Pat, At the time of the tests of the injected Ethanol/water in the Dodge 318's, I adjusted the flow into the intake manifold at high RPM and adjusted it rich until it stumbled giving it the max alcohol/water that it could handle in addition to the preset gasoline, then leaned that alcohol/water...
Thanks Pat, that pretty much sums up my construction, operation of a still, building of an alcohol engine and the experiments afterwards on my DOE grant. I tried ethanol from wheat and from corn and both worked well in my engine. As for cost in operation of a still to make ethanol, I didn't...
Many diesel truck engines on the over the road trucks use a compressed air powered starter motors but I directly inject compressed air into the combustion chamber to spin the engine over to start this engine.
I designed and built a air distributor keyed to the camshaft and an engage and...
btrueblood, I ruled out "fuels" like that due to cost. Can you picture gas stations/markets with liquid Nitrogen in stock for customers and how much would that cost for a fill up? That would get a better range then just a compressed air tank but there is no system set up to refill. I went at it...
Sorry maxc, I had no equipment to monitor flow rate and it was always ethanol that I had made with my still. All I did was done with standard mechanics tools. The flow rate was adjusted to a high rate while at a high throttle opening until the engine stumbled and then leaned out just enough to...
Hemi, My tests of the two Dodge 318 trucks was done with the engines on gasoline and no alterations at all were made in timing nor fuel mixture. So nothing was changed except the addition of a small volume of 100 proof alcohol to the intake. I first thought it could be the addition of a small...
Hemi, The wright engine lost 30 brake horse power power on one cylinder by injection of water/alcohol and that resulted in a loss of 35% of the power that #10 cylinder normally produced? Is that true?
Do you have any info on what the water/alcohol ratio was (proof)? also what volume of alcohol...
Pat & Azmios,
I did not have a condenser on either the alcohol engine nor on the two Dodge 318 engines. But the thought did cross my mind and on a third engine that only made it on the drawing board I did consider it. I wanted to build a small SI engine the run two cylinders on gasoline slightly...
Pat, doesn't that confirm my tests on my straight 170 proof ethanol engine maintaining power with 15% content of water when compared to that same engine tests running on 200 proof?
With my 170 proof I had lost 15% of my fuel and using water to replace that 15% should have lost some heat...
I have a question for all of you as I have no engineering degree and ask it out of practical applications.
I noted that in the mid 70's on, when emission control was applied to auto engines, the combustion chamber temperatures climbed higher (thus burning the Nitrogen and producing NOx)...
Pat, you mean that you can heat air and get just as much power as heating water and turning it into steam? I didn't know that. Why didn't steam engines just heat the air and not bother with the water? Does heating air give you the same expansion power as turning water to steam?
That still...
Thanks again azmios, for the clear explanation. I didn't know why it worked, I just know for sure that it does work and works well from my experiments and practical application. Those in doubt need to actually try it.
Slim3
Thanks azmios, I will try to find those SAE papers and read them. I am about to finish up my direct injected compressed air starting system on my show car and plan to enter it in the Oct 13th British car show in Nashville.
Lots of great information bouncing around here. I am now studying compressed air as a power source for an engine. I have built a Olds 215 to start on direct injected compressed air and it works well. My next project is a full operating compressed air engine. However to expect any range I had to...
Thanks Thrusthefence, that article by Pratt & Whitney was informative and the Piston engine part clearly explains why I got more performance from the two Dodge engines by adding water injection. I was only thinking of the steam produced and didn't think about the fact that the latent heat of...
Great info from all of you. Evelrod, is "Red Line" water wetter the same "Red Line" in CA that handles all the Weber carb parts?
I use to follow all the tech articles Smokey Yunick wrote in Circle Track mag. He was ahead of most everyone in many areas.
I will post the results of the tests I...
That all sounds good on paper but I ran acceleration tests many times and found that the alcohol with 15% water (170 proof) performed just as well as 200 Proof. I know how to tune an engine and tuned the engine on each fuel. That was a Triumph TR-7 with two Stromberg carburetors with adjustable...
It seems that one just can't win on coolant. I am disheartened again. If you want good heat transfer use water, but it will freeze and boil, You can add one poisonous antifreeze and you loose some of the heat transfer and gain leaks and still need to pressurize the system to stop it from boiling...
Thanks Rod, cool web site. Looks like first class work. I have 5 of the 215's, four Olds and one Buick (the one Rover used)
I have rebuilt the Rover version 215 for people. I think Rover claimed that the casting process GM used was a problem and they corrected that but visually I couldn't see...
From my tests of alcohol with 15% water in it and from all that Jellydonut points out, there is plenty enough evidence that water injection can produce a lot of power and added economy.
If we had a catalyst that would truly mix at least 15% water in gasoline and not have any phase separation...
