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Would E85 benefit rotary engines?

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Old 12-22-2010, 03:14 PM
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Would E85 benefit rotary engines?

I've been reading magazines that talk about the benefits of running E85 in piston engines. Now, I understand that you need to up the injector size by about 30% because it needs that much more fuel and I understand the car would need to be retuned. My understanding is that it burns much cooler than gasoline. Would that be a good thing for a rotary, since they run much hotter than piston engines?

Last edited by BJP; 12-22-2010 at 03:28 PM.
Old 12-22-2010, 03:18 PM
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I would doubt it, as Mazda is focusing heavily on Hydrogen R&D, which is really where the future of non-petrol based fueling is headed, IMHO.
Old 12-22-2010, 03:37 PM
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I wouldn't use any ethanol if I could help it. alcohol will clean and strip oil off of anything its in so I would think the apex seals/housings would see a shortened life unless heavily premixed but it can make a lot of power in turbo engines but it takes a lot of it.
Old 12-22-2010, 03:48 PM
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whats the point of using it anyway if you need to increase fuel delivery to make it work right?
Old 12-22-2010, 05:29 PM
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it costs much more to make, it decreases fuel economy, it damages engines, and it increases the cost of food.

biodiesel on the other hand is useful and good for diesel engines, but they've dropped support for it.
Old 12-22-2010, 06:25 PM
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on a turbo engine it does a very good job of suppressing detonation. on a naturally aspirated engine you won't see any real performance benefits
Old 12-22-2010, 07:28 PM
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its absolutely a good thing for FI . With the right compression and tuning you will not only see more and more reliable power but also at least equal or BETTER mileage
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Old 01-13-2013, 06:03 PM
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NE E-85, food prices

First off E-85 does not increase food prices, Fuel prices increase food prices, judt like every thing else. US on average poduces 259,273 thousand metric tons a year, of corn. The corn used in E-85 is feed corn not sweet corn. Know your facts.
Old 01-13-2013, 06:48 PM
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so you revived a thread to be an asshat? nice work.
Old 01-13-2013, 07:02 PM
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Originally Posted by zoom44
its absolutely a good thing for FI . With the right compression and tuning you will not only see more and more reliable power but also at least equal or BETTER mileage
Yup. Look at the Rx7 guys. Amazing results on E85

Originally Posted by Hobbies
First off E-85 does not increase food prices, Fuel prices increase food prices, judt like every thing else. US on average poduces 259,273 thousand metric tons a year, of corn. The corn used in E-85 is feed corn not sweet corn. Know your facts.
Feed corn prices determine the price of livestock. So unless you are a vegetarian, ethanol production does raise food prices.
Old 01-14-2013, 09:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Hobbies
First off E-85 does not increase food prices, Fuel prices increase food prices, judt like every thing else. US on average poduces 259,273 thousand metric tons a year, of corn. The corn used in E-85 is feed corn not sweet corn. Know your facts.
so getting rid of food-grade corn to grow "for fuel use corn" will not raise food grade corn aka sweet corn prices ?

also, ya think they use grass to feed live stock these days? I wonder what they eat now?

and tell me, how is something that use more energy to create than it can release help ANYTHING?

in the other words, you are telling me it's great to invest 100 bucks just so that I will get 50 bucks back ?

Only thing E85 is good (probably) is it has higher Octane rating so you can push the tuning higher without blowing **** up, but it also lowers mpg. Please don't tell me they don't cared, they DO cared, they might not when they first reach their new hp goal, but after a while their wallet gonna get hurt and back to the reality.

know your facts.

Last edited by nycgps; 01-14-2013 at 10:00 AM.
Old 01-14-2013, 10:45 AM
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You should see what ethanol does to our gaskets and sight glasses on gas delivery trucks.
Old 01-14-2013, 11:32 AM
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Haven't seen it personally, but I heard if you premix and use E it will cause a bunch of black sludge in the gas.
Old 01-14-2013, 11:51 AM
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Originally Posted by Hobbies
First off E-85 does not increase food prices, Fuel prices increase food prices, judt like every thing else. US on average poduces 259,273 thousand metric tons a year, of corn. The corn used in E-85 is feed corn not sweet corn. Know your facts.
Get your facts straight. It most definitely does raise food prices.
Sweet Corn is what you get from a can. "Feed Corn" is what is used in any baked food product. It is also used to fatten animals for slaughter. So, it does increase the price of your breakfast cereal. It does raise the price of the tortilla used for your taco. It does raise the price of your beef, pork and chicken products.
You may live in Nebraska, but apparently you don't know anything about food production. I was raised on a family farm and almost all my relatives are farmers.
Old 01-14-2013, 12:23 PM
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Originally Posted by bose
Haven't seen it personally, but I heard if you premix and use E it will cause a bunch of black sludge in the gas.
While delivering a load of gas, two ultralight pilots came up and asked if there was ethanol in the gas, because they were looking for clear gas. They had told me they had used gas with ethanol and because it was a two stroke engine the ethanol broke down the oil and caused his engine to fail in flight.
Old 02-07-2013, 03:42 AM
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first off if you want cost effective ethanol you make it from sugar beets or sugar cane .we use corn in the us because no one in the government wants ethanol to be cheaper than gas they would loose money. to prove it the feds put a 300% tariff on ethanol imported from south america to make the price of e85 comparable to gas. ethanol production was set up to fail in this country by use of corn. as for hurting food cost feed corn is used to make it and can still be used as feed after fermentation so no food was lost.
Old 07-20-2020, 04:22 AM
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Originally Posted by bose
Haven't seen it personally, but I heard if you premix and use E it will cause a bunch of black sludge in the gas.
the black sludge people talk about is the before mentioned cleaning it does because it picks it all up from the fuel lines and spews it out of the exhaust that’s also the reason for the bigger injectors.
Old 07-20-2020, 11:44 AM
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:.facepalm.:
Old 07-23-2020, 07:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Darrel_CO_
the black sludge people talk about is the before mentioned cleaning it does because it picks it all up from the fuel lines and spews it out of the exhaust that’s also the reason for the bigger injectors.
Wow, nice first post. You resurrected a 7 year old thread to say that?
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