E-85 Flex Fuel?????????

[DonP]

Guys,

The reason it takes more E85 than gas is simple - Gas is more POWERFUL! Gas is more explosive than alcohol, so it does more work = power. Or, it takes less gas to do the same work as alcohol.

The octane rating is a rating on how likely it is to detonate. Since alcohol burns instead of exploding, it has a higher octane rating i.e. your car won't ping.

To truely take advantage of alcohol like with dragsters, you need to raise the compression of the engine to get more power. But if you ever ran gasoline through the higher compression, it would detonate killing the motor.

Catch 22.

(edit - I was typing when YAO was typing LOL! same answer)

[mm2002]

Guys,

The reason it takes more E85 than gas is simple - Gas is more POWERFUL! Gas is more explosive than alcohol, so it does more work = power. Or, it takes less gas to do the same work as alcohol.

The octane rating is a rating on how likely it is to detonate. Since alcohol burns instead of exploding, it has a higher octane rating i.e. your car won't ping.

To truely take advantage of alcohol like with dragsters, you need to raise the compression of the engine to get more power. But if you ever ran gasoline through the higher compression, it would detonate killing the motor.

Catch 22.

(edit - I was typing when YAO was typing LOL! same answer)

Exactly! You can also look at it as "slower burning=higher octane rating", "faster burning=lower octane rating". A lot of people think it's the other way around. (of course those are the same people who think nitrous oxide is explosive!)
As far as running 85% methanol in older vehicles; if the engine has high enough compression to burn it, it will run fine. I just don't know of too many street cars running a 13:1 compression ratio! (not counting diesels)
I also believe that to tune a computer controlled engine to burn methanol efficiently, and also have the ability to burn regular gas, would be next to impossible. In order to do that the computer would have to be able to increase cylinder pressure, not just the air/fuel mixture, timing, etc.