Finishing the racecar blog. Yes?

[Horsewidower]

Bruce: That's an excellent point. There are apparently differences in "winter" blend and "summer" blend. The winter has more gas and less ethanol in order to promote easier starting. Quality of control would be an issue, but in less we can find a retail outfit our here, which doesn't appear likely unless I want to drive a long way to get it, we'll buy either the e85 or the e100 in 55 gallon drums. Since the car has a wide band, it ought to be pretty easy to tell what we have and trim the fuel map to compensate.

Mixing our own does bring some quality control to the equation.

Mr. Potter, "party on dudes."

[8T6 SVO]

Greg: I might drop by, I'm going up to a MINI event in Grass Valley in the morning. I'll keep your phone number handy.

"on Wayne"

Good to see you Bob - Thanks for coming by. We need to plan a get together for the locals so we can drink some beer to help the stories.

"Shaaaawinggg"

"On, Ken"

[Horsewidower]

Thanks Greg. Your car is a beast, and unbelievably well detailed.

I'd enjoy putting an event together. June is already too busy, got to go to Buttonwillow on the 8th to help Fitzwater at the UTCC, then we hope to be back on the track on the 28th or 29th. Let's look in July or August.

Bob

[Pat_in_L.A.]

got to go to Buttonwillow on the 8th to help Fitzwater at the UTCC

That adventure deserves to become a whole separate thread. June 8? Someone needs to provide more info on this for posterity. Take LOTS of pics! Darn, that's a wedding anniversary weekend. Oh screw it, I'll bet there! I'll make it up later.

[Horsewidower]

Back to racecar tech. Looks like we are going to try E85. I hooked up with the guy that ran 2 LMP2 prototype cars on it at last years 25 hours of Thunderhill. They are going to sell me as much of what they have left as I want.

I also have contacted Interstate Oil in Woodland CA. They are going to call me every time they mix up a batch and reserve as many 55 gallon barrels as I want. Apparently they mix it by filling up a tanker with the appropriate amount of gas and then fill the rest of it with ethanol. I guess it mixes itself as its going down the road. I think that I might want to buy straight ethanol and mix my own in order to assure quality.

They also stated that they'd have a tanker stop by the house if we had a minimum 200 gallon tank. We already have a 300 gallon tank for red diesel, so whats one more tank!

One interesting tid bit is that they procured a grant from the state and that by the end of 2008 there are supposed to be 20 E85 stations in the greater Sacramento area. That could be fun.

I'll be gone this weekend, hopefully Geoff and Scott will get the car to run while I'm gone.

Bob

[luvtolean]

They're finally bringing E85 up in NorCal? Sweet.

Only pump open to the public in the whole state is a few miles from Mexico in San Diego.

[Horsewidower]

MIke: Two uses This one is for sprint racing. 20 minutes to 1/2 hour.

This change would be really, really bad for endurance racing. We'll have two fuel maps on the Haltech, one for racegas and one for E85. We can switch based on use.

[Horsewidower]

Exactly.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

I think that you're at the point where once you have made a few purchases from Interstate and have developed a rapport with them, you should ask if you can talk to a chemical engineer who is well versed in the E-85 blending process. Once you get a petrolem company chemical engineer on your side, many myths will be busted and you will get a more clear idea of what you can and can not (or should and should not) do yourself.

[Raven855]

And you can install the smaller radiator for E85 too

How much smaller could you make it? If I am sizing a radiator what should I be looking for? Certainly the different types of radiators, aluminum, aluminum w/ plastic, with internal coils for oil/ps cooling, thickness, coolant medium, ect, all plays a part in getting rid of the btus. How do you figure it. If the combustion chamber, exhaust and intake passages in the head are coated w/ some kind of thermal dispersal coating, how do you figure in their effectiveness and load on the cooling system? If I am running lean for fuel economy and have added several hundred degrees into the exhaust, or certainly the track conditions, advanced/retarded camshaft, ambient air/elevation all play into the thermal load experienced by the radiator. Is there a good reference or resource to figure sizing?

[Horsewidower]

Pat: I'm just reporting how Interstate Oil's Woodland office told me how they mix it. I really don't want to handle the stuff, and according to the Gov's regulations we are a Cat 2 most of the year, which is a minimum of 74% ethanol and a Cat 1 during the summer months 79% minimum. I really don't want to mix it myself, but I worry about the consistency.

Radiator sizing: Hmmm. Lets just say that a Nascar C&R radiator with integral oil cooler/warmer is way too big. We taped up all but about 24 sq in of our inlet area after 3 20 minute sessions of progressively taping off the screen and just barely could get heat into the engine while running on the track. The first three sessions, we would warm the engine up to 180 to 200 degrees and it would drop to ambient on the track. No loss of coolant. It was a pretty cool day for California, probably not much more than 70 degrees. The test will be when we run it at 100 degrees ambient. But, we're thinking of cutting off the bottom half of the radiator (its a double pass). We Won't do anything though until we test it in summer conditions. There a couple of decent websites about ducting and sizing, I'll have to dig them up.

Bob

[Raven855]

Looking at the pic, if you cut off the bottom part of your radiator the thermal load experienced by the radiator from the CAC would be lessened I would think. You could mount the CAC behind the radiator to shorten the lines, improve transition response and improve weight distribution/weight reduction ever so slightly. Wonder how much smaller the radiator could go then?

Are you running the standard thermostat mounted on the block or are you using restrictors or even a Remote by-pass thermostat mounted in the hose?

[Horsewidower]

CAC?

We weren't running a thermostat. We will be adding one.

Bob

[Horsewidower]

You're just taunting me with that avatar, aren't you!!

[Horsewidower]

As wet as its supposed to be, the advantage has to go to those that have not spent the last umpteen years with traction control.

Where is Ayrton Senna when you need him? His wet drive at Monaco warped the time/space continuim.