E85/Alcohol fuel

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CathodeRayTube
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My tercel:: 1985 4x4 Automatic - restored
Location: Gettysburg Pennsylvania

E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by CathodeRayTube »

This idea dawned on me when i was in the shower about 20 minutes ago...being close to getting my 86 Automatic T4 prepped for paint, and hopefully on the road by fall, Im wondering how easy it would be to modify the stock 3A to run on E85 or pure Ethanol...there is a station that sells E85 near my house, and i know other sources where i could get "moonshine"... How much effort would this be? Im guessing all it would require is adjustments to the valve/spark timing and maybe some carb tweaks? My intention would just be to optimize the 3A for alcohol, and then never run straight gasoline in it again...


PS. this is about my 2nd Tercel. The diesel 6spd project is still underway and in no way given up on...getting closer with that.
86 T4 DX 4x4 - Diesel Swap project
85 T4 DX 4x4 Automatic
83 T4 SR5 - junker/parts
94 4Runner V6
86 Mercury Grand Marquis
88 Lincoln Town Car
90 Yugo GV+
85 F250 dually 6.9 turbo diesel
81 VW Rabbit Turbo diesel project
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ARCHINSTL
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My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by ARCHINSTL »

I'd look for some info on how it's done in Brazil. It's my understanding that cars there run on a very high percentage of alcohol - if not a total alcohol fuel. One of my employees about 10 years ago was a native of Brazil; he said that some power was lost, compared to similar cars/fuel in the US, and also thought the MPG suffered a bit, but the cost per gallon was a lot less because of the country's mega production of the fuel from (I think) sugar cane. This is anecdotal, of course.
Tom M.
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takza
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Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by takza »

I don't think a carb would handle it.
Give a boy a gun-give a biatch a cell phone-and pretty soon you almost got yourself a police state.

Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...

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splatterdog
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Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by splatterdog »

I'm with Takza on this. It will attack just about every part of your fuel system. Modern cars designed for it are of course injected, use plastic tanks with graphite(vs. copper) commutator fuel pumps inside, all things metal are now stainless or plastic, flexible plastic hoses, sometimes braided stainless.

It would take a 100% re-engineering of your fuel system to handle it for the long run. Unless of course, that's not a concern.

If you do, it would be a good idea to replace all the ancient rubber fuel hoses. The mechanical pump worries me too. When diaphragms rupture, fuel leaks outside or inside the engine. Not good either way. Not sure how an engine would react to alcohol flooding. Change the fuel filter frequently and crack it open to check for debris. You might clean out 25 years of buildup. I would be more worried about finding rubber or metallic bits.

All this worry and you may or may not break even.
takza
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Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by takza »

My sister has an HHR that can run E85...except the cost here is only slightly less than regular and the mpg is much lower...no reason to use it other than to keep the farmers happy and cause food shortages?
Give a boy a gun-give a biatch a cell phone-and pretty soon you almost got yourself a police state.

Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...

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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by Petros »

Ethanol has a lot less energy per gallon that gasoline, hence the lower power and lower fuel economy. It can be run with just rejetting the carb, but the long term problems would be large I suspect. Henry Ford's first car ran on ethanol and used a carb, so it can be done. Corrosion and moisture build-up would be a problem I suspect.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
shogun
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Re: E85/Alcohol fuel

Post by shogun »

basically you would have to change fuel filter more often, ive seen v8 cars on e85 with original fuel lines and tank, a very high compression engine would benefit a lot from that fuel also very advanced timing, id love to try but no e85 here
tercel 4wd custom suspension, under drive pulley, vented brakes, cold air intake, and plenty more to come
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