Alchohol as Fuel?

[skrufryder]

I was watching that discovery channel show the colony its about people who survived some disaster anyways they were making alcohol as fuel in a senario like that how do you guys feel about these MB's it would be a great way to get back to civiliation anyways just something to think about

 

[kerf]

I would never, ever watch reality TV, but I do know what your talking will work, just not as well as gas. First you will need an alky carb, made with materials that alky won't destroy, and jetted for higher fuel flow. The engine will require more fuel with alky than gas because alky produces less BTU's per pound than gas.

 

[motorpsycho]

you can't just use off the shelf alcohol either...you need to buy alcohol that is designed to be used as fuel, and it's more expensive than gasoline. you'd be looking at spending $30.00 for 5 gallons of alcohol
there is more to it than just dumping some plain old alcohol into the gas tank.
normally the amount of alcohol it will take to run an engine is double the amount of gas.
The correct air-fuel ratio for gas is 14.1 to 15.1, but for alcohol it is 7.1 to 9.1.
you have to advance the timing anywhere from 5 degrees to 15 degrees depending on the combustion chamber design.
alcohol is a "dry" fuel, and your fuel-oil ratio would have to be increased. alcohol is really designed to run in 4 strokes (race car and motorcycle engines) and they have to add an upper cylinder lube to the alcohol to lubricate the valves.
alcohol will give you more power, but for what it costs to make an engine run on it wouldn't be worth the effort on one of these little 2 strokes.

 

[skrufryder]

Yeah........ I was just wathcing that show and they were making surgar water alchohol "white lightning" you know surgar, water and yeast fermented into the sauce... the interesting thing will be to watch them distill it with out a termometer.... alcohol turns to vapor at like 182 to 185 i belive and water turns to vapor at like 187 or something anyways will be fun to see what happens........ at the worst the could get drunk i quess

 

[DougC]

There is a video made about the Bougainville war, showing how rebels were fueling a white diesel pickup truck off of plain coconut oil. You will know it if you see the same video--they had to have about eight guys help push-start it, because the battery had long since died.

I *think* this video linked below is sourced from the same original video, but I remember that the video I saw was longer.... it was in about five or six parts, of about seven minutes each.

This video has scenes I don't recall, and it lacks the opening scenes I remember (where the rebel boat that the reporter is on in the beginning, is met by another rebel boat while on the ocean)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3yoK261TY
~

 

[Slackbiker]

Overall i think it is worth waiting for the Cyclone Engine:
http://www.cyclonepower.com/

 

[RedBaronX]

Overall i think it is worth waiting for the Cyclone Engine:
http://www.cyclonepower.com/

I WANNA RUN MY BIKE ON BANANA PEELS!!!

 

[motorbikemike45]

Brazil switced to alcohol fuel for autos some years ago. If I recall correctly, each car had to carry a gallon or so tank of gasoline to start on, then they could switch over to alcohol. Alcohol will not vaporize well enough at lower temps, and "lower" temps are still quite high in Brazil. Once the intake is warmed, even a little, then the alcohol works fine. The fuel mileage penalty is not half of what you would get on gasoline, as stated above, but it is in the neighborhood of 20-35% less MPG ,depending on compression ratio. I believe alcohol will work on higher compression ratios, as it has a higher octane rating than all but the highest test gasolines. Special oils would have to be formulated to use alcohol in two strokes.

 

[skrufryder]

I think if you were to run alcohol you could get by using trans fluid.....