6.

E85 Conversion Since it is illegal to run leaded fuel in your street car, and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a memo in early 2010 detailing their move to enforce the ban at California race tracks, more racers are being forced to consider other options when driving their weekend car at the track. To date, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not issued a similar order, but California serves as the front runner on environmental regulation, occasionally prompting the EPA to follow suit. The point of racing is to win, and if the vehicle you are up against was carried to the track in a trailer and pumped full of high-octane leaded racing fuel while your street car is handicapped with unleaded 100 octane, your chances of success shrink. So what is a driver to do? One option is an E85 conversion, which produces more power since ethanol has a higher octane and is completely street legal. There have been other emerging fuels in recent years, including natural gas, hydrogen and methanol, but E85 is the most widely available and has several advantages over the other options, including the conversion process. This article will highlight the benefits and trade-offs of such a conversion. Pure Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol) is not available as a commercial fuel, but is instead mixed in varying degrees with gasoline. The ethanol is added to boost octane level and to reduce emissions. It does, however, have drawbacks. One BTU (British Thermal Unit) is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Standard pump gas now contains about 10% Ethanol, which would give it an energy content of 110,300 BTU/Gal, about 3.5% less than pure gasoline. E85 is a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, which means that it has an energy content of 81,800 BTU/Gallon. This means about 35% more fuel by volume is required to achieve the same theoretical energy output as pump gas. On top of this, the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio is lower for E85 than gasoline. This means even more fuel flowing through the motor to retain identical performance to pump gas. While E85 brings a significant decrease in mileage, it does have several advantages which allow for a properly designed engine to run more efficiently, mitigating some of that 35%. To reap the rewards, you will need an increased amount of fuel, and most stock fuel systems are not capable of supplying such a dramatic increase, so a significant investment will be necessary. Aftermarket fuel controls, an upgraded fuel pump, and larger injectors are almost always required. Other peripherals may also be necessary and vary from vehicle to vehicle. Care must be taken when choosing components because ethanol is known to corrode certain rubbers and plastics used in many OEM fuel fittings and lines. However, testing done by Scott Onishi, owner of The Shop1 in Kingsport, TN, has shown that the corrosive effect on engine-grade metals is almost non-existent. A teardown of a Honda H22 motor after 3 years and 33,400 miles on E85 showed no signs of wear due to corrosion. Additionally, a simple test involving a 3 month immersion in E98 using a handful of fittings, and aluminum and mild steel piping showed no signs of corrosion either. Luckily, use of aerospace grade components is already commonplace, and can be easily and inexpensively obtained through most automotive outfitters. The other side of the decreased mileage coin is that the increased flow through the motor and out the exhaust is that it is very useful for spinning up a turbine. While the combustion temperatures may be lower, the extra volume flow spools a turbocharger much more quickly, which can in turn let you run a larger exhaust housing which allows a larger compressor, and all of this helps you build more pressure that can help you take advantage of E85s octane rating. A second advantage is that E85 will burn cooler than gasoline. Those with intermittent overheating problems will find that a switch to ethanol can soothe, if not completely solve, this issue. It is so cool that some forced induction racers even run without intercooling because it is no longer necessary or a performance benefit. Even if you do not want to throw out your intercooler yet, compressing air certainly makes it hotter and the lower overall engine temperature from E85 can help counteract the negative effects of that heat.

A consideration related to the temperature is the oil you will need to run. Many street cars run something in the range of a 10W-30 oil, and with E85, a thicker oil, such as 20W-50, will be necessary. There is a combination of factors requiring this, and all efforts will be made to keep this part concise as it is not necessarily crucial to the process. As explained above, your engine will be running cooler on E85. It will take longer to warm up initially, and then as it is running it still will not be running at the designed temperature conditions for gasoline. This results in piston rings that do not expand to seal the chambers properly and therefore increased blow-by. The blow-by and subsequent mixing of oil and fuel can cause a series of problems. First of all, it is the nature of alcohol to want to acquire surrounding water molecules (we have all felt the dehydration of a hangover, this is the same process). This means that there is necessarily more water in solution with E85, and in increased quantities, will cause your oil to look milky, as if youve blown your head gasket. More than one story has circulated about unnecessary teardowns due to this. This can be mitigated by changing your oil more often, or, as recommended, running a thicker oil. A true downside to this mixing is that the detergent effect of Alcohol based fuels counteracts the intended purpose of any oil: lubrication. The lighter diluting alcohol or its accompanying moisture can also make its way up into the cam journals and other important equipment at the top of the engine and cause some serious problems. In the end, most, if not all, of this can be solved by running a heavier oil. Much more detail is available on this topic, but would most likely be better presented by your local expert. Suffice it to say that a rule of thumb is that stepping up 20 grades of oil viscosity is a good idea when switching to E85. The biggest advantage of E85 is that it carries an octane rating of about 105(RON+MON)/2. The higher the octane rating, the more likely the fuel is to burn in a controlled manner during times of increased cylinder pressure. An engine designed to take advantage of these greater cylinder pressures will be able to run more efficiently than a standard 93 octane engine would be capable of. This means higher compression for Naturally Aspirated (NA) motors or more boost for forced induction engines. NA motors often run compression ratios of 15:1 or more and boosted engines with manifold pressures of 30psi to 40psi and more are common on E85. The last aspect E85 may not be a performance benefit, but emissions controls are here to stay and E85 is finally something we can embrace with the lawmakers. A recent study in Feb 2009 of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association2 tested a Flex-Fuel Vehicle (FFV) back to back with pump gas and E85. An FFV is capable of running on gasoline or any blend of gasoline and ethanol up to 85% (E85) and contains an additional sensor in the fuel system to determine what the composition of the fuel is at any given moment. Due to having to accommodate inferior pump gasoline, the engine is not optimized for E85. Even so, a significant reduction in emissions was reported. In the same FFV, an 18% reduction in NOx, a 20% reduction in CO, and an 8% reduction in Hydrocarbons were reported with E85. Larger reductions were reported in other tests in this report, but this stands out as the back-to-back comparison. The last major hurdle is finding a pump to get it in your car. In some areas, it is completely unavailable. Even where it is able to be found, there is an inconvenience factor as it is certainly not available at every station. You will have to become familiar with the capable fueling stations in the area. With this decreased range, one must take careful consideration before taking any long trip to not put ones self out of range of an E85 pump. You can check for stations with E85 by state at www.e85refueling.com As a side note, regardless of the nominal reported content of ethanol in the fuel, the amount can vary by season (Ethanol heavy fuels are difficult to cold start) and by production inconsistencies. In fact, winter blend E85 can truly be as diluted as far down as E70. One option would be to leave the tune conservative, but if desired, you could test the content of your station's fuel fairly easily using portable E85 test tubes3, which are normal plastic test tubes with markings to determine the fuels consistency when filled with water and E85. In the end, the increased resistance to detonation allows more advanced timing and more boost. The cooler burning temperatures help reduce overheating problems on the track and during hot weather. The increased flow out of the exhaust and through the turbine will allow the turbo to spool faster. The only disadvantage is the initial investment and the decreased MPG. For those of us who have gone as far as we can on pump gas, this is still a

great option, as gas mileage was never really something we worried about anyway. As CARB and the EPA begin to clamp down on the high octane fuel that is necessary to make big power, this may be our last best chance. My own car is currently in Kingsport at The Shop undergoing the conversion as this is being written. Scott has significant experience with alternative fuels and has been advising my build. It is a 1997 Toyota Supra Turbo 2JZ-GTE with a stock head and stock internals. As it was, it made 679 rwhp at 27 PSI on 110 leaded race gas using a Garrett T67-variant turbo through 4 straight through exhaust and the following fuel system:

Delphi 680CC Injectors Custom Fuel Rail Dual GSS341 Walbro Pumps Aeroquip -10AN fittings and Braided lines Aeromotive -10AN Fuel Filter Aeromotive -10AN Fuel Pressure Regulator

This setup was smelly, loud, and grabbed a lot of the wrong kind of attention. A few years ago, I did not mind this. As I have (and it happens to most of us) matured a little bit, I am willing to be more considerate of the evertightening laws on the road. Sometimes, it just isnt worth the trouble. The new setup has a slightly smaller 60 mm turbo, but will make more power at this boost pressure due to significant advances in compressor design and higher octane fuel. Next, instead of always running straight pipes, the 4 downpipe now plumbs into a 5, boost-activated exhaust cutout vented to atmosphere, continuing to a 3 exhaust through a high-flow catalytic converter. This turns the car into a much more well-mannered vehicle for the streets. The exhaust cutout is set to open with the wastegate, but can also be set to simple pushbutton operation. Adding e85 to the mix required an upgrade to:

1100CC Injectors Another custom Fuel Rail Viton O-rings throughout -8AN fittings and lines, rated to 300 PSI -8AN Fuel Filter Stainless Steel 100 micron

The pumps I had chosen turned out to flow enough for this application, although I decided to replace them with new units due to the duty that they had already seen and because fuel pumps themselves are relatively inexpensive. Also, the fuel filter is important here; it must be stainless steel. Any kind of paper material will dissolve over time and the fuel filter is an important piece of the E85 puzzle. Combined, these changes will bring a host of positive results for my car as a whole. Due to the faster spool, the engine will be more responsive at low rpm. Due to the octane level, it will make more maximum power. Due to the new exhaust setup(admittedly not necessarily a direct result of e85), the car will be quieter and will not smell like a lawnmower while I am puttering around town. There were a lot of changes required for this transformation, but the key ingredient is e85. It allows us to keep our custom supercars on the road during this time of rapid constriction of motoring laws, and the only penalties are manageable up front costs and a drop in our gas mileage. But that has never stopped us before, has it?
1: The Shop: www.yellowmunsontuning.com 2: Source: Effect of E85 on Tailpipe Emissions from Light-Duty Vehicles. Journal of the Air & Waste

Management Association, February 2009. http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/technical_paper_feb09.pdf

3: http://www.quickfueltechnology.com/specialty-parts/e85/e-85-fuel-test-tube.html