SCUK euro/malta epic road trip

[Anton]

I'm intrigued about actually doing it but I think when driving long distance its best to run on an easily available fuel type.

The beauty of it is, it shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes to put everything back to "petrol" mode.

One site stated that you ideally need higher compression and timing tweaks. Also that it is less economical meaning that you will need to be carrying 100s kg of fuel on board, more weight means more chance of breakages and even less economy. Simplicity is the key to a trouble free long distance road trip in my opinion.

This link also doesn't make it sound that appealing

http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Ethanoluse.htm

I'd be very wary of sites making claims like that - diesel has less energy per kilo than petrol, which is why light aircraft prefer petrol engines, but diesel's higher efficiency means large jet aircraft (jumbo jets etc) run Jet A1, which is basically a form of diesel. And Konigsegg's run 200hp more on ethanol than Petrol. It's not as bad as he makes it sound, not by a long, long way! And his suggestion that ethanol produces less power than petrol is just totally wrong - tuned right (we can work it out, I'm sure! We're smart fellows!) they make a LOT more than on petrol!

With no messing about with compression (Brazil hasn't changed the rods on every car in the country, I can tell you that right now!).

The problem is that you aren't allowed to take drums of fuel on the ferry or channel tunnel.

Showstopper!

I've crunched numbers and I estimate needing at least 4 55 gallon drums per car. There's no way I could make an endurance fuel tank that large for my SJ, I dunno about you!

Maybe I'll make a bio-still anyway, and just run day to day on ethanol in the UK? Using fruit that would have been thrown away, because DC rightly says that putting good food in your petrol tank isn't really ethical.

Maybe someday I'll do a bioethanol powered trip to Scotland, with the fuel in a lockable trailer (so I can unhook, chain it down, and go play!)

[donkeychomp]

NOW that sounds better. Food that is past it's sell by date that can be used as fuel make logical sense captain. I say try it, what have you got to lose?

Didn't realise the DC thing...I'm either me or David Coulthard now lol. Sod it I'm a way better driver than him...honestly.




























Not really.

[Anton]

Yeah, my sister's best friend is a manager at a fruit packing plant, so I thought I'd see if I could buy their throwaway fruit real cheap.

In case you're interested, here's how easy it is to make a still:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-still/

I'd use a steel drum, not a piddly little pan, and I'd use an old heater matrix with a 12v fan to cool it, instead of coiled up pipe in a drum of water.

Power the fan from a peltier element that picks up energy from the side of the still and all you have to do is light a wood fire under it and let it do it's magic.

[ScottieJ]

I'm not ruling bioethanol out but it doesn't seem quite as simple as you are making it out to be Anton

Here's an interestng article and its in a vehicle designed to run on either petrol or e85 (85% ethanol/15% petrol)
http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/e85 ... -test.html
I know you would be making your own fuel so that would be a lot cheaper obviously.

However im still not convinced it's suited to an older carbed vehicle of you want dual fuel use, everything I have read makes it sound like there's more than just simple 10-15min tweaks needed to get good performance out of the fuel. Larger jets, increased fuel delivery, higher compression and timing tweaks etc. Not to mention the changes in some of the materials used in the fuel system. The koenigsegg was designed to run on only ethanol, they didn't just pour ethanol into the standard CCX tank and see 200hp gained I would imagine there were a lot of changes to the engine to optimise it for ethanol use.

At least SU parts are available to solve the small issues they had with just 5% ethanol mix
http://www.v8register.net/articles/Burl ... 281111.pdf

http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id32.html

[Anton]

Hmmm, yes, reading that makes me wonder if it's a good idea.

I was watching the "gramps" 11 second car build on the mighty car mods youtube channel, and they installed a fuel sensor so their (aftermarket) ECU could adjust timing and air/fuel ratio based on the exact mix of ethanol and petrol, and gained a lot of horsepower.

That sounds really very spendy.

[ScottieJ]

I think it would be a good idea for a daily drive, as long as its optimised to run on ethanol, would be super cheap to run as long as you have a nice and big fuel tank. And if you have the space for your distillery

Seems like the biggest issues are in cars that aren't used much.

[Anton]

The problem I (now) see with a daily driver running eth is tuning. You're either going to have to retune it if you have to run petrol (or a mixture) or go the way MCM did and have a flex fuel sensor and an ECU that can automatically adjust between a petrol map and an ethenol map.

First option is a PITA, second one is going to *COST*. My daily driver is a diesel yaris, so I'd probably just make biodiesel if I went biofuel.

Nothing's ever simple, eh?

[donkeychomp]

Astrophysics. That's simple.

[Anton]

Click Here for Youtube Video

[twiss]

It is simple. Drive to continent. Keep putting petrol in until you reach your destibation!