I have a problem, the closest gas station to my place that has anything over 89 octane is 35 minutes away. Most cars that are on my bucket list require the good stuff. Now, I know that I could run the 89 swill on modern cars and be OK, but I would be missing out on available power.
OTOH, the great state of Nebraska is mostly corn so E85 is everywhere. I am seeing E85 conversions become more popular as of late so that got me thinking. Would converting a naturally aspirated car to E85 work as a substitute for premium? I have read that converting a car with forced induction has some great benefits so that is also an option.
I am considering many different cars but for the sake of discussion how about comparing an E85 Supercharged NC Miata vs a E85 E46 M3 vs 87 octane C5 vette. Would mainly be a street car but I want to try out some track days as well.
I may just be rambling but what does the collective think?
If you are willing to do all the conversion work - get the fuel system up to the point where it can deal with the alcohol content, potentially fit bigger injectors and definitely remap the ECU to use E85, then yes, you should be able to see some gains from using E85.
Depending on where you'd want to drive the car you'd have to turn it into a flex fuel vehicle, which adds more pain to the conversion though.
Good thought. Didn't think about having the Flexfuel capability, probably would be a good idea. I think I have seen some kits using GM sensors for that.
We tried putting bigger injectors and E85 in a naturally aspirated Miata without touching the ECU. It was not a happy camper. Now, when we can reprogram the car, there's power to be made.
Flex fuel capability depends on the engine management. The sensors are the easy part. What you do with the info is what matters. We're doing that on Miatas now, plugging a GM sensor into a Hydra ECU
Keith, I noticed that your Flex Fuel conversion kit is only for NA/NB and not NC. Does that have something to do with the Hydra Nemesis?
