Export thread

Just wondering ... for the future. Anyone run straight (90%+) ethanol in their Kohler? What parts were needed for the conversion?

I haven't seen anything that is that ethanol resistant in the lawnmower line of engines.

Drink it /sell it and try methanol .

Mower engines are jetted totally wrong for straight ethanol plus the stuff will eat rubber and gaskets and rust steel and must be stored in air tight containers. Gasoline is a solvent but not corrosive. Alcohols are corrosive.

Yardman999 said:

Just wondering ... for the future. Anyone run straight (90%+) ethanol in their Kohler? What parts were needed for the conversion?

Click to expand...

Where would you get straight ethanol? Why would you want to run straight ethanol? Why would you even think to ask about running straight ethanol? It is pretty much “fairly common” knowledge that even 15% ethanol will not run right and void warranty in small engines.

If, someday, gasoline is banned or just isn't sold widely. They are already talking about such in California.

Here (not anywhere near CA), ethanol (E85, E90) is already sold at one major gas station chain.

So, besides gaskets and carb rejetting, anything else? Timing affected? Fuel filter? Oil and filter would need changing more or less often, or a different type? Etc.

Aluminum is used widely in small engines (pistons, often blocks/cylinders/heads, etc.). Ethanol-combustion effects on them?

Seems like they would have already figured this out in Brazil, long ago. Anyone from there?

Parece que eles já teriam descoberto isso no Brasil, há muito tempo. Alguém de lá?

South Africa did it during the BS embargo years
Ethanol burns slower , needs a higher compression ratio to burn fully and bigger jets ( lots bigger ) because it is not as energy dense .

Some of the hot rod guys run E-85 & claim tuned properly get much more power.

Some go cart classes run straight alcohol. They can get more power than gas because alcohol has a high octane rating around 113 plus it runs cooler than gas but you need something like a 14:1 compression ratio to take advantage of the octane rating. So running high alcohol content fuel in an engine designed for gas or a "flex" fuel engine is a waste. No matter how you "tune" the engine and advance the timing and dump fuel in all it will do is get lower MPG. No matter what the internet says. If an engine has a variable boost turbo it's a different story.

So ... new piston{s} (and rings; or milled head{s}) would be needed. So far, seems do-able. Conversion kits already available?

7394 said:

Some of the hot rod guys run E-85 & claim tuned properly get much more power.

Click to expand...

You get more power but you burn more fuel.
The extra power comes from being able to run higher compression ratios

Yardman999 said:

So ... new piston{s} (and rings; or milled head{s}) would be needed. So far, seems do-able. Conversion kits already available?

Click to expand...

And a forged or steel rod
Both will require rebalancing of the engine
Not too expensive for a buggering around project
Get a racing head if one is available as they have a squish band designed to burn dope .

bertsmobile1 said:

You get more power but you burn more fuel.
The extra power comes from being able to run higher compression ratios

Click to expand...

Yes very true. Ones I know are running boost (TC),...

Hammermechanicman said:

Some go cart classes run straight alcohol. They can get more power than gas because alcohol has a high octane rating around 113 plus it runs cooler than gas but you need something like a 14:1 compression ratio to take advantage of the octane rating. So running high alcohol content fuel in an engine designed for gas or a "flex" fuel engine is a waste. No matter how you "tune" the engine and advance the timing and dump fuel in all it will do is get lower MPG. No matter what the internet says. If an engine has a variable boost turbo it's a different story.

Click to expand...

Yea definitely boosted..

Just to put it in perspective when we raced the 500CC BSA we were using AMAL main jets from 495 down to 420
A standard petrol engine ran 190 to 240 so better than twice as much fuel And from memory ( 50 years ago ) we ran 15:1 to 17:1 .
My diesel runs 22:1
And like everything else for speed . high lift cams that had the profile of a house brick , twin plugs and we had to run a cold plug for 10 minutes to warm the engine before we switched to the racr plugs.
Fun times but we did spend a **** load of money for no net rewards other than broken bones and serious gravel rash .

bertsmobile1 said:

Fun times but we did spend a **** load of money

Click to expand...

Fun has gotten lots more expensive.. LOL