I'm tired of fighting the the nice folks over at the emissions station. I'm dreaming of converting my daily driver 91 Civic (D15) to run on something like Ethanol. I have a few ideas on where to start but am not 100%. Besides increasing the compression ratio, what other mods do I need to make?... Or maybe ditch shaving the head to a 14:1 ratio and get boost via small turbo... Again; mods? With additional fuel pressure to compensate for the 20% increase in fuel consumption, will the stock system work?... Better injectors; Is there a direct bolt in for DPFI? What are your thoughts?

 

Your entire fuel system will need to be altered. Are you talking about just running straight Alky? If so that means $$$$ and a lot of work. Not sure it's worth it just to get a 30 year old engine design going.

If you want cleaner emissions replace your cat, and rebuild the engine to OEM specs, problem solved without wasting thousands on a setup that wouldn't do anything in the long run for you other than cost you more money.

If that is what you want to do though, look at the E85 setups and start from there. Good luck tuning that thing as well. You might want to find someone that has tuned Alky before, and honestly I can only think of a handful of people in AZ that have run straight alky before.

 

You know how it goes. Like many so-called good ideas over an open engine bay of a project car -- beer in hand. Some buddies and I were bench racing and came up with this AWESOME idea... "What, just increase the cylinder pressure and add more fuel??" And the "Alky" induced crazy talk goes down hill from there... So-Yep, that's my thought... Straight Alky.

Funny u mention rebuild & a new cat; I've done that and I'm no stranger to keeping the engine tuned. I just have bad luck... After a fresh tune-up, I always seem to get the guy that's having a bad day and can't trace that F-ing line on the monitor to save his soul. So ya, I'm ranting a little bit - but I'm more tired of shelling out money for my bi-annual BS result.

My reason (yes I realize it's as silly as it sounds); no more emissions testing. However, If I convert to Ethanol, I can file for divorce (read: apply for the waver) and voila; good bye emissions station. The whole thing is legalized racketeering. But that's a different story for later.

Thanks for the E85 tip, I'll look for kits on-line. But you're probably right "that means $$$$." How ever I did state above "I'm dreaming." Thanks for the info.

 

You will need bigger injectors and bigger fuel pump to start with.

There is nothing for a DPFI intake . . . its a terrible platform to start with and usually the first thing someone changes on a d15/dx motor.

If you were to do it, it would be a home-brew design and no aftermarket support for tuning. You would have to figure out soldering the board for a chip (I guess the PM5 can be chipped?)

You will have corrosion problems running straight methanol not to mention awful mileage and you would be limited to how much fuel you can carry in the car. They make upper cylinder lube (anti-corrosion) you can dump in it, not to mention M3/M5 already have this in it, but there's a reason why methanol is typically race car only.