It's a higher octane, runs cooler and better for the engine to make more horsepower for less than the price of race gas and pump 91 octane. So why not? If you are able to buy 98 octane for your MINI and it allows you to make more power, higher octane and better for the engine from detonation... wouldn't use it too? Same for E85 fuel.

 

There's also more info on E85 in Post #5...

 

The gas stations around my area are usually 93 octane. I hear people use E85 because it's more 'green.' But I didn't know there were benefits. Colder? Cheaper than 91 (93) octane?


Hmm...I def. have to look into this...

 

Cool, thanks.

Oh quick question: It's probably here somewhere, but it's hard to search...Could you used 450CC or 550CC injectors without a tune if you have mods such as CAI, Pulley and Exhaust? I know if their scaled, and tuned it would work better and more efficient. But living in Boston, not much tuner shops, and I'd like to have something that works better than JCW injectors and just wait for someone to come and tune.

 

It's not recommended to run the 550cc w/o getting a tune. It's better to stay with your current injectors than to upgrade to these bigger one and running them w/o a tune.

Here in AZ (and mostly West of Texas), the highest octane we get is 91. E85 is rated between 98 and 103 octane and it's the same price as 89 octane at the pump... so it's very enticing alternative. It's more green on the planet, keeps more 'green' in my wallet and keeps my feet happy... can't ask for more

 

FYI E85 is not more green - that is a myth - it is actually carbon and electricity negative to produce E85. However it does burn cleaner than gasoline.

 

FYI E85 is not more green - that is a myth - it is actually carbon and electricity negative to produce E85 using current production methods. However it does burn cleaner than gasoline.

 

Green = also due to alcohol as renewable resource.

 

for what it's worth: http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/faqs/energy.php
(Excerp from their website)
Does it take more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy we get out of it?
Response:
No. This has been a common misconception of the ethanol industry, that it takes more energy to make ethanol than is available to the final consumer. Remember, ethanol is produced from plant matter, today dominated by corn, wheat, potatoes, sorgum, etc. Plants grow through the use of energy provided by the sun and are a renewable resources. In the future, ethanol will be produced from waste products or "energy crops." In fact, a partner of the NEVC, BC International (BCI), is currently constructing an ethanol production plant in Louisiana that will use sugar cane waste to produce ethanol. Additionally, BCI is considering the establishment of ethanol production facilities in California that would use the waste hulls from rice growers and wood waste from the forest industry to produce ethanol. Energy crops such as perennial switch grasses, timothy, and other high-output/low-input crops will be used in the future.
Current research prepared by Argonne National Laboratory (a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory), indicates a 38% gain in the overall energy input/output equation for the corn-to-ethanol process. That is, if 100 BTUs of energy is used to plant corn, harvest the crop, transport it, etc., 138 BTUs of energy is available in the fuel ethanol. Corn yields and processing technologies have improved significantly over the past 20 years and they continue to do so, making ethanol production less and less energy intensive.

 

Unfortunately for you there are only two stations selling E85 in Massachusetts according to U.S. department of Energy .

Longboard

 

What's the word on ethanol getting past the rings and thinning out engine oil? Do our fuel systems need add ons to take the E85? ie fuel pump, seals, and lines?

Jeremy

 

Really interested in getting tuned for E85, there are quite a few filling stations in Miami and 1 within 4 miles of my house.

Mike, header looks like a piece of art. Looking forward to the rest of your testing. Are you guys going to fabricate your own exhaust as well?

 

We won't venture into the exhaust market, there's already quite a few good exhausts out there on the market. We're going to focus more on the electronics

 

What is the advantage of the coating (or negative affects of not getting it done)? In other people's opinion, is it worth it?

Sweet results, I'm getting pumped! Will definitely be getting some of this stuff in the near future...Albuquerque is fairly close to Phoenix

 

The seals, pump and everything should be fine. The Ethanol may be slightly more corrosive, but you're talking about shortening their expected lifespan from 250,000 miles to 200,000 miles, they're incredibly resistant. Ethanol should not get past your rings unless you've got major problems, in which case you'll have gasoline going by as well anyways. Part of that myth stems from the Methanol based Gasahol back when there were carbs on cars. Since the fuel wasn't atomized as fully as in a fuel injected car there would be concentrations of high and low alcohol in the combustion chamber and if one of these high concentration areas was near the cylinder wall it would wash the film of lubricating oil away. This shouldn't be a problem in a fuel injected car.

 

Jet-Hot coating is good stuff. It keeps the heat inside the tubes and less in your engine bay. On the Mild Steel header, it's a MUST in order to fight off the elements; on the SS304, it's less critical... but once header heat-cycles, it's going to cause discoloration of the tubing. Having it coated will keep the color consistent. On the high-temp coating, your color options are "Polish/silver" or "black". If i were to buy one, i would definitely coat it. It's well worth the $150, which is a discounted rate. Typical Jet-Hot coating is easily over $200 for a header.

Pls note, Jet-Hot is NOT the same as powder coating. Powder coating is not able to withstand the exhaust temp and will peel over time.

More info can be found here:
http://www.jet-hot.com/colorchart.html

 

Mike,

A group from SCMM took 8 MINIs to Bonneville last year.
Our setup in the pits for all 8 cars was quite a sight.

We were approached by a distributer for E85 and they offered to be a sponsor for our cars for this years event. They offered to supply us with all the E85 we needed to run the entire week at Bonneville and ship us enough fuel to tune the cars in CA, since we have no source in our area. They thought the idea of MINIs running E85 would be good marketing for them.

Because of the inability to get E85 and a way to tune the cars for the fuel we sort of forgot about the idea. But now that you have brought this up, and with the good Doctor living in our backyard, we may have to rethink this idea for the upcoming event.

We have a booth at AMVIV for both SCMM and Fantasy Racing Team (FART).
FART is our group of Bonneville racers within the club, this year we are trying to recruit more MINIs from outside the club to come participate at Bonneville.

Stop by and see us and we will show you all the info and pictures from last year. I will also pick up my 550s from you.

Bill

 

He is very correct - I had a custom header done for my VW - and had it Jet hot coated with their "Sterling" finish - it works very well, the header is cool to touch very soon after engine shut down. And even after a hard run the radiant heat is definitely less than when the stock manifold was on there.

Here's a before and after of the header.

 

Bling Bling.

 

Nice!!

*
1. Forgot to ask if the header would require any modification to the exhaust. For instance, my Invidia, would it just bolt right up to it, or would there be some cutting/shortening of my exhaust to make it work?

2. With this 200 cell cat, does it throw any codes?

3 .And just a basic idea for power, this header coupled with an exhaust, 15% pulley and intake would potentially net how much hp/tq....?

4. If I had the E85 tune running and couldn't locate a station with E85, and had to put in 93 octane, could I safely run 93 (if I don't get on the car hard), or would I be screwed? Just thinking about not having the ability to tote a laptop everywhere.

Thanks!

 

Very cool, Mike. Thanks for the reply.

Now I just have to decide between the MegaMynes header and Hubie's turbo header. I'd like to run a twin-charge for a while...there are lots of MINI-killers running around here.

 

Yep - for equal length primaries... makes a TON of difference in how the car performs (and sounds) - truly sequential flow of exhaust pulses vs. collisions in the collector yields smoother flow and more consistent pressures. I'm running "the other" equal length header - nice to see more options coming to market.

Wish I had the jetcoat... nice stuff!

 

I think people who get the tunes should get a cheap netbook ie. Dell Inspiron 9, EEE PC, Samsung A310. They are easily affordable and perfect for just loading maps and running googlemaps if you don't have a GPS. This is just a suggestion and its what I will be doing when I get tuned when I get out to PHX next march.

 

Partsman, if you want more power to compete with the boys, then i'd definitely suggest the good Dr's turbo manifold The twin-charge is a cool design and very quick (TULS TC Mini for instance can keep up with an E55 AMG pretty much, but that was on race gas), but i'm leaning towards the simple/practical single turbo setup. Keep an eye out for the upcoming turbo build that we'll be doing for the "Green Machine"... we are going to add a little twist to the mix and see how our turbo setup compares to the Garrett GT28/30r setups that have been done thus far on Kal's, Joel's, Brian's and Johnny's. Hubie likes the idea and wanted to give it a shot as well

 

If you're really ambitious you can do a car PC setup and have your engine tunes and all the driving "tunes" (ie music) readily at hand.