It’s a long post I know, bear with me.
i am a big believer in ethanol making your car far safer. We all know it adds power. But what people don’t talk about is how much happier engines are when using e85. Anyone who has driven with e85 will know this, I mean you can immediately tell, the engine just feels, and sounds so much better and healthier. A great example are Subarus, yes, the engine design isn’t perfect, but Porsche uses flat engines, and their engines don’t explode left and right. It’s common knowledge the engines fail from knock, and such. So I believe that a big reason for all the ringland and engine failures on Subarus are from the owners tuning the car, and then not using good enough fuel. And I think if every Subaru owner ran e85 instead of 91/93. The amount of failures would go way down.
The biggest killers in modified engines are knock, and heat. E85’s resistance to knock is obvious, that’s why we use it. But it’s not just about the octane when talking about e85. there have been studies done on temperature reduction. And they say e85 can reduce cylinder temperatures by 40-60%. By removing heat from the cylinders it greatly reduces cylinder pressures and heat, further reducing knock. So, when using e85, you never (or almost never) have any knock or preignition, your cylinder temps are reduced by 40%, greatly reducing pressure, this saves rods, pistons, ringlands, etc.
Now, most people who use e85 do so to up the power. So, they use more boost and timing which does raise cylinder pressures and temps. But I think the amount of heat and pressure removed by e85 fair outweighs the extra heat and pressure added by adding more power. Unless we are talking about adding 200 extra horsepower with e85. But if we are talking about adding 20-30 horsepower. There’s no way that adds enough heat and pressure to outweight the reduction.
so, here’s my question. Does the knock cylinder pressure, and heat reduction from e85 out weight the amount of heat and pressure added from the extra power? Personally I think it does unless you are adding a ton of extra power with e85, meaning ethanol makes your car way safer.
do ylu
i am a big believer in ethanol making your car far safer. We all know it adds power. But what people don’t talk about is how much happier engines are when using e85. Anyone who has driven with e85 will know this, I mean you can immediately tell, the engine just feels, and sounds so much better and healthier. A great example are Subarus, yes, the engine design isn’t perfect, but Porsche uses flat engines, and their engines don’t explode left and right. It’s common knowledge the engines fail from knock, and such. So I believe that a big reason for all the ringland and engine failures on Subarus are from the owners tuning the car, and then not using good enough fuel. And I think if every Subaru owner ran e85 instead of 91/93. The amount of failures would go way down.
The biggest killers in modified engines are knock, and heat. E85’s resistance to knock is obvious, that’s why we use it. But it’s not just about the octane when talking about e85. there have been studies done on temperature reduction. And they say e85 can reduce cylinder temperatures by 40-60%. By removing heat from the cylinders it greatly reduces cylinder pressures and heat, further reducing knock. So, when using e85, you never (or almost never) have any knock or preignition, your cylinder temps are reduced by 40%, greatly reducing pressure, this saves rods, pistons, ringlands, etc.
Now, most people who use e85 do so to up the power. So, they use more boost and timing which does raise cylinder pressures and temps. But I think the amount of heat and pressure removed by e85 fair outweighs the extra heat and pressure added by adding more power. Unless we are talking about adding 200 extra horsepower with e85. But if we are talking about adding 20-30 horsepower. There’s no way that adds enough heat and pressure to outweight the reduction.
so, here’s my question. Does the knock cylinder pressure, and heat reduction from e85 out weight the amount of heat and pressure added from the extra power? Personally I think it does unless you are adding a ton of extra power with e85, meaning ethanol makes your car way safer.
do ylu
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