If your thinking about building one, call Cliff Ruggles for the rebuild kit, and his E-85 specific tuning parts and specs. He has quite a few under his belt now.. Unfortunately, he is no longer building carbs.. so your on your own there. Power levels up to 600 HP should be doable with E-85 and the single inlet Q-jet.. going to build one myself for the Stock Eliminator car, to keep the cost of testing/bracket racing down, vs have to use race gasoline all the time. We will have a specific Q-jet set up for race gas for NHRA divisional and national event participation. And yes, E-85 does take more maintenance on the fuel system. Seal the vents on the system during extended periods of time when not in use, and a end of season flush with gasoline, if it goes into storage for the winter months, are the norms. Good luck JW
E-85 is amazing, we tested my CSU Holley 750 carb on a friends turbocharged 5.3 with good heads and it did over 1000 HP to the wheels. He switched to EFI and gained 5 HP .
Get a test kit. Like 15 bucks on Amazon. Always check at the pump. Takes less than 5 minutes. We have many stations with it. 1 within 1 mile. But last year proved tougher to get true 85 sometimes.
I myself dont test,...because at the end of the day wjat are goin to do if its not as high as you would like,..if youre out of gas which iscwhy you're at the station you're gonna put it in,...Anything over 70% is fine for any NA application,...hell I have run 68% in my camaro where some 93 was left in the tank,...still no knock retard. My dad's car with 13.5 to 1 runs fine on low 70s,...I've never pumped it and be 80 or higher actually
I look forward to using mine on my Chevelle. My friends all have had great success. Can’t imagine buying C12 this year. Glad to hear more success from Marks work. Great guy to deal with it.
To each there own. Everyone I know tests it. And it’s very available by me at multiple stations. I’m 13.9 to 1. Never anything but VP C12. This engine has t been anywhere but Atco and Cecil. I will keep in mind what you say as it’s all motor. I want to put the cowl induction back on too.Will see how it goes.
I guess a person could simply pump A bit into a container and test that. If it tests bad move onto a different gas station.
That’s correct. My friends do it every time. It’s simple. A little water, fuel. Seal container and shake. They sell the kit on Amazon. I just got it recently. For cruising is one thing it can be lesser. But for racing with high compression or power added it pays to know. It’s a simple test. And as of now the fuel is readily a available.
I would run something on e85 but no gas station around here has it. I think gas stations should have regular 87, non ethanol 93, and E85. No one uses 89.
Used to be cheaper but that ship has sailed still cheaper than premium but it's lost its allure regarding its price tho,...the government does want us to use it so,....
If your going to drag race with it, then to be able to use your logbook, you need a consistent fuel. When I do it, I will be mixing my own.. the mix gasoline will be 110 octane, which will raise the natural 105 octane of the Ethanol, and you can then set your percentages correctly. I will be getting the Ethanol in a 256 gallon tote. Sure, it's more work, but if i wanted an easy hobby, I would go fishing.. and it's a hell of alot cheaper than high octane gasoline, which I will be required to run in the Stock Eliminator car at NHRA divisionals and national events. For daily drivers, your right, lower percentages won't generally hurt the engine, they will just make it run rich. The higher percentages is what will cause engine damage, if your not tuned for it. But I don't think I have ever heard of anyone buying something more than 85 percent out of the pump. But it is possible, so a couple minutes spent doing the test, might save you a ton of dough. JW
