# webers and e85 ??



## EvilVR666 (Jun 6, 2003)

anyone running dcoe carbs and e85?
i am changing my plans mid build to go possibly go corn powered. i have a 1.8 8v and possibly wanna go e85 with weber 45's. Is there anything i need to change out in the carbs to run e85.
also if anyone is doing this already what kind of hp numbers are u getting along with your engine mods. 
also if it matters this will be a track car, may cruise to shows aswell.


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## wantacad (Apr 4, 2003)

I think I asked this exact same question years ago. :laugh:

From what information I was able to gather at the time (not many had tried it I guess) was that you were basically going to have to setup the carbs like they were meant to run alcohol. bigger jets, metal floats....etc


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## B4S (Apr 16, 2003)

It's a tough call, new blends of E85 are a LOT less corrosive than in the past. Even flexfuel vehicles run regular old oil now, instead of the specially formulated stuff they used to need. You'd need to get some E85 and plunk a spare set of floats/fuel lines/gaskets/etc in it to see if it degrades at all. A friend of mine did just that and apparently had no issues at all over a month's worth of soaking.

I'd love to run it in my dells, but there is only one corn pump in an hour's radius. As well, the specific gravity of E85 is different than gasoline, so you'd need to set the floats a bit differently since they'd sink less in the bowls.


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## EvilVR666 (Jun 6, 2003)

i have been curious about it ever since the alms teams started running it in the vettes. i know they had to change a bunch of stuff on the cars to run the corn juice.
I have a race fuel pump and a corn pump right down the block... :laugh:
maybe i will just go with good old pollution power.


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## bomberbob (Sep 19, 2004)

Ethanol isn't as corrosive as methanol. This is the second year I have been running E85 in my Jetta, but its megasquirted. I don't see a reason why you couldn't run E85 with carbs, as long as you jetted it out right. I had a friend who was driving a Firebird carbed/E85.
Running alcohol in the winter sucks, when it gets cold it doesn't want to burn (morning cold start). I went and filled up last night, 6 gallons of E85, 4 gallons of gasoline. Its the cocktail that gets me through the winter. There are others who are running exotic setups like Weeblebiker, mine is a daily driver.


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## B4S (Apr 16, 2003)

The issue with carbs is the material the floats are made out of. Holleys have many good conversion kits already done, so switching to the various blends of alcohol fuels is easy. I've considered a 2bbl holley just for that reason .

The early webers had brass floats, with soldered seams...and the new stuff is unknown to me. If it's nitrophyl, it'd be ok, but if it isn't...then it could become a very time-consuming carb cleanout .


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## EvilVR666 (Jun 6, 2003)

i think i will stick with 13:1 and gas...
too many unknowns.


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