Rebuilding for flex fuel

Lefty Loosey · Post by **Lefty Loosey** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:05 pm

I've got a 305 from a CB77, and curious about converting it to run on E85. I don't know if anyone has done this. What I want to know is, what parts are incompatible with alcohol, besides fuel lines? Are normal gaskets still usable?

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:32 pm

Why? All the best Jerry

hillhudson · Post by **hillhudson** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:38 pm

haha i for one would be stoked if you can do this! my dad distils his own alcohol and it would be great to just make your own fuel from scratch !

keep us posted

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:54 am

We run methanol in our race bikes. Good for allowing the motor to run cooler and good for anti detonation. Downsides are alcohol can be corrosive with certain metals. Alcohol is hydroscopic. Alcohol at correct mixtures is not starting friendly untill the motor has some heat. A greater amount of alcohol is required to run an engine at correct mixtures Not all engine oils are methanol friendly. Various rubbers , Vitons and other materials degrade rather quickly with alcohol. Again Why? All the best Jerry

jensen · Post by **jensen** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:30 am

Hi Jerry,

I can't answer your question "why", but when looking around I see more and more petrol mixed with ethanol. Sometimes there's no choice, so when you are in need of gas, you have to fill her up with petrol with a 10% ethanol, sometimes more. I, for one, had to change my fuel lines of my bomber, the ethanol made the rubber too elastic, The (long) fuel line to the left carburetor was obstructed because the line was crushed (no damage done, at WOT the bike was slowing down abrupt, I pulled the bike over, rode slowly home, and found the problem).

Jensen

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:46 am

Dear Jensen, I understand E85 fuel to contain 85% ethanol. If this is so we are dealing with a slightly different ball game to 10% ethanol. I promise you that most fuel taps and carburetors left as is have not got the flow to the bowls or through the needle and seats to feed a motor at max. power running such a high percentage of alcohol and we all know what leaning out can do. So again why set one self up for the unknown which as we all know can be very costly. All the best Jerry

jensen · Post by **jensen** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:17 am

Dear Jerry,

I completely understand your point Jerry, and I wonder too why would someone like to run E85.
But the ethanol was triggering me for lot's of other issue's too, that's why I mentioned 95E10 petrol we have to run here. Sometimes there's no choice, and ethanol is ethanol, no matter what the percentage is, it does a lot of damage, and of coarse, the more ethanol, the quicker is goes.

Jensen