Flexing Ford Mustang Muscle with an E85 Performance Car

A car enthusiast finds an alternative route to performance

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Photography by Brad Bowling

These days, alternative fuels are getting a boost in more places than just the environmental arena. The reason is simple: We're far too dependent on imported oil, and in the minds of many, that's becoming an increasingly urgent energy-security concern. Add in all the obvious reasons why petroleum alternatives just make sense - from emissions reductions and decreased greenhouse gases to a strategic change in buying habits that finds us spending more on fuel at home than abroad - and it's easy to see why there's so much interest out there.

The effort to bring renewable fuels into the mainstream is taking many forms. One of the most high profile is their inclusion in motorsports. Last year, IndyCar racing made its move to ethanol fuel. Now, General Motors has proposed that NASCAR do the same. With the millions of fans watching these high-profile race venues exposed to the obvious and transparent use of renewable fuels, a growing use by auto enthusiasts is a certainty.

One performance-oriented driver who has taken the leap is North Carolina resident Steve Shrader, a Mustang enthusiast who prides himself on thinking outside the box. In his quest to do something proactive to embrace an alternative fuel, he found that ethanol is not only renewable, produced in America, and better for the environment, but happily it's also 105 octane. Being a self-professed performance buff interested in getting a few more horsepower out of anything with an engine, Steve decided to explore whether ethanol was a viable option for his '99 Mustang. The result is his "Brightmare"-project car.

"Cars after the late 1980s were built to withstand some amount of ethanol content in the fuel lines," says Shrader, "and ethanol can be used in an internal-combustion engine with some modifications to the computer. I also knew that an increased fuel volume of 20 percent to 40 percent more would be required for a performance machine such as mine." He upgraded to larger fuel injectors and fuel pumps after crunching numbers for injector size and fuel pumps, with the aim of keeping as many factory parts in the car as possible.

He turned to friend Dan DeSio of Pro-Dyno to tweak the onboard computer and simulate the actions of a true flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV). Dan added additional fuel volume, since up to 40 percent more fuel would be required at wide-open throttle, and then adjusted ignition timing to optimize the engine's use of the 105-octane alcohol fuel. Shrader points to the serious upside of E85 with its high octane and performance characteristics, and claims that an additional 5 percent to 10 percent more horsepower can be had with a few basic modifications.

With no fuel sensor like a factory-produced FFV, he had to improvise. He uses a tool made by SCT that allows him to re-tune the car for gasoline and either summer E85 or winter E85, since the blends change by season. After nearly a year of driving his Vortech supercharged, E85 flexible-fuel Mustang, Sharder reports no negative effects, an engine that runs better than ever, and fuel lines free of corrosion. The car is also running 11.20s in the quarter-mile at 124 mph on ethanol fuel.

All this has led him to launch his E85Mustangs.com website as an online gathering place for other Mustang owners to share stories about their E85 conversions. It's currently an informational site, since there are legal restrictions on selling such kits. His hope is that a niche will open up in the future, so he can expand into selling conversion kits if, and when, that dynamic changes.

It should be noted that our interest here at GreenCar.com is to report on the trends and technologies that promote lower emissions and higher efficiencies. Alternative fuels present one pathway to these goals. This project is different because it looks beyond the activities of auto manufacturers, component developers, and fuel interests, and instead focuses on the efforts of an auto enthusiast who explores ethanol's potential in the performance world. As we witness the expansion of ethanol into organized racing like IndyCar and NASCAR, homegrown efforts like this will certainly increase and mirror the activities of race teams operating on a larger stage. It will be interesting to watch this unfold.

What You Need to Know About E85 Conversions
By Bill Siuru

Converting to E85 is great for shaving off tenths of seconds when trips are measured in quarter-mile lengths, but how about vehicles used on the road? Those modifying cars for track duty are probably not concerned with passing smog tests or voiding vehicle warranties.

A number of companies, including XcelPlus International (www.flextek.com), Fullflex International (www. fullflexint.com), and Flex Fuel USA (www.flexfuelus.com), offer kits to convert most vehicles with fuel-injection engines to FFVs. The heart of these conversions, which are based on technology used in Brazil to convert tens of thousands of engines to run on alcohol, is a CPU that plugs in alongside the factory-installed engine management computer. This CPU eliminates the need to "tweak" the onboard computer for the different oxygen content of ethanol and gasoline.

Until recently, no conversion kit had received EPA approval. That has now changed with EPA's recent certification of Flex Fuel USA's Flex-Box Smart Kit ethanol conversion kit for fleets, which can be used to modify the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Lincoln Town Car to operate as E85 flexible-fuel vehicles. Other companies are actively seeking EPA certification as well.

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 require exhaust emissions from vehicles converted to run on alternative fuels to be "as clean as the exhaust emissions of the original gasoline equipment." It also says that "converting a vehicle that was designed to operate on unleaded gasoline only to operate on another form of fuel is a violation of the federal law and the offender may be subject to significant penalties." Though only anecdotal, there have been no reports on converted vehicles flunking smog tests, probably because ethanol is cleaner burning than gasoline ... the very reason it's used as an oxygenate in gasoline at the pump.

How about ethanol damaging fuel-system components? The newer the model, probably the less the potential problem. Anticipating the greater use of ethanol in unleaded gasoline - up to 20 percent in some locales - has prompted manufacturers to use more ethanol-tolerant fuel-system components.

Voiding manufacturers' warranties is another concern. The Magnuson-Moss Act says a dealer cannot void a warranty if the consumer has installed an aftermarket part, but only if the aftermarket part leads directly to any damage in question. Thus, finding higher-than-normal levels of ethanol in the system of a non-FFV vehicle may require resolution in court if engine failure or emission control system damage occurs. Of course, new flexible-fuel vehicles engineered by automakers to run on any mixture of gasoline or E85 is an entirely different matter as these are designed and warranted to run on either fuel as a matter of course.