I know it is possible to run e85 on a carburated engine, I remember CC doing an article on it.  If you could point me to which year and month the article was in, I'd appreciate it.  Also, if you ahve any input on getting e85 to run ona  carb, that would be appreciated too.

I do not care what your views on e85 are, whether you think it is a good solution, its impractical...etc.  If you want to flame about it, please move on.  Thank you.

So you don't want to hear that up here it commonly drops your mileage 30-35%.

What I never understand is that E85 has some ungodly high octane rating.  What if you were to build a motor with 14:1 pistons to take advantage of the higher octane?   Can't you raise compression when running higher octane?   

Yes, if you read the article he is refering to, it notes that the loss in milage can be made up for by increasing compression because the octane rating is so high. And to answer the question he wanted answered, it is February 2006. When the man says he doesn't want to discuss the technical side of it, just wants to know the issue, then don't try to tell him the technical side. Tell him the stupid issue gosh darn it. Sigh. people are impossible.  

thank you, that is exactly what i was looking for  

I prefer to have a technical understanding of things before diving into them. The facts say that E85 will significantly lower your mileage so depending on that you may not save any money at all when switching to it, SO WHY DO IT? I don't understand people when they want to ignore the facts.

If you can run higher compression you increase the efficiency of the engine giving you better mileage...if you don't increase the comression ratio, yes you will lose mileage...but if you increase it, you will offset that...probably making it better...you have to take into account ALL the facts when doing a swap such as this...and the other guy is right...he just asked for the article...not your opinion.  

That is far from my opinion, I don't care if you do increase compression ratio, you're still gonna lose mileage.

CSIROC is correct. Upping the compression will regain the lost milage. All of this was explained in the article, which is why this guy wanted the professional article, not your personal understanding. Also, what you fail to consider is that there are other reasons to switch to e85, other than milage. Some of us would rather power our cars with American corn rather than middle eastern oil. When I get the money I'd love to buy a flex fuel truck, and use it to haul home parts for my Olds, which I also plan to convert to E85 as soon as it becomes available around here, which according to some news articles I've read should be soon. And yes I will crank up the compression on the Cutlass to take advantage of the wonderfully high octane rating and offset the unfortunately low heat content.  

I can't imagine making an engine slightly more thermally efficient is going to account for adding in roughly three times the amount of fuel if running a lean-burn on gasoline.

The way I look at it, it's absolutely impossible to have everything you use in your everyday life american-made. And besides the other 15% of that fuel still is petrol, so to me being Patriotic should have little to do with it.

then why are you posting here? Feel free to run gasoline. That is your choice and totally fine. Running E85 is our choice and totally fine too. Neither one of our decisions is going to affect the other. So let us be ok?  

It is the November of 2006 issue. Page 62- 67  

I started a new web site www.raceonE85.com see what you think.  

I remain suspicious of E85 as any kind of "savior" fuel for our racing program - or anything, for that matter. The specification for the fuel called "E85" allows the mix ratio to be anywhere from 70% to 85%. So - you tune for summer E85 and in the early spring you get another load and...what is it? If the station does a lot of business in E85, it'll be whatever the supplier speced. If not, you may get a bucket full of winter blend. NOW how's your jetting. When I can buy a spec E85 that is held to a fixed standard like Methanol, then maybe I'll move the race cars to it. There's enough variation in performance and jetting with seasonal gasoline - now you've got nearly double the fuel to manage. That will mask some of the variation in formulation, but not all. VP Methanol runs about 3.30/g in the big drum quantity (around here, usually a couple of folks split a drum) and once you get your jetting set, you're good for winter or summer.

From the PDF Storing-Handling E85 on the E85 web site:

Seasonally Adjusted Blends
The amount of alcohol in the fuel ethanol blend
depends on the geographical region and the season. (A
complete breakdown by volatility class for the geographical
fuel regions can be found in Appendix A).
In cold weather, more gasoline is added to the blend
to ensure proper starting. A minimum of 70% by
volume of alcohol is permitted in the winter blend by
the ASTM fuel standard. This seasonal blending from
15% to 30% gasoline limits concerns about winter
cold starting and are similar to seasonal adjustments
of volatility (vapor pressure) used in gasoline blending
throughout the United States.

If they would sell E85 as real 85% all the time, this would not be a concern.  But the spec allows otherwise.  And cold start will be an issue at some point if this stuff is used enough - try lighting off a methanol car on a cold day.  

There is a post on E85 over on FordMuscle.com - a guy from up north has been running E85 and dealing with some of the seasonal variations and reports that it has not been a problem over the long haul.  Good info, hopefully more info like that will pop up.