Has anyone tried denatured (ethyl) alcohol on their RX-8? Does anyone know what kind of effect, if any it has on rotary engines? I hear from the FD guys that ethyl alcohol is the key to passing emissions, especially for cars that don't run a cat, or just run dirty.

 

Nope, but just when are we to be called upon the emissions carpet anyway??

 

you guys should never need it, seeing the RENESIS have side exhaust ports and expulsion of unburned fuel has been drastically cut down to almost none, plus all new emissions equipments, you should be passing emissions test with no problems.

denatured alcohol basically leans out the fuel by A LOT. Car will run like **** but assuming there is nothing else wrong with the motor, it will allow you to pass with almost NO emissions.

 

and yes, i have tried it on my FC to pass emissions, didn't pass because I had a vaccuum leak that was ******* up the idle and made the car run filthy rich.

 

That's what I was worried about. I dread the fact that the RENESIS would have to lean out due to the use of ethyl. Is denatured alcohol just a myth, or is it actually useful? I've been getting mixed reactions from the RX-7 guys.

 

bottom line: you don't need it.

why even bother with the risk of leaning out your new motor too much and hurting it, if your car will pass emission AS IS

but yes, this trick DOES work, saw it with my own eyes when they tested it and showed me the results (everything dropped to way below passing except CO, which is indication that the car is trying to run very rich)

 

Is the high CO just a property of rotary engines?

Oh. I actually meant if I perhaps moved up to insane forced induction, or something of that magnitude.

 

Just because we don't need it now doesn't mean we won't. IN CA, I've got 4 years until I have to test, but I really want a high-flow cat. I've got a reason if they ask why I have one (stock puts the air sensor too close to the ground and mine got snagged) but if it doesn't pass tests, it doesn't matter anyway.

 

a high flow catalyst will work if it's hot enough.

leaning out your engine for the purposes of emissions tests is fine, it's not going to blow itself up at less than half throttle under 4k rpms. but again, not needed in most cases.

 

Lots of gas around here has up to 10% ethanol already. What percentage are you talking about to significantly change emissions?

 

well, i used 1 gallons of denatured alcohol to 2 gallons of 87 gasoline when i tried to pass emissions in my FC (*just* failed even with fubar'd idle and vaccum leak), so that's like 30% more alcohol than what's already in the gasoline. no wonder it ran like crap when it's in there, heh

afterward i filled up with 93 gasoline, and all was well again

 

Hopefully, I will have a clean modified RX-8 in which I don't have to resort to using ethyl acohol just to pass emissions.