sales@fullflexint.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Do I need to run special oil, or change it more frequently?<\/strong><\/p>\n You should always use a grade of oil that meets or exceeds the engine manufacturers recommendations.\u00a0 There is nothing about the nature of Ethanol that would normally require special oils or to change them more frequently.\u00a0 If your driving habits are hard on oil, then you should use a high grade oil and\/or change it more frequently.<\/em><\/p>\n One of the things that can cause oil to require changing is a buildup of contaminants.\u00a0 The oil filter should always be changed at every oil change and that will help to keep particulate contaminants out of the oil but chemical contaminants will still accumulate.\u00a0 These contaminants come from the blow-by.\u00a0 During the power stroke, hot combustion gases will leak past the rings and valve seals.\u00a0 These gases are allowed to escape the crankcase through the PCV system but the oil will trap many of the chemicals that are present in these gases.\u00a0 For example, sulfur in the fuel will form sulfur oxides.\u00a0 These will gradually build up in the engine oil.\u00a0 When an engine is first started and not yet warm, water vapor from the combustion will also enter the crankcase and condense on the cold surfaces.\u00a0 The sulfur oxides combine with the water to form sulfuric acid.\u00a0 The ethanol part of E85 and E98 has NO sulfur or any other elements that would form harmful oil contaminants, so using E85 and E98 should reduce the rate oil becomes contaminated with such things.<\/em><\/p>\n Grit from the intake air can also enter your crankcase with the blow-by.\u00a0 Your choice of fuel will not change the amount of grit that is in the intake air.\u00a0 You should change your air filter when recommended or more frequently if you operate in dusty dirty conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n Oil dilution is rare, but can occur if an engine is running excessively rich.\u00a0 If your engine is in good working order, this will not be a problem whether you are using gasoline or higher blends of ethanol.\u00a0 Vehicles from 1996 will have level 2 on board diagnostics that will detect a rich condition and alert you with a check engine light.<\/em><\/p>\n Oil can breakdown due to heat and pressure between bearings.\u00a0 upgrading a vehicle to higher blends of ethanol can significantly increase its performance potential.\u00a0 If you make a habit of using this extra performance, you are placing your engine into a situation which will more quickly cause the engine oil to loose its lubrication.\u00a0 Note that this does not require street racing.\u00a0 If you find that your SUV is able to pull your boat up the mountain pass 10 MPH faster than before, you are spending an extended period of time with your engine at or near full-throttle.\u00a0 This is hard on ordinary oils and if you read most owner’s manuals, the manufacturer would classify towing as hard service and recommend more frequent oil changes.<\/em><\/p>\n What do we use in the FFI Hummers?\u00a0 These vehicles are using a full synthetic oil.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\nFirst<\/strong>, the increase in fuel efficiency will often pay for the difference in the cost of the oil.<\/em><\/p>\nSecond<\/strong>, we want our vehicles to stay in top shape and last a long time.<\/em><\/p>\nThird<\/strong>, while we don’t drive like maniacs, we do pull trailers and use these vehicle’s off-road capabilities and want an oil that will keep the engines lubricated properly.\u00a0 We think it is a good investment.<\/em><\/p>\n I’ve heard that Ethanol will harm my engine.\u00a0 Is this true?<\/strong><\/p>\n A definitive answer is, \u201cit depends\u201d.\u00a0 The 1973 oil embargo caused fuel shortages and prices rose dramatically.\u00a0 This spurred America to find both alternatives to gasoline and ways to extend the fuel supply.\u00a0 One thing that was noticed was that an engine could burn a mixture of alcohol and gasoline and the resulting product was called gasohol.\u00a0 There were a few problems that were encountered.\u00a0 First, the alcohol that was typically used was wood alcohol or methanol.\u00a0 Methanol is much more corrosive to many common materials than is ethanol and unfortunately most of the vehicles that were on the road in the 1970s were not designed to have alcohol in the fuel.<\/em><\/p>\n As a result, gasohol had a short duration on the market but congress was determined to reduce America’s dependence upon foreign oil.\u00a0 Tax incentives for the production of ethanol were established and there were several executive orders to use gasohol in the vehicles that could safely utilize it.\u00a0 In 1982, another fuel shortage occurred and it was obvious that alcohol blended fuels were coming.\u00a0 The manufacturers changed the engineering of the vehicles to be more chemically compatible with the presence of alcohol in the fuel.<\/em><\/p>\n Ethanol is a much better alcohol to use for fuel than methanol.\u00a0 For most materials, it is less corrosive, it has considerably more energy, and is also far less toxic.\u00a0 For several years, it has been common to blend ethanol into the gasoline supply.\u00a0 E10, a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline is available at many vendors.\u00a0 Blending a couple of percentage points of ethanol into the gasoline is not only common practice, but in many areas it is being required.<\/em><\/p>\n What we have found is that if your vehicle was manufactured in 1990 or later, the fuel system and engine were most likely made with materials that are not sufficiently reactive to ethanol to be a problem using Ethanol.\u00a0 If you have an older vehicle, you will need to investigate whether or not the fuel system can use ethanol.\u00a0 The most common material that was a problem is rubber.\u00a0 If you use Ethanol in a vehicle with rubber fuel system components, they will deteriorate fairly quickly and fail.\u00a0 This could cause fuel leaks and result in a significant risk of fire.\u00a0 If in doubt, older vehicles should have their fuel lines and fuel pumps replaced.<\/strong>\u00a0 Most auto parts stores should be able to supply you with the parts necessary to make this change.<\/em><\/p>\n Do I have to change my injectors?<\/strong><\/p>\n We have found that the stock OEM injectors on late-model engines work fine with Ethanol.\u00a0 Unless you are building a race car and need a high performance injector, the ones your engine already has should be OK.\u00a0 Ethanol is also an excellent cleaner and works to keep the injectors, fuel rails, and valves free of deposits, so you also do not have to have your injectors cleaned.\u00a0 The ethanol will do that for you.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nDo I need to change my oxygen sensors:<\/strong><\/p>\n If your engine is running fine on gasoline, your oxygen sensors are probably working well and you should not have to change them.\u00a0 Sometimes these sensors can be degraded through age and use and will not respond as well as they should.\u00a0 In this unlikely event, your engine’s computer will have difficulty making proper fuel trim adjustments.\u00a0 If you upgrade to Ethanol fuel and find that your engine runs fine with ethanol mixtures up to about 50% but has difficulty with 85%, the problem may be due to soft O2 sensors.\u00a0 A mechanic can diagnose whether this is the cause by examining the electrical response of the sensors.\u00a0 If an O2 sensor is found to not be responding as it should, they are easy to replace.<\/em><\/p>\nAre there any other sensors that need to be added or replaced?<\/strong><\/p>\n
All of the sensors that your vehicle was equipped with need to be in good operating order if your engine is to perform as it should.\u00a0 Some factory flex-fuel vehicles added an alcohol sensor to allow the computer to determine the alcohol content of the fuel but that practice was discontinued by all of the manufacturers of factory flex-fuel vehicles.\u00a0 Our conversion system does not require you to add any sensors.\u00a0 All computer controlled fuel injection systems monitor the oxygen sensors to determine if the proper fuel to air mixture has been achieved and will adjust the fuel trim to achieve the proper ratio.\u00a0 This allows the engine to adapt to varying fuel grades and prevents the engine knocking that was so common with the carburetor based systems.\u00a0 Our converter extends your engine’s built in ability to trim fuel.\u00a0 By extending this fuel trim range, our converter allows most vehicles to use any mixture of gasoline and ethanol without requiring any manual intervention.<\/em><\/p>\n What is the octane rating of E98?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are, of course, several variables such as the exact mixture of ethanol in the gasoline and the grade of gasoline used but Ethanol should result in an effective octane of approximately 105.\u00a0 It is very resistant to predetonation (knocking) and works very well in high compression engines.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n How much will my MPG be affected?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a lot of variables here.\u00a0 Ethanol has less chemical energy per gallon than gasoline.\u00a0 It burns more efficiently however, so while you will get fewer miles per gallon, you will get more miles per BTU.\u00a0 The increase in the burn efficiency will partially offset the difference in the energy levels of the two fuels.<\/em><\/p>\n Driving habits have a large impact on fuel economy.\u00a0 Running on Ethanol generally results in a noticeable increase in performance.\u00a0 If you make a habit of using the extra performance, you should not expect it to have a positive effect on your MPG.<\/em><\/p>\n This is definitely one of those \u201cresults will vary\u201d situations.\u00a0 Our customers have reported MPG differences generally ranging from 5% to 30% lower for E98 than when running on gasoline.\u00a0 Other than driving habit changes, the most common factor seems to be that the higher the engine’s compression ratio, the less the mileage loss.\u00a0 We have customers who claim their Toyota Prius will get essentially the same mileage on E85 but less with E98 as it did on gasoline.<\/em><\/p>\n If you are driving conservatively in an average car, you will probably see a 15 to 20 percent loss in mileage.\u00a0 If you are on the high end of the MPG loss of approximately 20%, then to achieve the same cost per mile, you should look for a 20% price differential between gasoline and E85.\u00a0 If the regular grade of gasoline is selling for 3.00 per gallon, you need a 60 cent differential in price and would look for E85 selling for 2.40 or less.\u00a0 In areas where E85 is readily available it may not be as easy to find E98 but we will try to assist you in the local market, there is often more than a 60 cent difference in the pump price.<\/em><\/p>\n Due to the high octane rating of E98 (approximately 120), it is an excellent alternative to buying premium, Methanol or nav gas for high performance engines.\u00a0 Premium is often 20 cents or more above the price of regular.\u00a0 If your engine needs premium, converting to E85 or E98 will be an even more attractive option.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nCan I use pure ethanol?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the US, the answer is no unless you want to pay the beverage tax.\u00a0 The highest concentration of ethanol that the US allows in fuel grade ethanol is 98%.\u00a0 The other 2% is gasoline, thus rendering it unfit for drinking but doesn’t really change it’s combustion characteristics.\u00a0 In 2007, the Indy 500 used this fuel.\u00a0 It has an octane of 120 and the performance you can achieve is phenomenal, especially in high compression, turbo, or supercharged engines.<\/em><\/p>\n It is difficult to find E98 for retail sale but is the concentration that will be loaded onto trucks when the ethanol leaves the production facility.\u00a0 If you don’t want to brew and distill your own fuel, you will need to talk to an ethanol distributor or blender to obtain E98.\u00a0 If you are running a race car and are paying for 105 octane gasoline, you will want to take a serious look at converting to E98.\u00a0 With this high an ethanol content in your fuel, you will want to adjust your converter to a higher setting, probably in the 8 to 10 range.\u00a0 This will enable easier starting and maximum power.<\/em><\/p>\n For the average individual running an ordinary vehicle, the performance difference between E85 and E98 is probably not worth the trouble but with an after makket Ethanol upgrade system, you can do so if you wish.\u00a0 We have tested E98 in both of our Hummers and in a 2003 Dodge Dakota with a 4.7 liter V8.\u00a0 The power increase is remarkable but remember, you didn’t upgrade your transmission…\u00a0 Driving hard is hard on the equipment.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nI’ve heard that it can be hard to start your vehicle on Ethanol in cold weather.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Some vehicles have more trouble with this than others but in general, it is true, even of factory flex fuel vehicles.\u00a0 Most of the reason has to due with the nature of the fuel.\u00a0 It is harder to start a cold engine on ethanol.\u00a0 The higher the percentage of ethanol, the sooner this will become an issue.\u00a0 One of the reasons you won’t normally see a blend of ethanol beyond 85 percent is that the 15% of gasoline helps with engine starting.\u00a0 Most E85 vendors in colder climates will down blend the product during the winter to approximately 70% content.\u00a0 In fact, if you read the fine print on some of the pumps, it will say, \u201cContains a minimum of 70% ethanol.\u201d\u00a0 This is a good thing since at 70% ethanol, cold starting issues generally disappear.<\/em><\/p>\n Fuel Trim<\/strong> \u2013 having the correct fuel mixture when starting is a big advantage.\u00a0 Many of the newer vehicles will remember the trim they were using when last shut off.\u00a0 If you have a vehicle that remembers its fuel trim, you will have fewer cold start issues.\u00a0 If your vehicle does not remember its trim, it must make some average assumptions, start the vehicle, and wait for the oxygen sensors to reach approximately 600 degrees before it can adjust the fuel trim.\u00a0 Our CFO’s 2003 Dakota is like this and will trim its fuel in approximately 45 seconds from a 60 degree (F) start.<\/em><\/p>\nUpgrade system<\/em><\/strong> adjustment<\/strong> \u2013 To have the ability to run either fuel without opening the hood and making adjustments, we ship the converter adjusted to 6 (see adjusting the converter).\u00a0 This setting works well for most vehicles and allows the vehicle’s fuel trim system to trim lean enough to run with gasoline and to trim rich enough to run E85, just by watching the oxygen sensors.\u00a0 Since E85 is not always available, it is important to be able to do this.\u00a0 If you always run E85 and are having some cold start issues, you can adjust the setting inside the converter to a higher (richer) setting.\u00a0 If you set it on 10, cold start problems will probably disappear but you will also probably get a check-engine light with a rich condition if you should run gasoline.\u00a0 If this happens, it will not harm your engine.\u00a0 Simply readjust to a lower setting.\u00a0 Once the rich condition is corrected, the check-engine condition should clear on its own.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Why is an engine harder to start on ethanol?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Vapor Pressure<\/strong> \u2013 The first difference in these fuels is that ethanol has a lower vapor pressure than gasoline.\u00a0 This means that while the cylinder head is below the boiling point of ethanol, gasoline will more readily vaporize.\u00a0 Since there is very little time from when the injector squirts the fuel to when the spark plug will attempt to ignite it, this can make for significantly less of the ethanol to have turned into a vapor than would have happened for the same amount of gasoline.\u00a0 Liquid fuels do not burn.\u00a0 To compensate for this, all engines will add extra fuel when starting as it is the fuel to air mixture OF THE VAPOR that matters.<\/em><\/p>\n Carbon-Carbon Double Bonds<\/strong> \u2013 Gasoline ignites more easily than ethanol.\u00a0 There are fundamental differences in the physical chemistry of these fuels.\u00a0 In order to start and then maintain a combustion chain reaction, you must have fuel as a vapor well mixed with oxygen and have sufficient kinetic energy (heat) in the molecules to destroy the existing molecular bonds in the fuel and reform bonds with the oxygen.\u00a0 Double bonds are easy places for an oxidizer to attack a fuel molecule.\u00a0 Because the double bond is easy to attack, it lowers the energy required to break the first bond when a fuel contains a double bond.\u00a0 Additionally, when conditions for combustion are marginal, the presence of double bonds in the fuel will enable combustion when it would otherwise not occur.<\/em><\/p>\n Gasoline<\/strong> \u2013 Gasoline is mostly a mixture of various alkylates, all of which contain a double bond.\u00a0 This prevalence of double bonds in the molecules of gasoline results in a low flash point.\u00a0 It is easy to ignite and is not very picky about the fuel-to-air mixture in order to maintain combustion.\u00a0 Of course clean combustion requires a correct mixture, but to have combustion at all (and get the engine started) you need only be remotely close.<\/em><\/p>\n Ethanol \u2013 <\/strong> Ethanol, C2H5OH, has no double bonds whatsoever.\u00a0 There is no easy attack point.\u00a0 For an oxygen to steal away any part of this fuel, it has to have significant energy or it will fail to break any of these bonds.\u00a0 Because of this, in order to have combustion, the conditions for must be closer to ideal than for gasoline with its abundant double bonds.\u00a0 Even with 15% gasoline, E85 has a much lower concentration of double bonds and is therefore harder to ignite.\u00a0 Increasing gasoline content to 30% provides an adequate concentration of double bonds to assist in sustaining combustion when conditions are poor. \u00a0This is why you will often see a 70% blend during cold winter months.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a9 2007Gary Ackaret FFI – All Rights Reserved<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frequently Asked Questions Does my engine have to be in perfect condition?\u00a0 My vehicle has a lot of miles on it; is it too worn out? A successful ethanol conversion should start with a car that has been properly maintained and is in good working order.\u00a0 High mileage is generally not a barrier so long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/e98racing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}