i live in rural midwest where most places have ethanol, it has a higher octane rating and its cheaper, i was wondering if ethanol is okay to use in my '67 dart's /6?
thanks!

Is it pure ethanol? If so, you will need to jet the carburetor richer (ethanol has less energy content per gallon, thus requiring a richer mixture). Other than that, there's no changes required.

My grandfather ran his '66 300 on 'gasohol' 30/70 but he had to jet it richer to make it work. There are some things to look out for when running alcohol, shiftless covered a few points.

richer jetting, alcohol has an affinity for water so if it stand long enough it may hold enough water around to rust your gas tank. Pure alcohol actually takes heat away from the surrounding environment when it burns so you'll have to figure out how to keep your head and intake warm (my grandfather ran a heated intake on his 'experiment').


Someone who's done more of this will have some better suggestions, wish my grandfather was still around he'd be able to tell you more about it.

-D.Idiot

You can still run alky on 8.x:1 compression?

its less then 50 percent ethanol(i forget if its 10, 20 or 30%, maybe all three but at different palces....) would i still need to jet the carb higher? or use it and see how it runs?
thanks

You need to jet the carb richer, because it will run lean until you do. In regards to the heat issue, I forgot about that - ethanol doesn't burn as hot as gasoline, so you can't rely on engine heat heating up the intake manifold and atomizing the fuel mixture. This can result in fuel condensation in the intake manifold, poor atomization, and poor running. This is only a 30% mixture though, so you shouldn't have to worry about this problem too much. If your gas tank is old and rusted this would be a good time to have it removed, dipped, and coated. This will cost you $150-$200 but your gas tank will come out looking like brand new, and you won't have to worry about it rusting.

The ethanol mix here in the Midwest is 10%, or so they say.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Just 10%? Hell, forget it- you can run that stuff just like any other gasoline, without rejetting. There's not enough alcohol there to make a difference.

i saw 10% today but i think ive seen a bit higher....i had to drop and clean the tank in april as it had been sitting 8-9 years....

The midwest also has a fuel Called E-85, 85 is for 85% alcohol... there are newer cars produced that can use strait gas or E-85... they have been modified to allow computer control to adjust for the differnt fuel types...

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Mike C
http://cuda.iclownz.com
67 - Barracuda Coupe - 225 - Automatic

Previous comments about jetting are correct with ethanol. Using ethanol mix fuels reduces CO and NOx emissions. That's why it's being pushed in some places (they mix "oxidizers" into the fuel in my area -- it's an alcohol derivative).

For a slant, I can't see any advantage to running ethanol, unless it's available and CHEAP. Higher octane doesn't mean higher power -- as has been pointed out you need to burn more of it to get the same result (i.e. larger jets).

What higher octane does allow is higher compression. Now, if only we could get a slant to 12:1 or higher I suppose with enough boost from a turbo...

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My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

As far as the enviroment is concerned - Ethanol is better to burn in your car, but it makes way more polutants than gasoline when it's made.

Joe

Just curious, why do you say so? I didn't think the fermenting process put out too many pollutants, but I could be wrong.

It does produce a lot of byproduct... but good ones.. here is some info.
http://www.environment.ky.gov/nrepc/lan ... thanol.htm

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Mike C
http://cuda.iclownz.com
67 - Barracuda Coupe - 225 - Automatic

its much more easily available and i wanted to make sure it was okay to run in my car....its also cheaper....
thanks to everyone for their input....