polo708

I was watching horsepower tv this morning and they were doing a carburetted E85 setup. Just a simple carburetor kit to run E85 and they got another 20hp.

Im building a carburetted 347 stroker in my 67 mustang. Is it really as simple as a carb kit, special fuel lines and a stronger fuel pump? Im in my project where I need these parts anyways, so it wont be costing me much extra to go this route.

What are the downsides? There has to be downsides... right? Im most likely looking at less than 10 mpg when im done and this could help my wallet when finished, especially when gas gets back to $3.00+ again.

.boB

yeah, it's pretty much that simple. Alcohlo of any kind is more corrosive than other fuels. If you have an old tank, I'd replace it. Any rubber lines, gaskets, seals, etc, also need to be replaced.

But, e85 has some disadvantages. It's primary benifit is that it has an octane rating of about 110. In a FI application, that means you can run crazy amounts of boost without detonation. In a street car, you run 12.5:1 static compression with a torque cam and not get detonation. Alcohol is a lot colder than gasoline, so you get a colder denser fuel charge.

the 20hp probably came from more timing and the colder air charge.

There are some trade offs. Alcohol has fewer BTU's than gasoline; you have to pump in a lot more fuel to get the same power. That means your mileage will suffer. It's still hard to find on the road. With a carb application, you can't easily switch from one fuel to the other. Once you commit to e85, you're stuck with it.

JD1969

Considering that you will need to burn roughly 30% MORE E85 in order to maintain stoich on the air fuel you will not really save much, if any, money. Now IF you have big compression OR run a lot of boost of some sort, then E85 might make sense for you. It is far cheaper than 100+ octane race gas. The real advantage of E85 is that is is around 106 octane, however it only makes sense if you car that needs that much (hence why I said big compression or lots of boost).

mjr46

there are so many other mods to do to the 347 that'll pick you up 20 hp here and there other than making it e85 friendly, such as chosing the right cam, heads and intake

polo708

wow, all great comments thanks. I really have zero experience with E85 setups. Im shooting for just under 500hp and was hoping to save on gas considering I will most likely end up on the lower side of 10mpg. I just kinda thought an E85 powered 1967 mustang would catch some attention for being different.

My main concern is my engine... its all brand new. Block, pistons, heads, rocker arms, etc. Will E85 damage or corrode my engine any more than gasoline?

You mean unless I change the carb setup back to a gasoline setup right? I understand I will need to drain the tank, run larger jets and all but I can always change back to my current carb setup if I want to go with gas in the future, right?

sorry if these Q's are stupid. Im out of my comfort zone with ethanol. This will be a weekend driven street car with some track time here and there but nothing major.

mjr46

a 500 hp 347 will be better suited to gas, and if that is your goal with a 347, I'd use a solid roller custom cam from Camshaft innovations on a billet core, maybe some tfs high ports and at least a victor jr intake possibley ported or have all the runners cleaned up have Pat at Pro-systems carb set you up with a carb, my guess is it'll at least be a 850 cfm carb and some decent headers at least 1 3/4 or 1 7/8's and a 3 inch exhaust and all supporting mods such as ignition and proper valvetrain set up, ie rockers ect ect., this set up will put you darn near close to your goal, however at 500 hp if you want that at the rear wheels an aftermarket block or a well tuned set up to a stock block will be what you need. your call there, I know what I'd do

polo708

thanks for the advice... right now I have the shortblock from fordstrokers.com(beautiful motor) with forged internals and probe pistons. AFR 185 heads, roller rocker arms, victor air-gap intake, long tube headers and a 2.5" exhaust with an H-pipe and flowmaster 40's. 9" rear end and a full coilover setup front/rear on the way from TCI. Not expecting 500 at the wheels definitely, but the closer the better haha.

Im having a custom grinded camshaft from camshaft innovations so we are on the same page there, haha... but im thinking of going with a hydrolic roller setup. I want this thing fully streetable but with a mean idle. fingers crossed.

mjr46

Jay will set you up with what you need with regards to cam, but be ready to replace the springs on your afr heads with what he recommends to match the cam he grinds you, your set up is simialar to mine 400 rwhp whould be very possible, I think you meant rpm air gap intake???, if you plan to use that I'd have it ported at least, and no reason to think a solid roller would not be streetable, there are plenty of examples out there, my 347 bottom end is a ford strokers set up also, Pm me if you wanna know more

polo708

sweet, thanks for the info... Yeah, I dont know why I put victor. I havent bought it yet but that was the route I was going. I have a edelbrock performer manifld from my blown 302 but I dont think it will flow well enough. Im going to sell it and put that towards a better intake. Ill shoot you a PM with a few questions thanks.

mjr46

Jay will most likely recommend the victor jr to you, so hold off on buying an intake until you talk with him.