kurtw - Apr 27, 2008 10:15am
Stratvette123 - Apr 20, 2008 03:05pm
I plan on converting my Camaro to run on ethanol- has anyone ever heard of this being done to a Camaro before??
I have felt burdened by this car’s consumption and its negative effects on the environment so I feel like the best thing to do is convert it to ethanol. I hear that the benefits are great as well!!! Conserv Fuel will be my fueling station after the completion of the conversion.
I will be completing my research soon and hopefully be running E85 within a month from now. I will be posting more information on this Green Muscle Car Project in the coming weeks.
Sounds like an interesting plan, Edelbrock and Holly made products for E85 use in older engines, you’ll need to replace your seals and fuel lines. Typically your MPG will be reduced by at least 30% when running E85 vs Gasoline, so you’ll be consuming more E85 then gasoline. Theres less energy/power with E85 unless you up the compression ratio of your engine.
That being said I wouldn’t be too burdened with it, especially if its not a daily driver, another option is to do a diesel conversion, and have the option of running plain ol’ petro diesel, Biodiesel and WVO/SVO oils. Converting gas to diesel would be expensive, especially if you are not doing your own work, and if anything you’ll be increasing mpg depending of choice of engine and drive train.
I’m not a big fan of E85 because of the power/increased fuel consumption as well as the drain on food resources. At least until they can get feedstock for E85 that doesn’t compete with food production. Biodiesel, can be created from recycled/waste cooking oil [using food grade oils to create biodiesel is too expensive].
Many would not know this without personal experience, but the actual reduction in mpg with E85 is near 15%, ranging between 10 and 20% (that’s my own experience with a 2003 Chevy Tahoe FFV). I have not met anyone whose results were worse than this who used an FFV, though it can be found on the internet. For instance, Consumer Reports used a new Chevy Tahoe in 2007 and got something worse, but later it was found that a recall was made on a fuel regulator that would cause this problem. I have yet to see them report on this important revelation. Regardless, my expectation would be that your Camaro would end up between 10 and 20% lower fuel economy on E85. This is mostly caused by the lower compression ratio of the engine, not the fuel. Were you to do some engineering work on your engine to increase the ratio to 11:1 or 12:1, you would probably experience little if any loss on E85, though then you would have troubles with gasoline.
Many of us Californians also would not know that when corn is used to make ethanol, it is only the starch (sugars) that is used in producing it, and each plant produces many tons of protein-rich livestock feed as a co-product. This then is fed and becomes part of our food supply in the form of steaks, pork chops, chicken wings, etc. While there may be some reduction in corn syrup (obesity, anyone?-No wonder Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are backing the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association in an ethanol smear campaign!), there is plenty of protein feed resulting from corn ethanol. Sweet corn and white corn (tortillas) are not used by ethanol plants. The majority of studies have proven that if corn ethanol has an increasing effect on food prices it is very slim, but that high energy and gasoline prices are having a very dramatic effect. Corn ethanol is decreasing gasoline prices up to 50 cents per gallon right now (supply and demand economics), which helps to keep food prices lower as well. Additionally, in 2007 America’s farmers produced more corn than ever, fed more corn than ever, and exported more corn than ever-those are USDA facts.
So, rest assured. The fuel economy drag is much lower than the anti-ethanol crowd suggests, and U.S. corn production is ample and increasing (biotechnology, efficiency, new technologies).
Corn ethanol is one stepping stone toward other ethanol feedstock technologies, and likely will continue being an important part in keeping gasoline and food prices lower than without for decades to come. It is reported that Sacramento will soon have up to 20 new E85 fueling stations open to the public, and I look forward to fueling up with less costly, environmentaly friendly, renewable, U.S.-made ethanol in our Tahoe FFV.
Regards,
SacramentoE85
