I'm considering the purchase of a used Mini (2002) but would like to know how much work might be needed to allow the use of E85 fuel in it.

I'm looking for information on the construction of any components that come in contact with fuel in the fuel system and engine. It would also be nice to know if they are common to both engines or specific to either the naturally aspirated or supercharged powerplants.

 

Hmm...Bump.

I'm curious. I don't see myself wanting to do the conversion but curious what is involved.

 

Heard it's a lot of work. E85 doesn't do well with some metals and could be problems with rubber fuel lines and possibly some seals. At worst maybe redoing the fuel delivery system. Any authorities out there?

 

There is probably a re-program of the DME that would be required. Also, there may be a requirement for a better IC to further reduce the intake temperatures to avoid vapor lock on summer days. And as LEPRACHAUN posted, there will be fuel system re-engineering work involved. An E-85 conversion is not in the future for the current (R53) MINI. Even at a $5.00 differential between E-10 (MTBE replacement for "normal" gas) and E-85, the price differential doesn't recover the cost of a conversion.

 

Is DME the engine computer in the Mini? I think with properly upsized injectors and/or an increase in fuel pressure, the engine computer should be able to adjust the mixture rich enough to run properly on E85 but that is merely an assumption.

I'm not concerned about recovering the cost of the conversion with a fuel cost difference. In this area, E85 is almost always within a dime a gallon of unleaded. I'm more interested in tinkering and I believe ethanol is a great replacement for gasoline produced from foreign oil.

 

Yes. The problem you will have is re-programming the DME to run with the different fuel density of E-85. It is not as if you can just hook up a OBDII programmer to the DME and change some settings. If you could get MTH interested in the project, that would be your quickest path to a solution.

 

Jachristner check out this thread for for some more info. I would love to see this done, but I am sure this would be alot of work. Good luck.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=68114

 

Thanks. Great link! Hopefully I'll have more luck finding information now.