E85 Conversion

3/24/2012 I have just started the Chevelle with its new E85 carb. It was a typical start up, with the typical idle and metering adjustments. With the cam that I have it idles at 1200 rpm and had gone just a little over 140 deg. on the temp. I think this will be a pretty painless project judging by what I have learned along the way.

The total carb build took me about 14 hours while taking my time with it. The most time was spent fitting the boosters to the venturi slots. I have an older style 1050 Dominator (9375 with progressive linkage). It has press in air bleeds (not screw in) and the recessed venturi as opposed to the newer style that reach the top of the main body. The new boosters were for the new style, therefore I had to machine them to fit as well as the contour. The air bleeds I had to drill and tap, but I was only able to do this with 8 of them due to a space issue and I drilled the last 4 out to size.

Right now just in the garage I find that it does have a much improved throttle response from the fuel carb I had (which is also a 9375 Dom). My next move is to get a good bulb on the timing and then down to the shop to pull a couple holeshots to get a good reading on my pyrometer. My fuel carb ran at 1270 degrees, my target with the E85 is 1250. I had read an article saying these run best around that temp., and it does jive the the 20 degree reduction from my already set 1270 (hope that didn't confuse anybody).

Last thing to point out is I have also bought an E85 fuel test kit. I had checked some today that gave me a reading of 90%. This fuel had been in a sealed drum since July 2010. This tells me that it can stay healthy if stored properly. Right now the local station that sells E85 is about 75% due to the cooler months. The are expecting 85% to be delivered next week. I would give it 1 more delivery before I start running it regularly to make sure it is at least 85%.

I am going to keep a running diary on here of what happens and the experiences that I gain along this project to help others that may want to go this route. I'm already looking into getting Toot setup with a carb for his S10. He was here today for my start up and now he's chomping at the bit. Right now E85 is $3.54 at the pump compared to $8.00 for race fuel. That my friends is racing on a budget.

Tim, I don't know what oil you're using, but make sure that it's compatible with the E85. I've been reading about some of the Brad-Penn oils that are NOT to be used with E85. Brad-Penn makes great oils, and they do make E85 compatible oils and this isn't a slam against them but only a caution to you and others to check compatibility first.

Here are the videos.

Thanks Andamo, that's good to know as I hadn't heard anything from oil compatability. I'll do some digging as well. Currently I'm using Valvoline 60wt. in the motor. I'll probably call Quick Fuel on Monday to see what they may recommend since they seem to be the leader in the E85 band wagon right now.

Just got my carb converted to E85 Thanks Tim I be havin things

Good job Toot, I think you'll be plenty happy with your new setup!

Update on the oil query. I did call Quick Fuel and presented them with the 'oil jelling' to see what their response would be. They said they had never heard of this with E85. After that I called Willy's, Stahll, and an E85 tech site. They all agreed that the user to have ended up with oil like that may have had something else going on in the engine that wasn't good. I was told at Q/F that they all use Valvoline, Stahll uses Castrol Syn., Willy's had no opinion, and the tech site used a few different types. All did say though that they used 20/50W or straight 50-60. I use Valvoline straight 60. This is the info I had discovered. I'll be at the meeting Thursday if anyone had a question.

OK, last Saturday I went to Steel Valley to try out the conversion. The last time my Chevelle was down the track was in Nov. of 2010 and it had 6.90's for the 1/8 mile. With a tune straight out of the Quick Fuel box and nothing more, I ran 7.0'sThe target for my pyro is 1250 deg., yet mine was ranging from 1190-1110deg.. It was WAY fat. I made no changes at the track due to some sprinkles showing up. I will probably throw the street meats on the car and do some hard launching at the shop in the parking lot to get my pyro where it needs to be before I head back out. Right now it has #97 jets sq., .042 sqruiters, and 40deg. timing. I'll get it ironed out soon enough.

OK, its been a spell since I wrote anything and a lot has happened. Some good and some not... A few weeks back I had went way lean and burned out 5 pistons. There are a couple of things that added up to this, bad info and a bulk of my fault. Nonetheless I ordered a couple pistons from JE and went from 377 back to my old 410 c.i.. Last friday I went to Quaker and made 2 passes with just a garage tune. I went 10.82 @ 126 & 10.87 @ 125. The 1/8 mile was 6.88 & 6.91, these both had a 1.50 60'. According to the 1/8 mile there is a little on the top end to uncork yet. Right now my carb is 96 jetting and .042" squirters, timing is at 32 deg.. My temp on the passes was 160 @ stage & 185 @ finish. A 25deg. increase is still a tad lean. I'm going to jump to 99 jetting since my goal is a 10 deg. increase. I'll probably bump my squirters up a bit as well because it feels like there is a lag in the transition to WOT (more 60'). I'm going back out this weekend and I'm sure I'll be able to shave more off of it.

Also a quick note as far as the Pyro goes. My passes gave me no more than 750 degrees. Hence this was also part of my lean out catastrophe. I am strictly tuning by temp now and not the Pyro (knowledge/experience is power, RESEARCH). The fuel I used to use was Pyro friendly and Ethanol is turning out to being not.

Tim, where at in the headers are the pyrometers located ? Do you just 1 in each header bank or 8 individual ones ?

I have them just past the turn. Also I only have them in 4&5. When I dynoed the motor a few years back, those were the two hottest pipes.

I'm curious if your looking to see a specific temp. coming off those 2 indicators ?

I know with a straight alky motor you keep making it fatter and fatter and then when the MPH falls off, you go back to the previous jet sizes. Does that rule apply to the E85 fuel also ?

Yes this gets tuned on alcohol principles. I've read about fattening it up, and about the temperature rule of thumb. Right now I'm going to the 99 jets because it's what I have. I plan on ordering a jet kit that goes up to 110.

Tim, you're headed in the right direction and it's the safe route to take. One thing you might want to do, and I think we talked about this before, is to get a fuel test kit and test each batch of fuel. The industry is allowed to have a pretty wide variance on the Ethanol percentage in their blending processes. If someone assumes each batch is the same % and wonders why their et's vary from tank to tank, this is a good possiblity of why it's occuring.
Buying the E85 in a 55 gallon drum might seem like the easiest soultion to get around you having to blend some gas to keep the % the same, but Ethanol and Methanol are both highly hygroscopic and will absorb water from the air like a sponge.

I also meant to ask how your oil situation is working out ? I know you haven't made many passes yet, but I'm curious about the oil.

The oil seems pretty decent, I have been keeping tabs on that. Yes I do have a test kit, it seems to be staying within a few percent, definitely under 5%.