Dare to Dyno part II
and 100hp with minimal tuning
I never would have believed it if I hadn't tried the fuel myself!
- Adam Hodson, Mid America Kustoms
In our first “Dare to Dyno” story, we featured an independent tuning shop in Australia called Racecomp Motorsport. Their dyno tests revealed that ETS’s racing fuels handily outperformed the competition’s race fuels.
This time, we’re dynoing a little closer to home—right here in America with Mid America Kustoms (MAK) and DragTimes magazine. MAK recently Dynoed our ethanol-based Z85 Perfo and, as you’ll see, the results were almost too good to believe. But as we’ve said before in our Dare to Dyno features, The curves don’t lie.”
Background:
It’s no secret that the ethanol-based pump fuel, E85, is gaining popularity among performance enthusiasts. That’s because, despite its status as a “green” fuel (it contains 85% ethanol which is made by distilling renewable sources like corn), E85 actually has several characteristics like higher octane rating, better cooling capacity, and lower cost that make it a strong choice for tuners, hot-rodders, and racers.
What may not be as well know is that we’ve improved upon the inherent benefits of E85 and custom engineered our own ultra-performance version of it called Z85 Perfo.
“When we set out to develop this fuel, our goal was to offer something much better to our customers from a price/performance standpoint.” said our own Yann Labia. “The strategy was to deliver more power by producing more energy and a faster combustion speed from the molecules of the fuel.
“We achieved this”, Labia continues, by creating a custom formulation built only with molecularly pure compounds and exotic molecules.
The result is an ethanol-based fuel that is far more powerful (and tuneable) than typical pump E85.
And engine-tuners have noticed. The specs of Z85 Perfo caught the eye of Adam Hodson, Nick Taylor, and their team from Indiana’s Mid America Kustoms (MAK).
Putting The Z85 PERFO To The Test
Adam and Nick wanted to know if Z85 Perfo could really live up to the hype. To find out, they fired up their turbo-LS-powered Chevrolet S-10, known as “Gap Train”. Developing over 1000hp, Gap Train dominated the Horsepower Wars $10K Drag Shootout. With every component of the motor optimized, it was the perfect engine to test the effect fuel can have on output.
After pouring in a tankful of Z85 Perfo Adam notes: “The motor sounds more aggressive on this stuff. We drove the truck all week so you get used to what the exhaust sounds like since it’s in your ear all the time; when I put the Z85 in there, it sounded like it went from an 8:1 motor to a 12:1 motor. It sounds meaner, nastier, it runs crisper, and it needs less fuel.”
And while it may sound better and feel crisper, how did it actually perform?
For a baseline, the team at MAK started with the standard tune they use for pump E85 which is conservative: 30psi of boost, an air-fuel mixture of 11.2, and about 14.5 degrees of timing advance.
The result?
Without any additional tuning, the Z85 PERFO made 30 more rear-wheel horsepower — just by pouring it in.
So if Z85 Perfo showed a 30 horsepower gain without ANY tuning, what could Adam and the MAK team achieve with it?
By advancing the timing by just one degree, Z85 Perfo produced an astonishing 100 more horsepower at the wheels!
“I never would have believed it if I hadn’t tried the fuel myself. “Adam exclaims.
Importantly, Adam notes the Z85 Perfo opens up lots of options for tuners — giving them a broad window to really tweak their motors to potentially see even greater gains.
“the tuning window is much larger with the Z85, which can be a really nice thing with a stock-bottom-end engine. The detonation resistance of the Z85 allows the tuner to be much more aggressive with the tune-up with less fear of hurting it.”
It’s easy for companies to make marketing claims about their products, but when it comes to race fuels, the dyno is the ultimate truth-teller. And the truth is, Z85 Perfo delivers unprecedented pour-in performance gains.
Because…the curves don’t lie.
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