Setting up my Drag car on E85

[triplenickel]

What water temp were you leaving at & how much water temp did you gain by the time you hit the finish line?

[bigdaddy198]

No I found that problem the Torker intake on my motor had a 3" adapter from a spreadbore manifold to a Dominator flange. Well when I put the converted carb on it its a 1050 center section 4150 base so I had to change the adapter and being its a 1050 center I needed a open squarebore adapter well the manifold was set up to bolt a 4150 direct but I needed room to hook up my linkage set up and I needed to have the carb on at least a 2" spacer. Well that spacer was not a really good fit over the spreadbore hole about 1/8" on each side at the rear butterfly hole it just needed to be wider. I had went and got a even thicker gasket but once the fuel got on it it softened up and towards the last 2 passes it was sucking a bit of air. I found that out when I took the carb off today. I went and got a Spreadbore to a squarebore adapter it was only about 3/4" thick and I put the 2" squarebore adapter above that so all my linkage assembly and both fuelines and all fit just right. I spoke to John at Rocket Racing out of Wisconsin he built the motor from a bare block and he was aware that I wanted to convert it to the E85. He strongly suggested that I keep using a Accel
134 plug or a AR134 as the Olds heads are limited as far as plugs but these are great for my set up. So I ordered a new set they will be here in the morning. But I took the carb apart to check the jets and see for myself what was inside and it had 94's in the primary's and 104's in the secondary's so I dropped the secondary's back to 102's as I was told to keep a 8 jet spread between the front and back But heres the real Killer while we had the secondary bowl off I found a tiny piece of blue shop type paper towell in the hole in the rear jet and a small piece floating in the bowl. Apparently when we were cleaning the system the other night and getting all the 110 out of the cell my boy was using a couple blue shop towells to wipe out the fuel cell. So thats the reason its started stumbleing bad at the end of the day. I am putting new plugs in it in the morning and give it a go. Dang I love it when I figured out what my problem is and its not really costing me anything. Thanks Bean I will have a new set of AR134's in the morning and they are the short little plugs I will index them as my last ones were they were a little dark and not a light color some green on the tab on the bottom of the plug but I went to a 102 jet in the rear so it should be a bit leaner and get my speed up a notch but I cannot believe how close my first passes were on the times I am a happy Dude right now Bean. Thanks!!!

[bigdaddy198]

Oh and when I made my passes my temp was 155/160 in the waterbox 170@ the 1/8th with no fan on hit the fan switch come back up to hotlap it 170 in the waterbox with the fan on and 180@ the 1/8th and 175 by the time I was back in my pit area. Really sweet I will bet that jetting and lil piece of blue paper towell was messing with me but I got it handled now cleaned the filter on the Magna Fuel pump and its clean so it was something in the line when we done the cleanout simple fix. I love the E Bro I am very impressed now I just want to Jet it for speed and Go race.

[triplenickel]

Glad to see that you found your problem. I have the same carb as you do with a conversion from Justus. Mine has an 8 jet spread. Original set up was 90/98 for E85. I run it on a 461 BBC that's about 600 HP or so. I'm running E70 currently because that's the only grade available here in La. My jetting is at 87/95 for the E70 & I'm going to try dropping them 1 more number. I would like to say to anyone concerned about running E70.......don't be! Unless you have some radical set up, it works just fine!
I run AR135 plugs gapped @ .035

[bigdaddy198]

Wow thats great I was going to drop my jets to 92/100 but I did not want to go to lean on this but I too have a 461 BB olds and the 134's that are in it now were put in 3 years ago when it was built also gapped at 35. Looks like I may be able to step up and grow a set lean her down a bit and Git R Done. I have a big race this Sunday at our local track and as long as I can print out a steady ticket which I dont doubt one bit Then I can Focus on Footbraking this heavy Olds into the pay window as if I am having troubles with my Et's and cutting lites and something else I have to work on one problem at a time. Or I will just have a mental meltdown but all my other stuff is tight. So you can bet I will be cuttin lites in my sleep. First footbrake car I have raced in 20 plus years and when I am focused I can cut 00? Lites but I need to be on my Game thats all. But thats why I am here I know these guys are for real my last car was on E85 and just punched ticket after ticket. Jus gotta get my head on right!!!

[triplenickel]

Let's not jump the gun on going leaner. I like to go rich first just for safety's sake. If it doesn't respond positively to jetting up, then go the other way. Better safe than sorry! Keep going leaner until it falls off, then go back the other way some. I like to be slightly on the lean side of optimal. Consistency seems to be better that way for me. It's a little less sensitive to weather changes. I suggest trying it like it is, look at the plugs and go from there. When you get it right, you'll pick up little if any from day to night.

[bigdaddy198]

Very solid answer I first want to see how steady my numbers are then play with it. My wife has a Yukon thats a flexfuel vehicle she loves running the E35 snd E50 from a locsl truckstop near where we live. I run Renegade E85R its a bit more money almost half of what I was paying for good 110 octane but already the Renegade has totally impressed me. The car fired up on it like it was running on it since new. I ran Renegade E85R in my last car and it picked up about a tenth and a half over store bought E 85 but its not for everybody as you need to really store it like fine wine off the ground in a airtight drum I cover mine with a moving blanket to keep the temp from swinging very far to avoid condensation. But when your doing something your serious about you will go to extremes to do it well. I am truly glad to have gotten on this site and been pointed in a direction to succeed. You all are good at what you do and you dhare this its very cool as we all know nowadays its a lost art sharing Success
Its a good feeling when your banging your head trying to figure things out and you get a boost of confidence from another Racer. Very Cool I cant wait to get the next couple weekends under my belt so I can share my success or issues with you all. Thanks To Bean snd you Triple Nickel I appreciate your direction I know your pointing me in a good direction as I was there before but I bought my car then with the set up this time its my deal so it means alot to have folks who will help out. In the end we all do the same thing and I truly believe that any type of E fuel is probably the most complex blend of motor fuel made and if we can figure it out at the end of the day we are all better people for it. I just cant wait to make some more passes!!!!

[triplenickel]

Good luck and we look forward to hearing how it's going!

[butterbean]

sounds like you got it figured out and its doing good, like my buddy Nickel said its good to be a little fat on tune at first then slowly lean on it for safty, my old Buick ran AR25's or AR26's it just depended on what time of year it was, but the Buick was sold and I'm building a 1988 T-bird turbo coupe with a BBF and a T-400 tranny w/brake and a 9" 456 and 29.5x10.5x15 tires, already got my fuel system and 1050 E-85 dommy, just got done changing my whole engine combo from a 550 hp 429 to a 750 hp 460 with aluminum kasse heads so I can't wait to get it out to the track, keep us posted on your progress and Triplenickel will be a great help also, we all have taken a break from this site for a while but with some new guys maybe we will be chatting a bit more often and helping each other out. later Dude and nickel thanks for the input helping our new friend.

[bigdaddy198]

Sounds like a sweet build Bean I really appreciate you guys and your input. I will keep you posted and would like to hear how your project comes out as well thanks you and Triple nickel are pretty well versed in what needs to be watched. Its kind of like being a Mad scientist with a new science project. Anyways thanks to you guys your help is always welcome. Bigdaddy198

[bigdaddy198]

Ok guys one more thing when my car is put away during the week sometimes I fire it up during the week to work on it or go over things is it Ok to leave fuel in the bowls on the carb or shut the pump down and let it run out. I almost never do this and I did this week and when it fired up it was a blubbering mess. It was running very blubbery like really rich then I had my Magna Fuel Regulator hang up a few times and flood out the carb. I cleaned up the regulator it had some really small particles in it. But at the same time my floats on the carb started running higher. Once I got the Regulator cleaned up I then reset the floats in the carb as they seemed to high. It was running better by Dark but you know how neighbors can be and I did not want to push my luck. Also when I was cleaning and checking out the regulator the rubber gasket on the top of the Regulator seemed stiff and almost brittle its a black rubber that goes between the valve that sets the adjustment and the adjustment cup with the spring in it. Could the e85 have messed up that gasket if so then I know I messed up by letting it set without fuel in the system.

[bigdaddy198]

Well today was a real problem filled day. I went to our local track having a Big Bucks ET day. Well my first pass was a 11.165 @ 119 the car had a quick stumble at the hit but picked up down track. The next 5 passes were all on the 1/8th mile 4 test hits and round one of the finals. The 4 test passes were horrible popping bogging down blubbering and just plain running like crap. Then in the 1st round of eliminations I dial in a guess Dial in 7.11 she popped a bit and snorted but ran the 1/8th right on my Dial. After that it was a train wreck went 3 more round each one uglier than the last. I was trying everything I could in between round to figure out the problem. I could not even get a decent burnout without poppping and blubbering. I tried pulling both bowls inspecting the inside of the carb then pulled the filter off the pump. I ordered a spare element from summit last night but I wont see it until tuesday. I did find some small amounts of plastic pieces looks like drill parts from when the cell was put in. In the end I came home and plan on pulling the carb off and doing a pretty good cleanup and see what I can do about cleaning the rest of the system up. Also The guy at Summit Racing I called in a order last night for a new diaphram for my Regulator but he told me my Magna Fuel Pump Filter and Regulator is great for alcohol and race gas but nothing was said about e85. They suggested I call Magna Fuels Tech support line Monday to see what they say.

[butterbean]

if its good for alky its ok for E-85, to bad you had problems you just have to get it all cleaned out, I don't think it made your reg get hard but if there was any trash in your system the E-85 will clean it out and send it to the carb

[bigdaddy198]

Ok bean I ordered a new diaprham for my regulator and I have the filter on my Magna fuel pump should I run another filter between the pump and regulator and does it need to be a stainless filter. Also I was told not to run any type of foam in my cell is tthat true or should I put new foam in the cell. I am going to run some fuel thru my system and see if the carb picked up some dirt or crap in it I will pull the carb off I know its a fuel related issue I just dont know what to look at next. I reset my 4corner Idle screws yesterday at 1 turn out it seemed to straighten out for 1 pass but then went bad again. When I was done I dropped the pump down and pulled the filter out it had some small pieces of what looked to be like plastic from the cell but I could not be sure but I must have something in the carb still that I am not seeing.

[butterbean]

I did not remove my foam from the cell but I got rid of all my paper filters and put stainless steel, 1 filter before the pump and 1 before the carb, the ones I have are the cheap ones that come from jegs/summit they are only about 50. bucks each and do the job well, when they get dirty you just unscrew them and rinse out and put back no problems.... when adjusting your air fuel screws it only takes a 1/4 turn to make a difference so do it slow and be careful, let us know what happens and good luck.