E85 Two-Valve Buildup - Clean Power

Horse Sense: Before you get excited about converting your 'Stang to run on high-octane E85, make sure it's available in your area. To do so, check out the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition's handy Web site at www.e85refueling.com. Once there, enter your zip code and find all the E85 stations in a 100-mile radius. Speaking of Web sites, there's even one dedicated to Mustangs running on E85. Check it out at the aptly named www.e85mustangs.com.

If you keep up on current events, you've probably heard about the virtues of E85, a fuel created by combining 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol-that's where the 85 comes from. Ethanol is produced by fermenting bio materials such as grain, corn, wood waste, cheese whey, waste sucrose, potato waste, brewery waste, and food and beverage wastes. As such, it's a renewable resource made in the U.S., so it reduces our dependency on foreign petroleum. E85 burns clean, so it's good for the environment.

That's all cool, but why is it being mentioned in the power-mad pages of 5.0&SF? Well, besides all that goodness, E85 is 105-octane and it's cheaper than gasoline, so it's like getting race gas for pump-gas prices. Of course, anything that sounds that good has to have a downside. There are two main troubles with E85. First, it packs less energy per gallon than gasoline, so you have to burn more E85 to create the same amount of energy. Second, its chemical properties can detoriorate fuel pumps and fuel lines if they don't have the proper construction.

Given the fact that we readily add bigger injectors, fuel pumps, and fuel lines in the name of more horsepower, those don't seem to be huge hurdles to overcome. We brought up the subject to Rick Anderson of Anderson Ford Motorsprort in Clinton, Illinois, and he got excited about the possibilities of E85. Since it's most often associated with being made from corn-which Clinton is surrounded by-it seemed only natural to try building an E85 project there. Of course, Rick didn't want to only convert a car; he wanted to build one up to see how much power E85 would support.

To do so, he recruited Josh Kilday and his '01 Roush Mustang. The car was configured with a stock engine and a ProCharger D1SC. Rick and Josh really wanted to dial up the boost and see what E85 was all about, so Rick set about constructing a robust 4.6 Two-Valve combination and ran it in naturally aspirated and supercharged configurations. The results of this clean-power mixture were impressive enough that we expect E85 combinations will become commonplace. Check it out to see how the AFM made 668 hp, and we think you'll agree.

Looks like your average ProCharged Two-Valve combination, but Josh's '01 Roush 'Stang now cranks out more than 660 hp courtesy of a stout, clean-burning combo built to make the most of E85's octane.

We all know the stock Two-Valve 4.6 isn't the most robust engine ever produced, but fortunately there are shops such as D.S.S. Racing Engines that specialize in building Ford engines for big power. D.S.S. offers a number of 4.6 short- and long-blocks with such features as Level 10 CNC Block prep, D.S.S. Main Support Systems, D.S.S. Pro-X Forged Pistons, 4340 Forged H-Beam Rods, KPC Forged eight-bolt crankshafts, improved crank oiling, ARP fasteners, race balancing, and CNC blueprinting. Josh opted for the 900hp-capable Super Mod long-block (PN 4.6SB3000; $7,399.95) option with D.S.S.' CNC-ported PI cylinder heads ($2,299.95). Beginning with a new Ford casting, D.S.S. uses a five-axis CNC porting program that reworks the intake runner, combustion chamber, and exhaust port, resulting in 186cc intake runners and 93.2cc exhaust runners. They work well with forced induction.

Josh topped off the stout D.S.S. Two-Valve long-block with a Professional Products intake (PP-54060; $650) and a pair of his own AFM Hi-Rev cams (PN AF-F82; $629). He rounded out the intake with a Professional Products upper elbow (PN PP-54154; $110) and 75mm throttle body (PN PP-69221; $149). Additionally, the intake was treated to AFM Stage 2-porting (AF-0901; $375) to make the most of those CNC-ported heads and big cams. On the exhaust side, the standard Roush side-exit after-cat is now fed by Bassani Mid-Length headers (PN BA-4602-vc; $675) and X-shape crossover (PN BA-4699-2; $335).

Josh began installing the ProCharger hardware, including a slick eight-rib pulley conversion, but before they got too carried away, Rick tested the naturally aspirated combination on gasoline and E85. At this point, the car was being fueled by 30-lb/hr injectors fed by a Mallory regulator, a fuel pump, and fuel rails, as well as Russell fuel lines. Rick says a standard conversion to E85 isn't a big deal if you aren't close to maxing out your injectors. "We've found out on naturally aspirated cars that are running 93-octane fuel and the injectors are running 75 percent or less at W.O.T., running E85 fuel is simple," Rick says. "Go into PMS to the Global menu and add 22 percent. That's all it takes for the fuel side of things. We've found on ignition timing that the E85 likes around four more degrees on a naturally aspirated, standard-compression 4.6 engine. We thought we would see no power gains, but we picked up around 8 hp compared to 93-octane gas."

As we mentioned, Rick selected a Mallory fuel pump (PN MAL-5160FI; $699) not only because the company says the pump is fit to run ethanol without issues, but also because Rick tested it through a length of fuel line suitable for the car; the pump delivered its promised 160 gph. Fuel pumps are often rated based on free flow, not flow through line. The only way to see what you're really getting is to attach the same length and diameter of line your car would use and time how long the pump takes to fill a 1-gallon jug. You can do some math to figure out how much flow you're really getting. Rick knew this combo would be thirsty, but he wasn't quite sure how thirsty it would be at full tilt; he ended up using two of these pumps. Remember, we said you'd have to burn more E85 for the same result. Having seen the results, Rick says, "I believe the power range and rpm Josh's car made would've worked fine with one 200-gph-at-60-psi fuel pump."