E85 journey

[cudatom]

Finally getting the wagon back to the track. Switched to e85 last year and to say it was a **** show would be an understatement. Carb wouldn't leave at under at any rpm. Carb would not transition from off idle, braked up against converter even to the point of pushing thru the lights it would completely die Called the guy who did the conversion and he said it was my plugs and a crap coil. Ok sure.

Made some changes to richen up the emulsions, went back to PV and stepped jets like I ran with gas(just much high).Got it to where I could leave at 3k. Not easy to bring a 4150 foot brake car with a tight converter into the lights that way.

So over the winter I had Mark at Lightning Carbs go thru it. He took one look and knew who did the carb(he had removed the billet metering plates and boosters and added cheap chinese cast ones). I also had no reference as to the size of the air bleeds or emulsion bleeds as they were drilled.

Mark pinned everything made quite a bit of changes and I'm now able to leave at 2200. Still a little higher than I want but manageable. I'll work at getting it down to 1800 which is what the car likes.

Anyways yesterday in 88deg heat, 3500 DA and 90 grains of water ran ran a 7.05 off the trailer followed by a 7.029, 7.03 and a hot lapped 7.041.

Checked past runs at same condition and best was 7.10. I really like to e85, $2.27 per gal(only used 1 gal more than usual). Its a learning curve and I'll get there.

 

[Slap Stick]

When I helped a friend with his dirt late model and modified we ran E100 and found we had to jet the carb so rich we burned 3x as much alk as gas. But it ran cool-so cool we would sometimes need to block off the radiator.
And at tbe end of the night the oil tank had to be drained due to the cylinders being washed down with so much fuel.
And speaking of carbs wenfound carbs from one company were crap-and were shipped minus power valves...we wondered why they wouldn't run. I even had to pay them a visit to get them to fix their crap. The car was in TX and I live in MO. A local racer who was sponsored by them put in a good word.

 

[padam]

I saw you yesterday, looked like it was running real well. Your car is really sharp.

I was in the red charger, if you saw it.

 

[cudatom]

I saw you yesterday, looked like it was running real well. Your car is really sharp.

I was in the red charger, if you saw it.

I did and thanks, my dad an I really like your Charger. Don't see many like that at the track.

 

[padam]

I did and thanks, my dad an I really like your Charger. Don't see many like that at the track.

Do you mind telling us why you went to E85? High compression?

I was considering it for my next build, but I found some info that says the amount of ethanol in pump E85 can vary by huge amount. And racing E85 isn't much cheaper than racing gas.

 

[cudatom]

Not at all. I'm at 11.5 compression. Was mixing race 112 with 90 octane recreational gas. Ran a mix to get octane between 98 and 99. It worked out to almost $6 per gal. E85 is $2.29. Thats a big savings and I don't use a 1/3 more fuel that everyone says.

I get my E85 at the same Speedway every time. I check it and during the race season its always been between 85 and 87%.

The tricky time is early spring. Friends have found it as low as 60%.

For me $2.29 is almost a $4 per gal savings. I go thru 20% more fuel so that gives me more money to race.

The 553 that is going in my Cuda will also be E85. Next time you are at Mag look me up. I love shooting the ****, just ask my wife. Lol

 

[padam]

Not at all. I'm at 11.5 compression. Was mixing race 112 with 90 octane recreational gas. Ran a mix to get octane between 98 and 99. It worked out to almost $6 per gal. E85 is $2.29. Thats a big savings and I don't use a 1/3 more fuel that everyone says.

I get my E85 at the same Speedway every time. I check it and during the race season its always been between 85 and 87%.

The tricky time is early spring. Friends have found it as low as 60%.

For me $2.29 is almost a $4 per gal savings. I go thru 20% more fuel so that gives me more money to race.

The 553 that is going in my Cuda will also be E85. Next time you are at Mag look me up. I love shooting the ****, just ask my wife. Lol

I will, thanks.

 

[440 Charger]

Not at all. I'm at 11.5 compression. Was mixing race 112 with 90 octane recreational gas. Ran a mix to get octane between 98 and 99. It worked out to almost $6 per gal. E85 is $2.29. Thats a big savings and I don't use a 1/3 more fuel that everyone says.

I get my E85 at the same Speedway every time. I check it and during the race season its always been between 85 and 87%.

The tricky time is early spring. Friends have found it as low as 60%.

For me $2.29 is almost a $4 per gal savings. I go thru 20% more fuel so that gives me more money to race.

The 553 that is going in my Cuda will also be E85. Next time you are at Mag look me up. I love shooting the ****, just ask my wife. Lol

Very nice.

 

[dvw]

I thought about E85. My car uses .5 gallon/pass of 114 octane race fuel. So E85 at roughly .7gallon per pass. 100 runs a year. 50 [email protected]/gallon=$500/year or 70 [email protected]=$161/year. Then the cost for me of converting 2 carbs to E85. Cleaning of the fuel system before storage. So for 3.39/per pass extra it's still on race gas. My son runs E85 in his turbo car so I'm well aware of both sides of the coin.
Doug

 

[cudatom]

I thought about E85. My car uses .5 gallon/pass of 114 octane race fuel. So E85 at roughly .7gallon per pass. 100 runs a year. 50 [email protected]/gallon=$500/year or 70 [email protected]=$161/year. Then the cost for me of converting 2 carbs to E85. Cleaning of the fuel system before storage. So for 3.39/per pass extra it's still on race gas. My son runs E85 in his turbo car so I'm well aware of both sides of the coin.
Doug

When I park after a race I get the temp up close to 200 and then run the carb empty. If it's longer than a wk I spray thru all the bleeds and down the vent tubes. Its worked well.

Except when I had to make an emergency trip to Florida to watch the grand kids. And had no time to drain th fuel system. I was gone for a month. Had to tear the carb down it was a mess.

Have some friends that use a top lube in the tank just like methanol. Haven't tried it myself.