Honda Prelude Forum : Honda Prelude Forums - Forced Induction

e85 Demystified: Why you should be burning e85 in your FI and NA Preludes!

playludesc — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:21:54 GMT

e85 is an amazing fuel. Let's break down why:

It has more oxygen in it than gasoline, much more. This allows you to get more oxygen in the combustion chamber than you normally would. Even though this oxygen is bonded to the rest of the ethanol molecule before combustion, it's still burned in the cylinder, just like nitrous. The stoichiometric ratio of e85 is approximately 9.6:1 and gasoline's is approximately 14.7:1, so not only do you have more fuel to burn, but more oxygen, too! This is why most cars will make 15-20% more power on e85 than with even the highest octane race gasoline. (Chemically, the most power you could make would be 27% more than gasoline, but that's hard to reach due to other restrictions).

It reduces intake air temperatures four times more than gasoline when injected into the air fuel mixture at proper air-to-fuel ratios. This is because alcohol requires more energy to evaporate than gasoline does and you're also injecting about 35% more of it into the air fuel mixture than you are with gasoline. To prove this to yourself, imagine (or actually do it, safely!) dipping your fingers in gasoline and placing them in front of a fan. Your fingers would get pretty cold. Then imagine dipping your entire hand in alcohol and placing it in front of the same fan, it would get much, much colder.

e85 has an American octane rating of approximately 105, but the American test for octane rating (MON) uses a preheated air-fuel mixture at 300 degrees! This means that they inject e85 into the air and then heat that mixture to 300*F. This is why the commonly known octane rating of 105 is innacurate for e85. Preheating the air-fuel mixture doesn't accurately model intake temperatures that are so significantly lowered by e85 in real world applications. Because of the heat-lowering effectiveness of e85, it's more accurate octane rating is between 112 and 118. Because of this you can run higher compression, more boost, or both!

It burns faster than gasoline. At a 1:1 air fuel ratio, gasoline burns at 26cm/sec and ethanol burns at 41cm/sec. As you lean the air-to-fuel ratio, Ethanol continues to burn faster than gasoline. This is a major advantage over gasoline because it allows you to use more retarded ignition timing while still extracting maximum power out of the fuel. Retarded ignition timing is good because it allows you start the powerstroke later and harness the mechanical advantage the rod has on the crank as it's tilted rather than directly above crank. This also significantly reduces the shock the piston, rod and crank experience when the explosion happens before or during top dead center.

In our cars it lowers oil and water temperature about 15*F and exhaust gas temperatures by 200*F! A colder engine is a longer lasting one!

Because of government subsidies, it's cheaper! Also, depending on which propaganda you believe, it's probably not as bad for the environment as you thought and it lessens dependancy on foreign oil!

Sources:
http://e85forum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7&sid=6841bd34822db6e2e80eaaa4 863228f0

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=188508

http://www.osbornauto.com/octane.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous

http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1701028

Balance Shaft Removal Questions

timoram — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:46:40 GMT

I am in the process of building up my new motor for some big power numbers.
I have heared from many that deleting the balance shaft is a good idea.

Why is this beneficial?

The car will have no a/c or power steering in it as it is being build with all out performance in mind.

Any insight here would be greatly appreciated.

Tim

LHT Supercharger Intercooler

playludesc — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:26:35 GMT

Alright, guys, I think I'm gonna buy it. I didn't want to do this until later, but if that thing can really get my IATs down to 105 degrees, I freaking want it--right meow. I'm going to e-mail them and get pictures of it installed in our bay, and if they can supply them, I'm going to buy it. In the supercharger thread there was mention of a group buy, the terms of which I hope still stand. Is anyone else ready to pull the trigger on this?

Here's LHT's site on the thing.

Here's a success thread of it on a B-Series.

turbo manifold help!!!!

marquise96 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:05:33 GMT

ok i have a fully built h22 lookin to make about 600hp who makes a good manifold for a t4 twin scroll and what is the best one to get or have made top mont bottom mount side winder this is a street/strip car and i dont want to spend over 1000 bucks and yes i have looked and can find any thing good and i have seen the AIF manifolds but i can find there number any where

HOW TO: Cheap Turbo Kit

Prudz_lude — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:08:55 GMT

I've been wondering this for a long time, how difficult could it possibly be to piece together an UBER cheap turbo kit. BUT using quality parts. I am thinking used, from a junkyard, OEM turbo parts. What i'd like to do with this thread is have as many people post up parts of turbo cars that can be found in scrap yards to create a turbo kit. The turbo has to be big enough to spool an H22.

DSM injectors can be found for pennies at most junkyards. I was thinking an intercooler from an srt4 neon could be pretty easy to find. The 2g bov's from the talons would work as well. What other cars can you guys think of for an ultra cheap OEM turbo setup. Just brain storming.