E85

[broncbob]

Has anyone tried E85 in a shee? I know some drag racers run it with very good results, and one of the sand cars I ride with is running it.

 

My big questions are, do you have to purge with it, what kind of performance gains can it give me, how big of a pain is it to set up and run?

[brian]

I dont know anyone who actually uses it, but i would guess that you could run it as long as you rejet for it. Your jetting should be very similar to running methanol. At one time I did setup my bike to run methanol but changed beck because at that time the price of methanol was approaching the price of race gas.

The problems you should be looking for are:

Fuel starvation - your current setup may not be able to feed enough fuel through the carbs.

Less range - you will use fuel much faster so you will need to watch the level.

Lighter wallet - again, you will use fuel much faster.

 

And yes, I would purge every time. The high alcohol content is not great for bare aluminum, plus if you let the alcohol sit long enough it will congeal and clog up the carbs.

 

Just my .02 . . . . . .

[jbooker82]

Ethanol is not as corrosive as Methanol. I would think you would be ok letting it set for a weekend riding trip. I would purge it if it is going to sit for a week. You will also need to run a premix that mixes with alachol most premixes dont mix. It is like mixing water and oil.

[BigRed350x]

Yes you need to purge if you run E85. You will use almost the same amount of it as you would if you were using methanol. You might as well just run meth.

[Rodneya]

Just curious to know what E85 costs down there compared to gas.

[BigRed350x]

At the gas station closest to my ranch premium is $2.65 and E85 is $2.35 I paid $2.60/gal for methanol last time I bought some.