Question: Way of the future fuel !

[killain]

I was wondering about this the other day so I'll ask now. The way gasoline is going , Up Up . . . Would you ever consider converting your vette to run on natural gas or be converted to be flex/fuel E-85 powered? Just wondering?:bash

 

[twiget]

Converting a car to natural gas is a pretty big undertaking. Your now storing a compressed gas, and moving a compressed gas. As far as I know, even though natural gas burns cleaner, it does not provide the same power as gas, so you would have to carry and burn more of it to get the same mileage and performance.

E85 is an involved conversion too, but I think it is a lot easier to do than a natural gas conversion. It does not provide the same power or mileage as gas either (but it is a better alternative fuel source than natrual gas), but Team Corvette is running E85, and ALMS allows them to carry extra fuel to make up for the lack mileage.

In short, I would consider buying a purpose built Flex Fuel vehicle, but I would probably not convert a standard gas powered car to E85 with out a lot of research.

Jason

 

[killain]

Converting a car to natural gas is a pretty big undertaking. Your now storing a compressed gas, and moving a compressed gas. As far as I know, even though natural gas burns cleaner, it does not provide the same power as gas, so you would have to carry and burn more of it to get the same mileage and performance.

E85 is an involved conversion too, but I think it is a lot easier to do than a natural gas conversion. It does not provide the same power or mileage as gas either (but it is a better alternative fuel source than natrual gas), but Team Corvette is running E85, and ALMS allows them to carry extra fuel to make up for the lack mileage.

In short, I would consider buying a purpose built Flex Fuel vehicle, but I would probably not convert a standard gas powered car to E85 with out a lot of research.

Jason

Thanks Jason, I don't know the complexity of any of the things I mentioned. I'm not a professional mechanic, but I wondered how some of us felt about it. I drove a flex/fuel chevy and it was a V8 and ran really quite well on E85. But I know that the fuel, E85 is a very corrosive gasoline and will eat up any small metal parts in the fuel system not intended to use it.:ugh