Hi all I'm new posting here but am not new to the site. I have been doing some research into running ethanol in my lt80. From what i have read the biggest change will be the jets, they need to be bigger. Has anyone atempted swiching over to ethanol? If so any advise you have with the system changes would be apprciated. thanks Ben

 

The very first thing you would have to do is ditch the stock petcock and put in a Banshee one in it's place. I personally would also swap over to a carb that has an adjustable air screw. With alky you need the ability to fine tune and that carb doesnt really have what you need. You can drill the needle jet and main jet and do the conversion, but I think a better carb to start with would do you better in the long run.

 

the stoichiometric air:fuel ratio (the chemically correct ratio) for straight ethanol is almost half that of gasoline (9:1 vs 14.6:1). that's where the power advantage comes in - more energy bearing fuel for a given amount of air. consequently, you'll need correspondingly bigger fuel passages all around (mains, pilot, needle, ...).

the other thing to be aware of is that neat ethanol (100% pure) is very corrosive to aluminum. plan on draining and purging the fuel system after ever ride.

 

To give a better answer: My question is, why would you want to do this?

 

Hey thanks for all the advice so far.
THe stock petcock, would it not leave enough fuel through? And would the banshee petcock bolt on or need some modification?
Would you recommend getting the carb from sudco or somewhere else?
What parts of the fuel line and engine contain aluminum? I know that the cylindar head is aluminum but the sleeve is steel right?
I would like to do this mainly for the power advantage the other reason is that I'd just like to learn more about it.
ben

 

I see. There are several things I would worry about doing this.

#1 would be fuel flow. As Geo pointed out, stoichio is about 1/2 as much so your going to need about twice the fuel flow. This does not seem like a problem, but it might be. Sure, you can put in big jets and fatten it up but what about internal passages in the carb? Are they big enough? I don't know? Maybe; maybe not? When things get lean, thing get ugly!!!! Something to think about.

#2 is the purge deal. Alky turns to jelly in humid weather. It falls in love with water!!! So it is a good idea to purge with gasoline after every ride.

#3 is the corrosion deal. Bad stuff. It can really eat things up.

I'm not trying to talk you out of this. Just want to make sure you know all the facts. Good luck with your project.