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Asked: Oct 18, 2008 - 11:22 PM

Status: Closed

Are there any changes required to run a car on pure ethanol or with 5% water?

There is a lot of talk of running cars on ethanol or flex fuels. What changes are required for a fuel injected car that is not designed for Flex fuels? If you run the car on ethanol with some mixture of water say 5% is it harmful to the engine? There are available online converstion kits for all car makes to run flex fuel, pure ethanol or gas interchangeably. Do they really work? Or some other changes are required to the fuel system due to corrosion issues?
I have access to pure ethanol with some mixture of water around 5% and do not know if it is safe enough to use it in a car with simple conversion kit advertised by change2E85.com.

In Fuel Type / Drivetrain > Ethanol
2 answers - 47 days ago

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karjunkie

Date: Oct 19, 2008
Time: 08:11 AM

Yes, you can burn pure ethanol or hydrated ethanol in a modern fuel injected car, but you will have cold starting problems. That is why most flex fuel vehicles use a mix of gasoline and ethanol (E85) that has 15% gasoline. Prior to the development of electronic fuel injection (EFI) and computerized engine management, the lower energy content of ethanol required that the engine carburetor be rejetted to permit a larger volume of fuel to mix with the intake air. EFI is able to actively compensate for varying fuel energy densities by monitoring the oxygen content of exhaust gases. However, a standard EFI gasoline engine can typically only tolerate up to 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Higher ethanol ratios require either larger-volume fuel injectors or an increase in fuel rail pressure to deliver the greater liquid volume needed to equal the energy content of pure gasoline. Since 1973, Brazil has manufactured cars using 100% hydrated ethanol (95% ethanol + 5% water) in modified Otto cycle motors with no problem so it is possible to do what you suggest. You will also have to remove and clean out the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter as ethanol is an extremely powerful solvent that will clog up your fuel system if it was originally run on gasoline.The bottom line is that you have to weigh the cost of conversion and the lower MPG (around 70% of gasoline) against your cost savings for the ethanol..

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sprescott

Date: Oct 09, 2009
Time: 09:01 PM

I wouldn't risk it. There are some ruber seals o rings and other components that may react different to alcohol. Also with todays computerized cars calibration is critical.gass and alcohol have significant flash and burn caractoristics. Research this fully,from many sources. The flex fuel concept in the market place is still ,so we in the field are going through a learning curve and still gathering knowledge.

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