is it safe?

 

First of all, it depends on what type of bio-fuel you mean. Bio-diesel? Not a chance.

E-85? (15% ethanol, 85% gasoline, the "alternate fuel" most people talk about). Probably could be done without too much fuss. Not sure what minor problems with tank liners, fuel system sealants andseals, etc., you would have -- ehtanol sometimes eats away at some of this stuff in pure "gas only" cars and most of the mod $$for "alternative fuel/E85 cars go for this. I really haven't reserached whether any of this would be a problem in a 'vette -- I suppose a risk-taker could just try and see what happens.

Assuming you took care of that issue, you'd have to have the car tuned for the E85, but I'm pretty sure the ECM could handle it (when re-programmed, and it might get by without re-programming, too), although you might need bigger injectors or other subtle fuel system changes, too.

Reason I'm this confident is:
a) my 'vette ran on E95 (5% ethanol), required to be vended by all standard pumps by the EPA during certain times of year in certain high pollution areas for emissions reasons: you have no choice, so note all cars can run with a 5% trace of ethanol iun the fuel. I could tell the difference, by the way: my car didn't like it, but this was after it had headers, CAI, and a tune: don't know how it would have reacted if it had been completely stock.
b) My car currently has methonol injection at WOT, and with lots of custom tuning, runs great with it (the methanol adds 45+ RWHP). Realize that this is methanol, not ethanol (methanol is rubbing alcohol -- you can't drink it without doing reall harm to yourself, ehtanol is basically corn liquor -- moonshine, although for fuel use the gov. requires to add something to it to make you sick if you try to drink it, but it won't kill you like methanol), but chemically they are fairly similar, and note also that it also is coming from a special under-hood tank into a special induction injector, and not through the fuel system/standard injectors(so there are no fuel delivery system seal-erosion issues), but it the cars loves the stuff after being calibrated for it and is probably running at about 15% methanol at WOT.

How about pure ethanol rather than just 15%? If you could handle the fuel system sealing/sealer erosion issues for the fuel system, and put in bigger injectors (ethanol has a lower specific energy desntiy so you have to pump/spray more of it per HP), and tune it, it would run great -- maybe more power (Indy cars run on pure ethanol for a reason). There might be combustion temperature issues but I think they could be handled with good mixture control.
But I would not go with 100% ethanol for safety issues. Ethanol burns with an absolutely clear (i.e., invisible) flame--> if you have a leak or a fuel fire you cannot see the flame: people have been badly burned leaning down into an underhood ethanol flame they did not see, coming from an underhood leak, or walking into a burning pool of it on the ground -- you can't see it at all -- really worrisome.

 

Hi Maytes, I guess the short answer is no!
Hi Lee Willis, now you have methanol injection!
That has got to be an amazingly fast car, I hope we see you on "Pinks all Out" soon, you have to represent the Corvette World. PG

 

No, not going to be on Pinks -- I'm not that serious about racing. CAM, the shop that did alot of the work and the tuning on my car had a Firdbrid on Pinks a few months ago (they won).

 

The greatest concern with e-85 or other alcohol fuels is that you need to inject about 40% more alcohol to get the same energy as gasoline, so you would need larger injectors to allow for this. As Lee stated, you may heve deterioration of fuel system components that were never intended for alcohol use. You really would have to overhaul the fuel system to use e-85, then you would not be able to use pure gasoline. The flex fuel vehicles that are out there now have a method to determine which fuel is in the tank, then they adjust fuel system operation to match the fuel. On the other hand, alcohol is a great octane booster and will allow higher compression and more spark advance.

 

anyone have the information involved in Jay lenos Flex fuel corvette? because from what I've read, e85 gives you more hp, gives you cleaner power, is cheeper, keeps the money in the states, and is very easy to convert over to for about 500 bucks. Now on the down side you get less mpg, but you get better performance. I'm wondering if the z06 Jay leno has cost more than 500 bucks to convert.

 

http://www.vetteweb.com/tech/vemp_08...ion/index.html

http://www.change2e85.com/servlet/Page?template=Myths

some interesting reading i've done since my last post.

 

This maybe a stupid question but since we are talking about E85 and ethanol...But isant the E85contain 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline?? and that is why most cars will not run on it unless the fuel system is set up to? Lee your right about the 5% ethonal being required in areas of high polution but i do not believe it is E95