[sule]

living in maryland with a citgo nearby that sells e85 (15% gasoline), what's required to get say, a cb360 or cb750 running on that strictly? rejetting? replacing fuel lines and carb gaskets? lining the tank?

is this legal, or something i'd want to do? it's for the environmental impact as i'm under the assumption e85 is cleaner but does emit more nitrogen.

thoughts?

 

[nateryan]

that sounds like hippy shit to me. bikes run on gas.

 

[vinnytobasco]

I'm just a newbie, but i HEAR that stuff gives you shitty fuel economy (worse than gas), and costs more than gas. Why not just run regular gas? Seeing as gas is much more readily available than ethanol and it would seem to eliminate potential headaches. Just my 2 cents.

-Vincent

-Edited by Tex (because I can)

 

[Judeyramone]

... much less headache.

 

[texmawby]

Vincent,

I fixed this for you.

Tex

 

[craig641]

Tex - Thank you for doing that. That shit's been painful to read.

Craig

 

[jbranson]

Sule,
If you are concerned about the environment...use gasoline. Do some research and you'll find out that Ethanol is a loss-loss product. It takes more energy to make a gallon of ethanol than the ethanol can produce when it's used. It's one of the stupidier solutions ever come up with (in this country), because the crops to produce it are planted with diesel, irrigated with sparce water using diesel powered pumps, harvested with diesel powered machines, "refined" using some form of energy and transported via diesel powered vehicles. By the time you get it...it's used more than it's own energy just getting to you. The main reason being the US has no ethanol delivery pipeline system.
It works in some countries (using sugercane) because those countries don't have to irragate, because sugercane produces far more ethanol per ton of crop, it's easier to process and because they have a distribution infrastructure...and they don't have any oil.

Until they make ethanol in this country using bio-waste (the parts of crops we don't eat) and build pipelines to transport it... just eat the corn, don't put it in your vehicle.
JohnnyB

 

[kenessex]

Sule,

Besides what the others have said, (although Vinnie did get the cost part wrong, it is cheaper than gas due to government supports and tax breaks)Rejetting the carb to work with E-85 is much more involved than just changing a couple of jets. The needle will need a different taper and a different needle jet, and there is the possibility (probability) that some of the fixed passages in the carb body itself would be too restrictive. I say stick with gas.

Ken

 

[Teazer]

So I take it that none of you has converted a bike to run on methanol then.Kenessex is close. The needle typically has to be reshaped and the needle jet will also have to be larger.

I'd need to work through the numbers but methanol is burned at approximately 230% of the rate of gas, so the jets all have to be considerably larger. So you will burn a lot more E85 than straight gas, BUT it can stand a much higher CR before detonation sets in. On methanol at least, that's where the power comes from - all across the board.

I have not done any work with E85, but on turbo charged Skoobies, they get a considerable power increase with cranking up the boost and resetting the EFI.

For most race series in the US, I'd stick with U4.2

 

[Geeto67]

a few buddies of mine converted a banshee 350 to run on ethanol. It really was just a matter of jetting and some alcohol safe (green in color) seals. The E85 is corrosive so some of the carb seals will need to be replaced. eventually the crank seals will need to be done but for the moment they are ok. In certain larger bikes It could become necessary to install a fuel pump to feed the carbs.

Advantages - power. the bike runs cooler, so they can run a more radical setup (in this case porting and compression since it is a two stroke) and get away with it. if it were a 4 stroke, they could big cams, etc...

disadvantages - fuel consumption has almost doubled. it is expensive to operate, these guys have 50 gal drums of it at their house for their turbo race cars so it isn't a big deal to have another vehicle that uses the stuff, but for anybody else I would be wary.

ken, it is not cheaper than gas due to the tax breaks - you physically have to buy more of the stuff more often, it adds up over the course of a year if you use your bike for commuting.

BTW, we talked about e85 a dozen or so times in the past, is the search function not working?

 

[Pinche Chingadera]

I'd say for a daily rider it wouldn't make any sense. The cost to switch it over, the cost of the ethanol itself since you'll be almost be using twice the amount of ethanol as you would of gas.

 

[Wanker]

I would avoid ethanol in bikes in general . Fuel hoses and gaskets hate that shit especially.

 

[Mercury Kid]

Coming from the car world, where E85 is the new trick thing to run, I'd like to think I've read quite a bit about it.

I'm pretty sure the consumption goes up roughly 30-35% due to the decrease in energy.

The good thing is the 105 octane rating, relatively widespread availability, and huge savings over unleaded/leaded 105 octane.

It could basically make a bike that used to be considered too radical for the street rideable to the burger stand for some trash talking.

That is, after the aforementioned modifications.

So build a 1400+ cc KZ, get a big hairdryer for it, plumb the thing for corn, and earn some beer money every Friday night. Just be sure to save some for a fresh set of shorts.