E85

gasgasman · #1 06-17-2007, 06:52 PM

Has anyone tried E85 fuel in their bikes?
E85 is 85% ethanol, which we all know is great for horsepower.
E85 is way cheaper than race fuel.
All you would have to do is jet your bike for it.

GMP · #2 06-17-2007, 07:12 PM

Girard,

There are oil separation issues. Also, ethanol absorbs moisture, not good for an engine that sits for awhile. You would have to jet a lot richer, so milage would be worse. I had a friend years back that raced methanol fueled go carts. The engines were always apart so moisture wasn't a problem. IMO, no thanks. In a properly jetted four stroke maybe, but not in my 2-stroke. So far my '07 runs awesome on pump gas.

widebear · #3 06-17-2007, 07:41 PM

Corrosion will be an issue on the alum parts if your running straight alky. Years ago when i used to pit for a record holding open comp car some events allowed us to run alky when doing so it required going to huge jets and super advanced timing in order to make power, alky has a much higher resistince to detonation but also has fewer btu's per , unit of volume and like GMP stated there could be some oil seperation issues unless of course you run old school racing castor oil which is derived from the castor bean and dissolves easly in alchohol and gives off that nice smell

CACTUSREID · #4 06-17-2007, 08:39 PM

that's one of the few things that i miss about racing a yz 490 in the bush!! no not the 490, but the smell off the castor oil ( which in my mind was a bowl of chile) while racing through the middle of a moose swamp!!

Bearman · #5 06-18-2007, 02:14 AM

ive been told that ethanol is a timebomb for two-strokes. i dont know if there is anytruth in this but im just going to keep running premium unleaded for peace of mind

GMP · #6 06-18-2007, 06:27 AM

There is nothing good about it as far as a 2-stroke is concerned. Even in cars, wait till your milage goes in the crapper, and I'm sure the prices won't drop to compensate. The reason gasoline is not used in Indy racing is safety, not performance. Remember the ISDE in Brazil? We brought our own fuel, because all they have is something like E85.

Race gas is not really neccessary in a stock EC. Ron at RBD told me about 195 -200 PSI (with correct head dimmensions) is approching the limit. I mixed a little with pump gas just to keep the ethanol level down so the winter blend gas would have a minimum effect on jetting.

I'm running 185 PSI on the stock '07 EC, modified '03 with one .3mm gasket was 195 PSI. Girard, did you measure the '07 MC250 compression?