E85Forum.com

stubby · Guest

I am getting ready to rebuild the motor (318 carburated) and would like to make burn e85. The computor has been dead for years and I have put an old vacume advance distrubiter in it some years ago, It has no timing marks on the balancer so time by ear .

stubby · Guest

what do I need to do to this motor to make it a flex fuel ( intake, new carb, fuel injection, throttle body)looking for ideas. stubby

hotrod · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado

Most of the changes have already been outlined in several other threads.

If you don't want to do a custom rebuild all you really need to change is the fuel setup to get a proper mixture. YOu would need to increase fuel flow between 25% - 30 %.

If its a carburator, simply increase the jet size, and make sure the gaskets, and needle and seat materials are of modern manufacture. Change fuel hoses to modern rubber fuel hoses, and verify you don't have a float bowl float that absorbes alcohol.

If its Fuel injection, basically you need to increase fuel flow, most injectors will work fine with E85.

Ignition timing on E85 is nearly identical to gasoline so no big changes there.

If you want to optimize it for E85 and plan on doing a full engine rebuild, you would want to up the compression ratio a bit. Basically going back to the sort of compression ratios they ran in that engine family in the mid 1970's.

Eliminate mixed metals in the fuel system like any zinc, magnesium, or copper for starters. Only use bronze, stainless steel, carbon steel if you have a choice on replacement parts. Put a final filter right in front of the carburator in case you have any crud in the fuel system that the E85 might clean out.

If your going the full route put a flash arrestor in the fuel tank inlet. If you have the mechanical fuel pump on it, you may want to switch over to a modern manufacture electric fuel pump.

That's about it.

Larry

Fxjnkmn · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 1

Hello, I'm working on converting a chevy PU to E85, I'm using a 1984 250 inline 6 with a 700r4 overdrive automatic. So far from what I've read I need to raise compression, increase fuel flow[fuel pump] and jet sizes, improve ignition, and make sure all components are E85 safe. These are doable for me. If there is something I might be missing, let me know. Don

specialgreen · Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 5:56 pm Post subject:

It all depends on your goals. 1985 is "post-gasohol", so it's likely that the fuel system is at least partially hardened against alcohols. I would look for any hard metallic fuel lines; those may need changing after a few years with ethanol.

If you want maximum performance or efficiency or emissions, then you have a good list. If you just want to "make it run", then you just need to enrichen the mixture. That may just require adjusting the fuel metering rods (depends on the carbs).

quickd100 · Joined: 01 Oct 2005 Posts: 14

If you plan to run E-85 with a carb, you'll need to richen ALL curcuits not just the jet and or metering rods. Otherwise you will soon find that your vehicle won't idle, it will stumble, and generally run like crap except for steady state cruise conditions. It can be done though, my 850 holley works very well on E-85. Dave
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MichaelFoster · Joined: 08 Apr 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Los Angeles

Good luck on the rebuilding process. I'm not really familiar with the 1985 dodge motor but I can give some advice about this.
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