how do i find an e85 station around me? do you just drive around and look for one. i dont leave my little area too often and stay within a 60 mile radius if i do leave.

 

Check out this link for info on where you can get E85 fuel . . .

http://www.e85fuel.com/database/search.php

NTHUSIAST

 

NTHUSIAST, thanks for the link.

 

AGAIN....people....Do not use E85 at all....Here is the link to the TSB from MINI on the use of ethanol

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/11412...106/index.html

Though 10% will not void warranty ....It WILL change drivability....and WILL over time have the exact same effect on fuel system components as E85. by 100k miles you will have fuel system problems

 

10% is pretty common to the point of, the only game in town, around here anyway.
It will change your fuel mileage, drivability - maybe, effect on fuel system components - E85 is a yes - E10 would take many years. Dead gasoline has a much more damageing effect. For removing dead gas crap from carbs & tanks alcohol works great, it does leave a white soot that is easily cleaned.
BMW, in planeguys link, is is saying they won't take responsibility for those who run E85 and rightly so. That's not to say that running a couple gallons of E85 is going to turn your engine into junk. That just won't happen. You may have a CEL and for sure the fuel mileage will suck but that's about it, cold weather might effect starting ( remember there is 15% gas ). To do a conversion at this time would NOT be a good idea since there are few E85 pumps, 92 miles for me, infact there are no E85 pumps in New England accept NY and it is just not efficent enough to run in our cars ( the DME would need a therapist ).... even if it were half the cost. You may only go 40 miles on 2 gallons..
All in all, I'd still like a couple of gallons to try. Maybe I'll go to over to the 44 & buy a gallon of "Jack" or "Jim" mix in some VP no lead with it and.....

 

Politics always seems to pop up. I'm not trying to get everyone to support E85 fuels and switch their car over to it. It may or may not prove to be a viable fuel in the future. Either way, I'm interested in experimenting with it in the present.

That said, I'm looking for specific information on the fuel system. What components are incompatible with ethanol? I'd like to have a rough estimate of the cost involved in purchasing ethanol-compatible replacements before I dive into the project.

I'm actually looking at an '02 Cooper S so information relevant to the supercharger, intercooler and other components specific to the S would be great.

This gentleman has had good success running a stock Subaru WRX on high percentages of ethanol with gasoline.

 

Mugami posted this cool link in the "M62 SC on the Mini is reality" thread. Just thought you guys might be interested.

http://www.obvio.ind.br/obviona/012.htm

This car has a 1.6L Tritec engine that they say can run on 100% ethonal or 100% Gas. Pretty Cool

 

It looks like the engine in that vehicle is more or less the same one used in the Mini. Makes me wonder if the only parts incompatible with ethanol are those upstream of the engine that were designed by BMW. Perhaps a new fuel tank, pump and supply lines would make it compatible. Any thoughts?

 

I think the key component is the chip or ecu or whatever makes the timing decisions for the MINI. That system would include the knock sensor. Your problems with fuel lines and gas tanks should be minor compared to getting electronics which work. As for internal parts, I think the ethonal will make everything else run cooler . . . if you get the engine control system to work.

The other key thing about the electronics is that you may be able to get more power out of the fuel by taking advanage of the high octane. That may also require a different head or pistons.

I think you would need a software partner to work with you. Or the engine manufactuer. Since our engine is made in Brazil and they use lots of ethanol . . . perhaps you need to get a contact going with them. Maybe you could get a brazilian half cut and do a cool MINI mod!

 

From what I've learned on an E85 forum I visit, some engine computers are able to adjust rich enough to supply the engine enough fuel on ethanol. The one example I can recall from memory was a late-model Dodge Dakota with a 5.2L V8. (http://e85forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=...akota&start=15) Those that aren't can be helped with larger injectors and/or increased fuel pressure to allow them to run rich enough without modifying the computer. However, if you enlarge/raise those too much, you lose the ability to run pure gasoline because the computer can no longer adjust lean enough to get the proper gasoline ratio.

If the modifications are as minor as replaceing the fuel tank, pump and lines, I'd be able to test with different blends of gasoline and E85. It also depends on how the computer uses the fuel trims during open-loop operation.

But the first step is replacing anything that isn't impervious to ethanol and I still haven't seen anything conclusive on exactly what will need to be replaced

 

Are MINIs available in Brazil? I know the motor was originally designed there so like jachristner said, the motor itself is probably able to handle the alcohol, just the fuel system and enegine management aren't.

 

Hawaii would be a perfect place to start alt. fuels.
1) You can't drive out of state.
2) Most of the old cane fields haven't been turned into timeshares, YET!

 

well since you are so confident why don't you give it a try and let us know if it works out?

 

See post 48.

 

I've read that ethanol can't be shipped using pipelines as gasoline is because it will absorb water. It would have to be shipped using tank trucks and trains. That would seem to give local suppliers an advantage since they wouldn't have to spend as much on transportation and should help the local economies.

I e-mailed the Tritec division of DaimlerChrysler and this is what the representative had to say.

So it would seem that while ethanol will wear the engine more than gasoline would, it's not a significant change. I'll have to ask him to more clearly define 'very high' engine mileage to get a better idea but it would seem to be at least over 100,000. Of course the fuel tank, pump and supply lines would need to be checked for ethanol compatibility and the ECU may or may not have enough built-in adjustment to provide sufficiently rich mixtures for operation on ethanol. But an E85 conversion does look like a reasonable possibility.

 

I'm actually converting over my supercharged '99 Mustang GT to E85 so I've been doing months of research on this stuff. I eat sleep and breathe ethanol now, in trying to complete the conversion. There's way too much data to even begin to start spewing on this forum. But here's the basics worth mentioning.

For my Mustang it's requiring 20% more fuel at part throttle (and boy does my gas gauge show it!) and supposedly about 40% more fuel at WOT. Since it requires so much more fuel, the stock fuel system was already maxed out with my supercharger and other mods, meaning I can't do WOT runs until I upgrade the fuel pump, fuel lines, injectors, fuel rails, and every fitting in between.

I assume the Mini is similar in that you need to ensure the fuel system can pump that much extra demand. If the injectors are asking for X amount of fuel, and the restrictions only feed 80% of X amount to the injectors, you're going to go LEAN when you open up the throttle. It's imperative to make sure the fuel system can keep up with demand.

That's where it gets costly. In trying to source all the bigger fuel system parts on the mustang, the price tag is easily creeping over $1000 just in injectors, rails, fittings, and pump. Not to mention the special tuning in the ECU to add more fuel to the fuel tables.

I don't trust these products on the market that just plug inline with your injectors. The FlexTech people won't tell me what exactly is being performed in side the box to adjust for more E85. (Too propietary I guess, and they don't want me to know how simple the calculation is for such an expensive box)

Anyway, to make a long story short, don't dump E85 in your MINI. She's going to go Lean for sure, and we all know that lean works great on your wife and your grilled chicken, but not on the internal combustion engine....

 

actually :(

it costs more than gasoline as it is inefficient. Also, it is cheaper because of laws asissting it, and gasoline is expensive because of oil people owning the governments worldwide.

gasoline is really a LOT cheaper to make than ethanol, just that its so old and corrupt, that it appears to be similar in cost. Will there be enough corn to have this fuel the US? thats a lot of freakin corn.

WOudl be awesome if it could be done without losing power anywhere.

 

I'm not familiar enough with the Mini's SC engine management to know if it is able to adjust boost pressure on the fly or not. I do know that Saab makes a turbocharged flexfuel vehicle that develops more power on E85 than gasoline while maintaining city economy and actually improving highway economy. The engine is able to increase boost while burning alcohol and therefore take advantage of the higher octane and latent heat of vaporization of alcohol.

I'm not interested in alcohol because it's cheaper. In fact, in my area, it's normally the same price as 87 unleaded if not more expensive. My interest is based on the fact that the fuel can be produced in this country, thus reducing dependency on foreign oil, and it burns cleaner.

 

Im trying to find out if there's any performance to gain by using E85.

First of, offcourse you shouldnt use it without a proper setup with new injectors, upgraded fuelpump, replacement of the parts in the fuelsystem which arent compatible with E85 and switching your oil to one that wont react with the E85.

The SAAB 95 biopower gains 20% in horsepower and torque by using E85 instead of regular 93 fuel.

E85 has an octane of about 105, hence you can use more boost or use an engine with higher compression on the E85 compared to regular 93.

I dont know if you would get the same effect improvment on a properly rebuild and mapped MINI. If you could, it might be worth the trouble, as you would use simmilar setup to racegas, for daily driving.

 

Anyone run E85 in their MCS yet?

 

^The are a number of guys (and girls) running E85 on their minis. The Mynes guys tune for it and get approximately another 20hp from it

 

That's a pretty nice gain, considering the displacement and turbo size. What do the torque numbers look like?

 

R53's don't know if they have tuned any R56's yet with E85

 

Oh.

Did the R53's have to change out their fuel line and get a better fuel pump? As well as injectors?

 

No the R53 fuel pump is good, no change in fuel lines - just bigger 550cc injectors