Planning an E85 Conversion

[Josh69]

Yeah, I've heard the 91 in CA is pretty piss poor. In that case, I guess it may be worthwhile. That's a pretty big price diff. Around here, saving .50 wasn't justifiable. I have pinging issues I'm sorting out now as well, mostly due to timing and using a sh!tty aftermarket HEI that brings the timing in way too fast, and has too much mechanical advance for the heads I'm using with a useable intial advance...still working that out.

One very nice advantage to the E85 is that it burns really cool. You won't have any heating issues whatsoever. I was running a stock radiator with no shroud and a crappy flex fan. Now that I'm on gas, I had to buy an aluminum radiator with dual SPAL fans and shroud, etc. and I'm still around 205*. I never got over 180F before.

I'm at 10.5:1 with aluminum heads. Pontiac's run hot, so I guess I'm fighting an uphill battle now.

[Mover]

I converted over to E85 last winter with no regrets. I used all stock components and went with high volume mechanical fuel pump. I’ve had no issues with this set up and didn’t see a need to spend a lot of money on lines, pumps and whatever else you’re buying. I’ve had my car on the dyno as well as on the track and if performed better than expected. I would agree that the compression needs to be around 12:1 to be affective. My car is currently running 10.5:1 compression but my winter plans are to increase compression to 12:1 among some other things.