Not to mention that ethanol from corn is the very worst possible "biofuel" we could be making - it takes more energy to make than it delivers, wastes cropland, water, and unless the US government continues huge subsidies - meaning your taxes are being used to make it so cheap - it would cost more than straight gasoline. Look at this: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080503/biofuels_compare.gif main page: http://pl.reddit.com/info/6j2dl/comments/
It's all political, so we don't have to drill in the Alaskan Mosquito Preserve and disturb a few polar bears, maybe. Chuck Kuecker marc vellat wrote: > Ethanol does indeed have a higher octane (resistance > to self-ignition) than gasoline but it also provides > substantially less energy per gallon so you need to > burn more of it to get equivalent power from the same > engine. Modern "flex-fuel" EFI engines are able to > automatically adjust the fuel/air ratio depending upon > what's in the tank at any given moment, but a > carburetor can't perform that trick - you'd need to > increase the fuel jet sizes by 30% or so over what's > needed for straight gasoline to keep from running > dangerously lean. Problem here is that "E85" > encompasses all mixtures from nearly 100% gasoline to > 15% gasoline, so without a reliable consistent supply > it'd be impossible to run fixed jetting. > Another issue is that alcohol can be corrosive to some > types of rubber used in the fuel system (the > accelerator pump diaphragm, for example). > It is possible to recoup the power lost from the lower > BTU/gal by raising the compression ratio (the high > octane makes that feasible) but an engine assembled > that way will never be able to safely run straight > pump gasoline again. > If you live in a region where E85 is readily available > and can be counted on to always be right around 85% > alcohol, you could jet your carburetor to run on it > but your MPG will be significantly lower unless you > also build the engine with a much higher compression > ratio. > Figuring upon about 30% worse mileage, $2.79 compares > to around $3.63 for gasoline. It might still be less > expensive per mile, but you will need to rejet and > even then the power output will be commensurately > lower - it'd take a much larger cost/mile differential > before I'd be enticed to fool with it, personally. > > --- Timothy Osburn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> I was on vacation in my Bus last week and ran into >> some gas stations that had E85 ethanol for >> $2.79/gal. It was rated at 100 octane! I am >> surmising this fuel would not be a go in our old >> air-cooled engines. Would I be correct and can >> anyone tell me what it might do to the engine if you >> ran it? >> Tim Osburn, Head Mechanic, Ralph Spoilsport Motors. >> _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
