qwerty1234, on 04 May 2012 - 11:34 PM, said:

Maybe...

But when the price of fuel goes up, it has a 4 or more fold effect on the price of everything else. Everything rides on a truck, tractor, ship, plane...it all goes up when petroleum goes up.  Fertilizers that are petro based, petro distributed, etc.  All of these things are affected multiple times by rises in petroleum costs.  It doesn't grow on trees, either.  Ethanol does.

Edited by madcap1314, 04 July 2012 - 11:27 PM.

madcap1314, on 04 July 2012 - 11:27 PM, said:

errrrr and this disproved my point how?
it's like people who go out and spend an extra $10,000 on a 'new' car because it gets 0.2mpg better
Nevermind the fact that amongst inflation, depreciation and additional short term maintenance of a new car, you'll never end up on top unless you drive 100,000 miles in a year, then maybe in 10 years the 'investment' will start to pay off.

Except in this case not only are you not gaining anything, you're ruining the power delivery and probably reducing reliability. At no point is there a connection between the cost of 'everything else' and converting your vehicle to run on ethanol. The only thing it will affect is the cost of filling YOUR OWN tank, not the tank of all the delivery trucks which ultimately determine a price of anything else you buy. "Just Because" is a far better excuse than "Fuel economy"

qwerty1234, on 05 July 2012 - 05:13 AM, said:

Agreed.  The way things are set up now, I will lose.

I prefer to not buy petroleum.  I make my own biodiesel for my truck, and Ethanol in all my bikes is next.  I've been trying to get off petro since 9/11.

To me, it's a common sense choice.  When you grow bio-fuel, the carbon the crops use to grow is equal to the carbon you burn to run.  Closed system.  Petro is a giant plastic bag of shit we keep opening inside our swimming pool, and then wondering why the water is so shitty.

But yes, you are right about losing 10%, and you are right that my engine was not designed to run E.  Henry Ford's was, though...

rcthirty, on 09 May 2012 - 07:44 AM, said:

I'm sold on Ecotrons kit for my Ethanol XL600, but I have a dual intake and dual exhaust (4-valve head).  Do I need 2 throttle bodies?

The rear shock mount splits the carbs in half...thanks, Honda!

Does anyone have telephone contact for Ecotrons, or know a better email for them besides 'info'?

Thanks,
Frank

I can get you in touch with Matt at Ecotrons if he doesn't reply to that email.
On the duel carb setup that Honda did on your XL600, it was probably an attempt to get better response and venturi effect through smaller diameter carbs while maintaining large airflow during WOT. It should have nothing to do with a four valve head. With EFI, duel intakes for a single would be totally undesirable and unnecessary.
If I were you and wanted to go EFI, I'd weld up a 2>1 intake manifold and put a single Throttle Body on there. The airbox inlet would need to be changed too. I assume it has two holes.

I havnt read any of the replys to your topic, as ive just stumbled on this. The answer to running Ethanol in your bike is yes. However Ethanol is a very corrosive fuel. You will chew out fuel lines--gaskets and diaphrams in the carb--and then you will have the dramas of burning a hole in the piston. We just installed a power commander and auto-tune to a BMW and tuned in everything to suit Ethanol, Sure, It has made more HP, But now its burning out Fuel Pumps galore. $360.oo a fuel pump. Its not worth the effort converting to Ethanol.