on the rotor face on each combustion stroke and more power. You also have the cooling effect which translates to a more dense intake charge and ethanol has a higher oxygen content than gasoline. All good stuff for power production regardless of forced induction.

 

I was intentionally oversimplifying, but I stand by my statement that ethanol is a waste for a NA car.

Ethanol in-fact has a lower energy content, much lower. Which isn't a negative thing when it comes to making power if you can inject as much as you want.

 

You get more octane, too much of which is bad, and you use more fuel to go the same distance. So, if you have bigger injectors, and a high compression engine with tuning abilities, then yes, ethanol can help you NA. For a beater, not so much.

 

OK so forget the ethanol project then. what about going electric hybrid? can't they do so now? i hear the RX9 is a hybrid

 

http://www.theturboforums.com/smf/in...topic=114199.0

 

Not really. Ethanol energy content is approximately 1/3 less than gasoline. Everything else equal you need about 50% more volume and consume 50% more fuel to make the same power or mileage with Ethanol

- Sandro