<VV> Ethanol in Corvairs

[mark at noakes.com]

Important data points then would be what the gas mileage was before the 
conversion and how he is calibrating the mileage that he is getting now 
and what the driving conditions are...is the car driven hypermiling?  
26mpg now seems to indicate that he was getting well up into the high 
30s on gasoline pre-conversion. 

The Dept of Energy E-85 vehicles that we have get significantly less 
mpg than their gas counterparts and they also are harder to start in 
cold weather. We have to change the % gas in winter to get them to 
start at all below about 20F.

Mark Noakes

----Original Message----
From: eprosise at hotmail.com
Date: Oct 16, 2007 19:16 
To: <frankcb at aol.com>, <ronh at owt.com>, <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subj: RE: &lt;VV&gt; Ethanol in Corvairs


Fran is planning on presenting a tech session at the 2010 convention 
in Iowa.  I know that he has larger jets, and different gaskets in the 
carbs.  His tank is lined, by a local shop, I think, and I know he has 
an oxygen sensor, and monitors that...
 
I cant speak to everything, but in his daily driver67 4 door (driven 
every day), he gets about 26mpg and runs E85.
 
Eric


From: FrankCB at aol.comDate: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:00:22 -0400Subject: Re: 
<VV> Ethanol in CorvairsTo: ronh at owt.com; eprosise at hotmail.com; 
virtualvairs at corvair.org


Ron and Eric,
    Since E-85 has only about 70% of the energy (per gallon) as 
regular gasoline, it's hard to believe that "little modification to the 
stock set-up is sufficient" and "good fuel mileage" results.  Also E-85 
vehicles require considerable mods as far as materials are concerned.  
That high a % of ethanol will attack the coating on the stock LM 
Corvair fuel tank, for example.  Flex fuel vehicles (from GM and 
others) now on the roads have lots of changes from gasoline only 
vehicles.  One, of course, is a sensor that analyzes the fuel flowing 
to the engine and adjusts the A/F ratio depending on whether straight 
gasoline or E-85 is flowing or ANYTHING between those two extremes.  
This is necessary since it takes a LARGER flow of E-85 to make the same 
power as gasoline.  So it's hard to understand how switching to E-85 
will NOT produce WORSE fuel mileage than regular gasoline.  Of course, 
you could significantly raise the compression ratio to take advantage 
of the much higher octane rating of the E-85.  Or, you could allow your 
turbo to make higher boost pressure with the higher octane E-85.
    But I don't see that these changes are "minor" ones from stock.
    Frank "prefers to pay our farmers than terrorist nations" 
Burkhard  
 
In a message dated 10/15/2007 9:18:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ronh at owt.com writes:
Let's see an article on what he did.  Do the stock hoses in the fuel 
system hold up OK?RonH----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Prosise" 
<eprosise at hotmail.com>To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>Sent: Monday, 
October 15, 2007 6:14 PMSubject: <VV> Ethanol in Corvairs>> All->> Fran 
Schmitt in Minnesota (St. Louis Park) is running E-85 (85% ethanol) > 
in both his '67 4-door (110hp, automatic), and '64 Convertible (95hp? > 
auto, with A/C).  I dont know about his 140hp Rampside, but possibly.  
He > reports good fuel mileage, and little modification to the stock 
set-up.>> Eric Prosise> Corvair Minnesota

 


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