E15 is coming!

[85_Ranger4x4]

My son has a 302 swapped 84 Turbo Coupe that originally ran an Edelbrock. He told me how well he liked it so we swapped carbs for a week. Compared to my Holley the throttle response was soggy and that Friday night at New England Dragway my Mustang ran .3 seconds slower. .3 seconds doesn't sound like much unless you've drag raced and tried to shave tenths off your time. 3 tenths is huge, I lost a race once by .002 seconds. The Edelbrock started fine and ran smooth- so did the 2150 I removed when I built the engine. I got the Holley calibration where I wanted it and haven't changed anything since I built this engine in 2009.

Yeah, I don't do that.

The thing your Holley sits on and the thing my Edelbrock sat on were built to do two extremely different things.

I did mull a Truck Avenger for a little more peace of mind off camber but since my Edelbrock had yet to faulter that was a $800 pill that was hard to swallow. And then I would still have to screw with it for elevation changes... but it would be more of a PITA to screw with than the Edelbrock.

I am going EFI now which should be better at everything I do than a carb while drastically simplifying the ignition.

 

[superj]

the best carb i ever ran for anything that tilted the vehicle to odd angles was a rochester quadrajet. the other quadrajet makers were troublesome but the rochester made ones were really decent. i smoothed the throat of the casting marks and tuned them with a vacuum gage and never had trouble again with the rochester versions

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

the best carb i ever ran for anything that tilted the vehicle to odd angles was a rochester quadrajet. the other quadrajet makers were troublesome but the rochester made ones were really decent. i smoothed the throat of the casting marks and tuned them with a vacuum gage and never had trouble again with the rochester versions

I've heard good things about those and the 2150 2bbls.

I blocked the crossover between the bowls and never had mine leaning enough to bother... but it was always in the back of my mind.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

To get back to the questions in the OP:

Several years ago other auto forums had a lot of scaremongering from people who seemed to think that the feds were in a conspiracy to replace E10 with E15 in pumps without changing labeling or anything else at the pump. Keeping the E10 label on the pump, but actually dispensing E15, would be illegal under state and federal laws about that labeling, but the scaremongers didn't mention that. No one actually looked at the EPA website, which made it plain that E15 was for those vehicles that could use it and it would not replace E10. In other words, as is usual with garbage rumors like this, no one actually checked on the reality.

You see E15 mainly in pumps that dispense 88 octane at a lower price because of the ethanol price supports. Sheetz stations out my way typically have 87–octane E10 and 88–octane E15 at the same time, and they post prices for both. Because of fuel volatility from the extra ethanol adding to air pollution, E15 was not approved for sale in the summer months. All the EPA has changed is to propose allowing E15 to be sold in those months.

E10 will still be available. Like most of you, my Ranger says not to go above E10, so I won't be using E15. Let me warn you to watch for stations that change all labeling to E15, as there's been a claim of a station in Massachusetts that has done that (but no pictures or brand identification, so I'm suspicious of the claim). If you see that, go to another station to get your fuel to get E10. I'm not worried about any such thing happening out my way, though.

 

[19Walt93]

Yeah, I don't do that.

The thing your Holley sits on and the thing my Edelbrock sat on were built to do two extremely different things.

I did mull a Truck Avenger for a little more peace of mind off camber but since my Edelbrock had yet to faulter that was a $800 pill that was hard to swallow. And then I would still have to screw with it for elevation changes... but it would be more of a PITA to screw with than the Edelbrock.

I am going EFI now which should be better at everything I do than a carb while drastically simplifying the ignition.

The nearly identical Holley on the 351 in my Ranger works great, too. The secondary spring is stiffer than the Mustang to delay opening a little. The Ranger engine is the first one I've ever built running the oem camshaft.

 

[Li'l Work Truck]

...The 351 in my Ranger...

 

[19Walt93]

View attachment 141739

 

[cbxer55]

And there it is. LMAO!!

 

[cbxer55]

A few years ago, I was experimenting with E85. Wanted to find out how tolerant my 98 Ranger is to ethanol. The math says that one gallon of E85 is 5%. I ran as much as four gallons, 20%, in a tank, more than once, and the truck just skedaddled down the road with not a single complaint. I was also experimenting with putting a half gallon in the tanks of my three bikes, which is also around 20%. Not a one of my three bikes complained about it. Would I do it long term? Nope. It was just a silly experiment.

It should be said that I use Marvel Mystery Oil in all my vehicles, at a ratio of one ounce per gallon. Over all the years I've been riding and driving, I'm 65, I have never had to adjust one single valve on any of the multiple vehicles I've owned. This incudes two Honda CBXs, which are air-cooled DOHC four valve per cylinder, six-carburated inline sixes, that required valve adjustments every 3750 miles. Put 66,000 miles on my 1981 CBX, never adjusted a single valve in 16 years. Never had to sync the carbs once.

Don't know if that made a difference in the use of 20% ethanol.

 

[ranger man'02]

View attachment 141761

the exhaust manifold bothers me so much besides that thing is clean

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

the exhaust manifold bothers me so much besides that thing is clean

Being wider than a 302 289 manifolds are a common trick for cramming a 351W into a RBV chassis.

It is suspiciously clean.

 

[Li'l Work Truck]

View attachment 141761