A couple of months ago, back in the Aug. '06 issue, I tickled your brains to think about E85 alternative fuel. Why this bothers me so much is that I built one of the first pump-gas race engines back in 1996, and it's still running today in my Super Gas Roadster. It's been fed with a steady diet of 92, and now it's always loaded with 91-octane pump gas. The thought that we could buy 105-octane fuel from the pump really got me going. I contacted Tim Wusz, the chief fuel engineer for Rockett Brand racing fuels. Tim and I go a long way back and I knew he would know the inside skinny on the fuel. The major problem with the E85 right now is distribution and supply. There are no retail E85 outlets in California, which is in contrast to the availability in the Midwest. I found through the Web site e85fuel.com that states like Minnesota have more than 200 retail outlets. Currently 35 states have E85 outlets, but in some states the fuel is for private fleets-no public access.
The biggest issue of the fuel is cost. Tim said that recent prices for railcar quantities on the Gulf Coast were over $3.00 per gallon! That is without the state, federal, and sales tax where applicable. The largest use for ethanol currently is to replace the MTBE additive required for Reformulated unleaded gas. As more states outlaw MTBE (currently 15), the price of ethanol will go up. We will need many more plants producing ethanol to bring the price down to where it makes sense.
Will we ever have E85 to play with? Well, I sure hope so. As the consummate gearhead, I can't stop thinking about all the different engine combinations I'd like to build. One example would be the L-99 Gen II small-block. If this engine doesn't sound familiar it's because it was the 4.3L 265 V-8 that was built for the Caprice in '94 and other B-car platforms and ran through '96. It's a mini LT1 with reverse-flow cooling and sequential fuel injection. These ran very well for their small displacement, and with the reverse-flow cooling system stuffing cool water into the cylinder heads, you could really kick up the compression. Also, being built on standard Gen II small-block architecture, the engine components are completely interchangeable. The engine has standard '55 265, bore stroke of 3.75x3.00-inch specs, but uses a very long 5.940 connecting rod to share with 305 pistons. For the new-age hot rodder, you have the EFI that you can change injectors and calibrate for the E85. For us old-school dudes, you could go with the GMPP carbureted inlet manifold for the Gen II LT1s and a distributor.
I think as technology catches up with demand, the price will come in line. Pockets of the country have it now at affordable prices. If you guys want to send me out a truck load, I'd love to build an engine to drink it. I like mine shaken rather than stirred.
Kiss And Tell!
Q I recently built up a small-block Chevy. I fired it up in the garage and it ran great. I had to tear it back down for other reasons, but I noticed the intake valves kissed a couple of the pistons. We had the cam advanced, and I was wondering how much valve-to-piston clearance I will gain by moving the cam from 4 degrees advanced to heads-up.Ouch!
A It's not a good sign when the valves hit the pistons from just starting the engine in the garage! It must be one wild camshaft with stock valve reliefs in the pistons. Luckily, your engine did the kiss-and-tell from your little start-up. If they cleared on the start-up they would have surely kissed at higher engine speeds. This would have lead to the head of a valve leaving its stem, causing very serious engine failure!