Carbs and Gas Smell Options

[mmascari]

I have a 914 with a 3.0l six and PMO carbs. The gas smell is unbearable, especially when the car is in the garage. My wife is about to lose her mind. What do you carb guys do to limit this? Would running the engine with the fuel pump off, IE running out of fuel help with this situation?

[Rufus]

Prooooobably won't make any difference on our fuel economy without wideband feedback?

In a modern car with AFR feedback, the ECU will detect a lean condition due to the presence of ethanol and inject more fuel; our stock D- or L-Jet fuel system is injecting the same mass of fuel regardless what we put in the tank.

I can't offer if "energy content" would be significant, given I don't think any of us are sensitive enough to notice it and make any change in how we drive the car.

For us, ethanol-free would actually slightly reduce emissions (if driven the same) but at the expense of the issues with ethanol being in our older fuel systems.

I pretty much agree.

The specific gravity of E85 is .79 vs .72 - .77 for pump gas.

I’m no carb tuning expert. But if E85 has a slightly higher density than pump gas, and I’m thinking right, the A/F ratio with E85 would be slightly higher (leaner) than with E0 at the same carb calibration.

As far as FI with closed loop A/F control using a narrow band O2 goes, the A/F will operate at stoicometric (Lambda = 1.0; the ratio where 100% of both air and fuel are consumed during combustion) for a variety of gas / ethanol blends as long as the fuel system has sufficient authority (range of control adjustment) to meet ECU demand.