Drum_Guru

Could you use ethyl alchohol (a.k.a. ethanol) alone as fuel for a turbo'd h22 (or any engine for that matter)... I was just thinking that I can distill this **** and wouldnt have to pay for f*cking gas anymore... people talk about using alchohol fuel but I think its methanol... so what about ethyl??? also, if it would work, would there be any draw backs like problems with high boost etc... if I could use ethyl as fuel... I would be set...

JonGP4

nope.. u'd need a whole new fuel system.. alchohol eats up the seals on unlead fuel systems

Drum_Guru

ok... but if i replaced the fuel system... im asking if this **** would blow up my engine if I put it under 25psi...

I would probably need different sensors too...

Cyphear

You'd at least be able to run a mixture. In the midwest they have ethanol added to the gas in some places. You'd have to do more research to figure out what kind of mixture you can use. And why put it in your car when you can drink it???

Tyler H

Actually, ethanol is quite a bit less corrosive than methanol. Certain manufacturers make FFV's (flexible fuel vehicles) that run on a mixture of 85%ethanol and 15% gasoline known as E85. The 15% gasoline is mostly there to fight the corrosiveness and make the flames visible. A properly designed and maintained fuel system would be very capable of supporting a turbo H22 on 100% etahnol. Ethanol has an octane rating of 105. You probably couldn't run 25 psi like you stated, but you could get away with more boost than on pump gas. Of course you would need a programmable engine management system because stoich for ethanol is not the same as stoich for gasoline. Ethanol has a lower energy content, so it will take more ethanol to make the same power as on gasoline. But if you're distilling the stuff yourself, who cares? Do a Google search for ethanol, E85, and flexible fuel. There's a lot of good info on the net. I want to get an old Mercedes diesel and start making my own biodiesel to run it on. That would be cool too.

Tyler

earl

Vennom and Andrew Tran ran ethanol all last year. I believe a few other guys did also. I think you can use all the same parts as gasoline and the eth does not gumm things up like the meth.

Cyphear

The energy density of ethanol is about half of that of gasoline, yet I read that a 10% blend of ethanol doesn't produce any less miles per tank than pure gasoline.

kpt4321

Keep in mind that the stoich ratio for ethanol is much lower than it is for gasoline, so you need to run more fuel then you would with gas.

twkdCD595

stoich a/f nitromethane = 1.7:1
stoich a/f methanol = 6.45:1
stoich a/f ethanol = 9.0:1
stoich a/f isooctane = 15.1:1

btw some benefits of ethanol as fuel:
-It is a renewable fuel made from plants
-It is not a fossil-fuel: manufacturing it and burning it does not increase the greenhouse effect
-It provides high octane at low cost as an alternative to harmful fuel additives
-Ethanol blends can be used in all petrol engines without modifications
-Ethanol is biodegradable without harmful effects on the environment
It significantly reduces harmful exhaust emissions
-Ethanol's high oxygen content reduces carbon monoxide levels more than any other oxygenate: by 25-30%, according to the US EPA
-Ethanol blends dramatically reduce emissions of hydrocarbons, a major contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer
-High-level ethanol blends reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 20%
-Ethanol can reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by up to 100% on a full life-cycle basis
-High-level ethanol blends can reduce emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by 30% or more (VOCs are major sources of ground-level ozone formation)
-As an octane enhancer, ethanol can cut emissions of cancer-causing benzene and butadiene by more than 50%
-Sulphur dioxide and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions are significantly decreased with ethanol.

Drum_Guru

Yeah I know I would need more fuel... I can distill this ****... so it would be close to free...

I also knew the good things about ethanol... so this seemed to make a lot of sense... I am just wondering if ethanol would have a low enough flash-point to blow up my intake manifold or prematurely combust in mt cylinders... If I ran pure 170 proof ETHANOL, would I still ned to replace the fuel stuff? Im wondering if there are aftermarket injectors and so on that can take ethanol and supply large volumes of fuel (it will be turbo'd hardcore...)

twkdCD595

if your talking about running pure ethanol in an engine I would not do it.

as an additive you could go maybe 20-25% ethanol mix in gasoline you would not need to change anything. really you would only have to change the fuel filter a few times immediately after the switch... ethanol loosen alot of crap and debris.

with some minor modifications you could run as much as 85-95% ethanol/ gas mix, but for pure ethanol your gonna need some modification to the fuel system as well as some to the ignition.

to start off ethanol is hard to auto-ignite and thus you may need to modify your ignition with a glow plug setup (like a diesel), or fight not wanting to cold start constantly. also although not as bad as other fuels, ethanol does its fair share of leaving deposits and gumming the injectors (ie. your gonna need to service or replace them regularly).

as someone stated above ethanol has actually about 2/3's the energy per volume that gasoline has... so you will see a reduction in your gas mileage accordly (more so with the higher ethanol content in the fuel mix).

I would say its no walk in the park to run pure ethanol but you could run a mix primarily composed of ethanol without many issues.

couple related sites:
Guidebook for Handling, Storing & Dispensing Fuel Ethanol,
http://www.es.anl.gov/pdfs/ethanolguidebook.pdf
Alternative Fuels Data Center,
http://www.afdc.doe.gov

Drum_Guru

I understand its problems... im just asking if ethanol would have a low enough flash-point to blow up my intake manifold or prematurely combust in my cylinders in a heavy turbo application...

twkdCD595

sorry missed that question , I doubt it highly unless your timing or whatnot was WAY off also.

btw you also would not have much of an issue as the injectors would be spraying downstream of 99% of the intake manifold. unless your thinking of like an additional injector and/or water injection type injection for the ethanol.

Drum_Guru

lol... intake manifold... why did I say that , Im dumb lol... What I am realy concerned about was if the flash-point was low enough to make detonation problems...

Drum_Guru

hey, what racing teams used ethanol this year, and what are their web pages?