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Old 05-07-2011, 09:23 PM
wmhjr wmhjr is offline
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105 octane is a very common myth for E85. E85/Ethanol is not 105 Octane. it is actually using 93-95 octane. Any quotes of 105 octane are based on an "interpretive" method of labeling octane based on the blending ratio of E85 - and NOT an actual octane measurement. It behaves differently, allowing a cooler fuel burn which sometimes results in similar effects such as you would get with high octane gasoline, but it is not 105 octane. If you're running wideband, it also requires a far far richer A/F ratio than gasoline. Almost 50% richer. General guidelines for gasoline are around 14:1. E85 is around 9:1.

By itself running E85 does not make more power. It actually makes less. You can sometimes however increase compression, etc with ethanol/alcohol to make more power. Typically that involves boost.

A recent engine builder shootout using E85 to build the highest power output naturally aspirated engines resulted in those engines producing less power than similar gas engines.
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