Why not to run E10: (by buzzz miller. Please take this post for what it is. This is a very generalized idea, and the math has been estimated for making things simple. Finding fault in a small corner is possible, but I wanted to not write too much of a book.)
Ethanol is a form of alcohol. Similar in properties to the likes of methanol. Ethanol is grown from multiple sources including corn, sugar beets, etc. Methanol is a great fuel for making lots of performance and a wide tuning window. (See alcohol running fully-cars, dragsters, boats, etc.) Although the burn rate is twice of that of gasoline. 12and change to 1 air/fuel ratio for gasoline and 6 and change to 1 for methanol. (So in a very rough estimation of math, you burn twice the amount of fuel to make the same energy. So again in rough estimations, a vehicle optimized at 20mph would get around 10 on pure methanol with no other changes other than fuel.) Ethanol is a little less than twice, but the same idea.
Ethanol is a great fuel. Lots of potential not found anywhere else. E85 is a spectacular product. All of my tests have E85 at just over 106 octane from the pump. Lots of really nice attributes. Burns very cool. Makes great power. You can run large compression without any problem of detonation. We are talking over 13:1 compression. But you just have to forget about fuel economy. With E85, 85% ethanol and 15% regular unleaded, you are burning somewhere in the range of 35% - 42% more fuel all else remaining standard. If you want to build a vehicle specifically to run on E85, then great! Do it! A 550 horsepower small block, or 700 horsepower big block is not difficult on E85. If you have it available at the pump near to you. DO IT!
But it does not help anything unless you have set the system up to be optimized with it. Without upping the compression, adjusting camshaft profiles, or at least upping the timing, you will not see an advantage by puting ethanol in your vehicle. You pretty much have to start over and design an engine to run on E85. You could do slight but similar adjustments to optimize on E10. Unless there is a problem with your car that is set up for standard gasoline, like it is pulling out timing from a knock sensor or something like that, E10 will not make more power. It cannot. It will also get worse fuel economy. It has to. You can't cheat physics and mathmatics.
But it sure does make great power. Here is my last E85 build;
Oh yeah, and engine is just an air pump. If you get air in and out with less disruption and resistance, you will make more power and use less energy to do it. That is how you increase MPG. But to think that there is some magic trick, or some 1970's carburetor that was government or oil companies covered up that did it, you are listeneing to the same tall tales of a perfect woman or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. 16 or so is really good for a big tire, lifted blazer.
