E85 fuel and timing acceleration

Good day,
one of the main benefits of propane is the ability to put 'lighter' springs in the distributor to get more timing earlier in the RPM range. Propane's inherent detonation friendly rating provided this opportunity to get more advance earlier in the RPM range.

Can this same logic be applied to E85 fueled vehicles, with their detonation-friendly fuel?

Thanks

DRM

Yes, kind of. E85 from our test has around a 95 octane rating whereas propane is in the 100-105 range down here. So e85 has more detonation resistance than regular gas but not propane value.

Just because a fuel is higher octane and has greater detonation resistance it does not mean that it runs better with more advance.

alcohol is the best example of Dave's Statement. Because its an oxygenate fuel, the flame travel is faster than comparable octane rated gasoline. ON methanol, peak performance for my engine was 32 degrees timing advance. On 116 race fuel its 34 to 36 degrees total depending on air temp.

X2. The difference in optimum timing requirements has been negligable for the BBFs I have conducted back to back Dyno testing on E85 Vs race fuel. These have been both A460 and SCJ type cylinder heads and all in the 14:1 mechanical compression range.