legoninja

From everything I've read and learned about rotaries and the RX8 it seems perfect to run on ethanol or some mix like E85. Personally I would love to be able to convert my RX8 to ethanol and drop the price of fuel a bit. Has anyone heard anything about development of an ethanol rotary or a conversion kit?

xsnipersgox

ethanol is not the solution.

restiller

read about the "furai"

77mjd

Ethanol is not the answer, but hydrogen is definitely not happening on a large scale either. Mazda should start to go the hybrid route for now. It would definitely help the rotary for low end and gas mileage. If they can't make it more fuel efficient, the rotary may be going bye bye again. It will be interesting to see what strides they have made when the 16x debuts. I wonder how much DI will help mpg.

Socket7

could be done if you replace every piece of aluminum that could possibly come in contact with fuel with some other metal, along with every piece of rubber.

Thats a lot of work to cut your horsepower by a third.

Mazda currently has a hybrid RX-8 available for lease in japan. It's not only a gasoline/electric hybrid, it is also a gasoline/hydrogen hybrid.

Ethanol is not the answer, unless you are a corn farmer.

Jax_RX8

Ethanol is very "solvent" like, great for cleaning your combustion chambers, awful for killing your oil film inside the combustion chamber - and not a good thing for a rotary. It is also very corrosive, which is why it must be limited to 10% (E10) for cars not designed to run on it.

The 8 needs good fuel lubricity and Ethanol makes fuel less lubricious and increases the need for premix or more OMP oil injection rates to counteract.

This is why I avoid even E10 fuel like the plague (thanks goodness it is not mandatory where I live, but is becoming more and more popular due to the government subsidies).

For those that live in areas that sell nothing but E10 or they can't avoid it, this does add more credence to considering some form of premix or lubricious fuel additive.

C Ya L8r

My last tank I ran 2gal of e85 to boost the octane of 89 to around 91. I thougt I was at 10% but now I found out all of my states gas contains 10%.
How does the octane stay at 87,89,91 if ethanol is around 100 to 105 octane? Do they start with lower octane then add the ethanol? The mix should provide higer octane. Here is the chart and excel spreadsheat I used to calculate the ratio- http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/Octanemix.html
I guess I will see what my mpgs are at 20% but Im not thrilled to be running over 10%

Flashwing

What is the cost of E85 up to now? $3.75 a gallon? $4.00 a gallon? It would have to be $1.50 to $2.00 a gallon before you'd be able to see any kind of immediate savings due to the lower energy yield of e85 in combustion engines. Even with the RX8's thirsty need for gas, it would probably lessen your operational distance to 150 miles? 120 miles?

Thankfully all these E85 vehicles are able to work on both gasoline and e85 cause if the subsidies ever stopped you'd see the whole ethanol industry tank overnight as prices shot at least $2 a gallon higher than gasoline. Trust me, whether you pay taxes or at the pump...one way or another you're spending more for ethanol.

Cars like the furai are really cool, but there is a reason it's a "concept" and not a production vehicle.

restiller

but it sounds so bad ***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEOHn7rspsk
3 rotors + ethanol = pure evil

JonnyBoy

There was an article in one of the tuning magazines about a turbocharged rx8 in Australia that ran on ethanol. I think it was by Knightsport.

Red Devil

There is no exposed AL inside the Renesis.

tdiddy

I believe there is a forum member who is experimenting with E85 and boost but he is not very vocal. Hopefully I will get to look his car over soon.

C Ya L8r

well I just filled up and.. I usualy get 16mpg on 91oct. with the e85 blend I got 14.5mpg. So after some math even with the lower cost of 89oct the e85 blend cost me $1.50 more for every 100mi.Not bad considering I was floring it alot. Im giving it one more tank with normal driving. I was hoping this would be a good alternitave to spending $3-4 on a small bottle of octane boost.

I could care less about the politics of e85. I know its not a alt fuel source, I was looking for a cheep octane boost. As it sits right now I think blending might only benifit tose looking for higher than 91. (BOOSTED APS?)