Conventional hot rod tricks good for FE?

[oil pan 4]

The stoichiometric air fuel ratio for ethanol is something like 9.6:1.
The stoichiometric air fuel ratio for gasoline is 14.7:1.
You are going to have to burn a lot more alcohol.

[19bonestock88]

I think that the theory is that while E85 does demand more fuel, it's being like 105 octane, and it's cooling effect on cylinders when injected, leads to much higher compression ratios, and the gained volumetric efficiency(in both compression and timing advance) offsets the richer fuel mix... Some guys in the LSJ community have optimized their cars for E85, and claim 32-33mpg highway, and the cars carry around a roots blower for sake of making cool noises when the accelerator meets carpet...

[freebeard]

E85 is neither 'fish nor fowl'. It's easier to tune for clear premium or straight ethanol.

In my world (the VW world) the legend is John Karcey. He was building AA-fuel drag motors, gave it up and moved to Hawaii. There he built a karmann-Ghia that got 50mpg. It was the progenitor of the Mileage Motor series in HotVWs magazine, now available here.

The basic recipe is square bore/stroke ratio, high reciprocating mass, electronic ignition and low friction lubricants. He used a 50lb crank pulley and stock weight flywheel.

Daox posted this in another thread and it's the most interesting thing I've seen in a while.

PEK1 Engine Kit - Assembly Lubricants

I've got a 0-miles stroker 1776 (like the Mileage Motor) on the bench, and I'm thinking I should tear it down and reassemble it using this kit before it goes into a vehicle.

Other random things might include anti-reversionary headers.

[19bonestock88]

I have read about that pack of coating materials, it looks extremely interesting; if I had seen it before I had bolted down the head on my LSJ project, I would have coated the combustion chambers... The square bore X stroke would be the LSJ(with its 86mm bore and stroke), but I don't feel that even a 11:1 compression 2.0L engine would make enough torque to pull my 3200# Malibu effectively, without it being boosted like in original form...

I didn't even consider the heavier crank pulley though, it's a great way to store energy in low torque applications(such as a WV four)...

Ideally, all bearing journals and cam lobes would have a friction reducing coating, the piston crowns and combustion chambers would have heat rejecting coatings to minimize the energy lost to heating up piston and cylinder head, thus maximizing the energy with each ignition stroke...