Ethanol Conversion?

['93 Corolla]

Hey y'all -- I caught a piece on ethanol as part of a sustainable economy and I wanted to find some folks to chat with on that idea. One thing he says is that you can run E15 in most cars with a minor modification and E85 with about $300 and an hour of a mechanic's time.

Valid or bogus?

Originally I had E85 and E100 in this. That's not what he said. I got the numbers wrong.

[Daox]

A lot of places already run E10 (thats all I ever run in my cars). The difference with E85 is that it can eat away or corrode certain fuel system components if they are not designed with its use in mind.

If you are looking to convert to E85 I would think you would want to do it the right way, and thats going to run you more than $300 I would think. First off, you need larger injectors, then you need to increase compression ratio, and you also need to make sure your fuel system components can handle the E85. I would think to optimize it all it would also need retuning which is going to be costly as well.

Whats your reason for wanting to convert to E85?

['93 Corolla]

I don't know if I'm all the way to wanting to convert yet. I'm more at the stage of checking out the claims. I was hoping to find some folks who have done some modding this direction and hearing about their experiences.

[Frank Lee]

I've put straight E85 into NON-flex-fuel early '90's Fords with no mods. They run OK on it in warm weather; not OK in sub-freezing weather. Half 'n half E85/regular (which around here is E10) works just fine.

[bennelson]

I know a guy who is running E-85 in an old mini-van. (I think it's a Windstar? Or and older Dodge?)

He said that all he really did was change out the fuel injectors, that's about it. He gets pretty good fuel economy in it too.