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Low budget flex fuel conversion

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Old 07-26-2008, 02:33 PM
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Default Low budget flex fuel conversion

I'd likle to jump on this train, and I want to find a way to realise this as cheap as possible (I do own a wideband and an Emanage, but I'd like to find a smart and cheap way for other miata owners without a piggyback...

For a stock 1.6l miata, it' should be no problem using E85 by switching to Supra 305 injectors, but so you are limited to E85 only.
Would it be possible to reach the needed fuel by adding a resistor to the water temp sensor line inv parallel ?

So if you use normal fuel, nothing changes at all, you still use your normal injectors, when you're burning E85, you use the altered coolant temp to get the appropriate fuel.
You couldeven use a turn potentiometer to dial in a given mixture ...

Are my thoughts right?
Would this work?
As I wrote above, I can controll the results with my wideband, but if the idea is complete bullshit, I don't need to fiddle with this...

Any thoughts?
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Old 10-06-2008, 11:02 PM
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We personally have converted three (3) Miatas' as well as a 1988 Ford F150 6 Cly 300 to run on E85.
It takes about 15 minutes to add the flextek piggyback Black box to the Miata.
And we less than 2 mpg loss in the city and A ONE MPG gain on the highway.
We have Two 90's and one 97 that we drive daily in e85 when we can get the fuel.
Meaning we switch back and forth between reg 87 and e85 when the price is right or when we just want to have more fun.
We have a 250 gallon tank that put in the back of the F150 and stop off in Washington DC and fill up after the Car Shows in Pa.
We use the Flextek units and are testing the new digital unit on a 28 Woody street Rod we are building.
www.gatsbycars.com 1-888-4GATSBY cell No# 804-815-4175 The White 1990 Miata with over 25000 miles with Flextek unit.
When gas was at 4.oo here in Gloucester Va. May 20th 2008 We bought 250 gallons of e85 and converted the 97 Miata.
And only used E85 until Late Sept when we ran out of e85.
My wife can really tell the different in the power on e85.

We are starting a new project to run E95 / e100 (ie 190 proof bad beer and water like they do in Brazil)
In the red 90 Miata as soon as we can clear paperwork with Va. DMV straight ethanol is not a legal street fuel bit for off road use only.

Buy ethanol fuel e100 / e85 NO WAR REQUIRED.
Allen Smith CSE
www.gatsbycars.com
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Old 10-06-2008, 11:12 PM
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Originally Posted by jprcars
We personally have converted three (3) Miatas' as well as a 1988 Ford F150 6 Cly 300 to run on E85.
It takes about 15 minutes to add the flextek piggyback Black box to the Miata.
And we less than 2 mpg loss in the city and A ONE MPG gain on the highway.
We have Two 90's and one 97 that we drive daily in e85 when we can get the fuel.
Meaning we switch back and forth between reg 87 and e85 when the price is right or when we just want to have more fun.
We have a 250 gallon tank that put in the back of the F150 and stop off in Washington DC and fill up after the Car Shows in Pa.
We use the Flextek units and are testing the new digital unit on a 28 Woody street Rod we are building.
www.gatsbycars.com 1-888-4GATSBY cell No# 804-815-4175 The White 1990 Miata with over 25000 miles with Flextek unit.
When gas was at 4.oo here in Gloucester Va. May 20th 2008 We bought 250 gallons of e85 and converted the 97 Miata.
And only used E85 until Late Sept when we ran out of e85.
My wife can really tell the different in the power on e85.

We are starting a new project to run E95 / e100 (ie 190 proof bad beer and water like they do in Brazil)
In the red 90 Miata as soon as we can clear paperwork with Va. DMV straight ethanol is not a legal street fuel bit for off road use only.

Buy ethanol fuel e100 / e85 NO WAR REQUIRED.
Allen Smith CSE
www.gatsbycars.com
This one time, at B& camp......
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Old 10-06-2008, 11:25 PM
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Originally Posted by jprcars
NO WAR REQUIRED.
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Old 10-06-2008, 11:43 PM
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Yeah...

I took the liberty of checking out that FlexTek gadget before permanently reliving JPRcars of the burden of MT.net membership. Pretty neat box, actually. Allows you to run E85 without installing a flexfuel sensor and without installing larger injectors. Amazing technology, this box. Probably contains special magnets or something... :tinfoilhat:
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Old 10-08-2008, 02:53 AM
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Originally Posted by jprcars
e85 NO WAR REQUIRED.
Odd, This is. Last time I checked, E85 had 15% gasoline in it. Where you plan on getting the gasoline from? Mars?
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Old 10-08-2008, 10:03 AM
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Now that the turd is gone back on topic... I'm curious too.
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Old 10-08-2008, 10:49 AM
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Not sure how much range the CLT sensor has on the stock ECU, and of course when it genuinely is cold outside you might have issues.

I'll bet that a VooDoo box / PowerCard would work in an application like this. Obviously you'd still be hand-tuning it (tricky). I suspect your max potential power would be reduced when running alky as well.

Does anybody know how a nernt-cell (narrowband) O2 sensor responds to ethanol? That'd be my real concern.
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