Can gas cars be changed to ethanol?

Answer 1

absolutely, I have an old Mercedes and boat converted to e-100. the only problem is there can be no rubber it will melt the steel tank will corrode quickly as well, so everything must be changed to hdpe (high density polyethylene). also add a fuel preheater. straight ethanol needs to be warmed to 150 f or add 5-6 psi boost unless your motor already runs 12-1 or better compression. E-100 is about 130 octane.

Here's the deal I have a still in my back yard, filed for a batf permit that allows my to make 5000 gallons a year I feed it restaurant garbage as well as apple waste from a nearby orchard and cider plant. It takes about 10 hours a week labor but cost me less than 30 cents a gallon. I use this in mainly my boat which uses about 13 gallons an hour times 10 hours a week skiing. at $2.50-$3 a gallon its worth it to me, I also run my 75 Mercedes on e-100 as an around town only car.

Answer 2

would not substitute a topic. In Canada, we run 10% ethanol (additionally has anti-knock assets's) each and all the time, would not do slightly harm. E85 or 80 5% ethanol is slightly diverse as sensors are required to make certain what % is interior the gasoline for the PCM to swap air/gasoline combination and timing with the aid of quite a few variety gasoline.

Answer 3

Theoretically yes, but the cost of the conversion would not be worth it.

Ethanol is a political football. As a fuel it stinks, especially when made from corn. It takes more BTUs of fossil based energy than you get from a gallon of the end product. Even vehicles labled for E85 cost more per mile to run on E85 than gasoline since the fuel economy is so much poorer. And using corn for fuel drives up the prices of corn for feed which raised the prices of beef, pork, milk, butter, eggs, chicken, etc. or have you not noticed the crazy price increases there?

Now, if we could grow enough sugar cane to convert to ethanol it would be worth it since you can burn the cane tailings to generate enough energy to run the plant. That's exactly what is being done in Brazil. Unfortunately we don't have enough land in a tropical climate to grow enough to be self sustaining.

A much better bio-source fuel for the US would be bio-diesel from soybeans or other under-utilized sources that won't affect prices of the rest of the food chain so much. Rapeseed would be a spectacular crop for this purpose and it can grow in nearly any climate.

Answer 4

no but you can use ethanol E85 with regular type gas to save on natural fuels

Answer 5

no srry