2011 E350 5.4V8 EB Passenger Van Build

[h.grenade]

Thanks marret! Learning by wasting effort, a time proven method : )

boywonder - haha yeah I wish. I have been working on it for probably 7 months. But the last 5 have been steady. 4.10 is my plan too, thats great to hear. If I were going to overland more I might go further but the calculator say that it puts it right back to stock. 4.56 seems like too much. I would lose highway mpg for sure.

Have you tried E85? I hear that it has higher octane and feels like more horsepower. I just learned about even though there is a little badge on the back haha

Edit - Yeah good eye. Its a 1978 DT175 Enduro, street legal 2 stroke with an oil pump. The brakes are garbage so its pretty sketchy to ride! I bought it to race at some vintage moto races but its too new by 2 years : /

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by h.grenade

Have you tried E85? I hear that it has higher octane and feels like more horsepower.

Edit - Yeah good eye. Its a 1978 DT175 Enduro, street legal 2 stroke with an oil pump. The brakes are garbage so its pretty sketchy to ride! I bought it to race at some vintage moto races but its too new by 2 years : /

Unforch higher octane will not provide any additional horsepower in an engine designed for regular 87 octane. A gallon of premium 91 has the same energy content as 87 octane (or any other octane for that matter)...about 115,000 BTU/gallon. The higher octane is more resistant to detonation, so it can be used in higher compression ratio engines, and those typically produce more horsepower than a similar displacement lower compression engine.


My van is a 2008...so it's not E85 compatible....I think E85 eats rubber parts more than regular....not exactly sure.


When I was 17 I assembled those exact bikes at Cycle Springs Yamaha in Tarpon Springs, FL, as well as lots of other 1978 Yamahas...lol. I assembled new bikes out of the crates and the shop gave me free parts.

[h.grenade]

The higher octane info makes sense. A performance engine would get more benefit from better quality fuel makes sense. I have read that it feels like more horsepower but no dyno results to prove it! I was just curious.

Thats amazing, it must have been a fun job to build up new motos! As far as I have read it was one of the first few bikes with a monoshock.

[Lilnuts2]

1976 was the first year of a full line of monoshocked Yamahas for the race bikes. 77 for the trail bikes.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by Lilnuts2

1976 was the first year of a full line of monoshocked Yamahas for the race bikes. 77 for the trail bikes.

1975 YZ125, 250 and 400 were all monoshock, as well as the MX250/400. Just the MX125 wasn't.

...and in 1976 there were two versions of the YZ125...the regular YZ125C and YZ125X with the giant air accumulators....looks like the 1976 YX250/YZ400 had the giant air cans too....

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by h.grenade

The higher octane info makes sense. A performance engine would get more benefit from better quality fuel makes sense. I have read that it feels like more horsepower but no dyno results to prove it! I was just curious.

Higher octane isn't better quality......won't do a thing for an engine designed to run on regular.......it can just withstand higher pressure before self-igniting.

Putting regular 87 in an engine designed for 91 is a different story, it will detonate/self ignite once the engine warms up, commonly known as pinging due to the higher compression ratio. Run that long and hard enough and you can cause some engine damage, erosion of piston tops etc. Most modern high compression engines have knock sensors (accelerometers bolted to the engine block) to detect pinging and then retard timing or do other things to the timing/fuel mapping to reduce/eliminate pinging.

[Lilnuts2]

I stand corrected only the 1975 YZ125B was a twin shocker, Yamaha released the 76 model in mid 75

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by Lilnuts2

I stand corrected only the 1975 YZ125B was a twin shocker, Yamaha released the 76 model in mid 75

That explains why when you google 1975 YZ125 both the B and C model come up........


Hopefully we haven't derailed H. Grenade's build thread too far.....

[h.grenade]

haha no worries. I like learning new stuff. The vintage mx cuts off at '76 I believe. Honestly people are just racing for fun it shouldn't really matter. A stock monoshock isn't anywhere near as good as twin custom valved and tuned RaceTechs. A buddy of mine is trying to put together a some more casual races because a lot of people are in the same boat as me. Just want to have some fun.

[boywonder]

Have you seen any of the Rocky Mountain $500 bike challenge youtubes?


The guy with the DT175 does quite well.....there are a whole series of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3FMHJl9yk&t=10s