E85 Bio Fuel in an carbed Turbo?

[lwasson]

http://www.lotuscarclub.org/documents/ProActive16_002.pdf

The url above goes to the Lotus Engineering News Letter. In the feature article they ran E85 Bio Fuel in an Exige S. Ran great according to the article with a boost of 49 hp.

Was wondering if my '83 Turbo with Dellorto carbs could run E85? I know in Brazil most cars run on ethanol so I'm sure there are some carbed vehicles that have no choice but to run ethanol.

Louis

'83 Turbo

[USAndretti42]

The answer's a definite maybe. The engine will run very lean as E85 needs to run richer mixtures than petrol as it has it's own oxygen. Once you have re-jetted to allow for this the engine should run fine and give more power. You could even run more boost without knock as it has a higher octane number than petrol.

It does react astily with some plastics and rubbers so fuel hoses, and o-rings in the carburetters and the rest of the fuel system could swell up and leak.

[WayneB]

We havent got much experience with this fuel up here in Ontario as its not on widespread sale yet.

The problem with re-jetting your car will arrise if you have to resort to running it on gasoline if you are traveling and cant find a E35 station. It will run way too rich, possibly causing bore wash, fouling plugs and or catylitic converter failure.

Our older cars dont have the cabability of adjusting their fuel mixtures and timing events like current ECM controlled engines (which switching from gasoline to E38 and back wouldnt be a problem)

And as Trevor pointed out, some if not all of the rubber lines, seals and also some plastics (floats?) in the fuel system might go west with the new fuel. I dont know whether Dellorto makes the compatible seals/floats etc. Also the diaphram in the Malpassi regulator might suffer ill effects.

It will be quite the experiment if you do it!

[Esprit Aviation]

Sounds very interesting. Would be a bit more feasible if enrichment can be realized w/ changing only idle and main jets. Obviously once all other components checked OK for chemical compatibility. I really like the idea!!

[USAndretti42]

May work but I don't know if they will have jets big enough to flow the extra 50% fuel needed. May need to adjust the emulsion tubes as well. Sounds like you would need to spend a lot of time on a rolling road.

[lwasson]

I emailed the tech guys at Dellorto and they have never tried it with a DHLA carb.

Anyway, I was just curious and I can assure you we in Mississippi will be the last to see biofuel.

Louis

'83 Turbo