E85Forum.com

RetroLoc · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 1 Location: France

Hello,
Do you know, how pure is the ethanol in the E85?
It's easy to produce a "96°" but the last 4% of water are hard to take away.
"100°" is only availaible for medical use and so unaffordable for an engine.

Here (France) E85 doesn't exist but I can easily purchase 90° ethanol. The sticker just says "<5% methanol". The remaining 5-10% should be water.
It's about 0,8$p.g. cheaper than 85MON-95RON gasoline.

Without replacing the jets my carbureted cars run well with a bit of choke.
I tried also in an EFi car (without O², cat...) but above 10% in the tank I felt less torque and noticed poorer gas mileage.
I poured 10% in my Quad-4 powered Pontiac just before the emission test. It's been very hard to get under 0,5%Co at idle and 0,3%Co at 3000rpm (max value to be kept on the roads). As the lambda was correct I think the sensor also measured the oxygen coming from ethanol. The mixure wasn't lean but the ECU belived it was and tuned to rich producing the extra Co. That's what I think, I have no proof.
I wonder how an oxygen sensor in a FFV could make difference between oxygen coming from intake (lean mix) and oxygen coming with ethanol fuel (H+C-OH) in a rich mixture.

As it has no emission stuff at all, I want to try in my Saab turbo, with just an higher fuel pressure regulator to change the fuel flow...
Maybe why not with a regulator adjustable from the dash to get the best in any circumstances.

Sorry for my poor english. Litle by litle I learn reading your posts...

specialgreen · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 7:29 pm Post subject:

Distillation can only get to 85% to 95% ethanol. But I think in the US, distillers use an anhydrous molecular sieve to remove remaining water. I don't believe that there are any significant contents except ethanol and gasoline.

As far as I know, an oxygen sensor simply measures the amount of oxygen present in the exhaust. It has no idea whether the unused oxygen is from intake, or from fuel; it's just oxygen.