Anal-Boy

Well, we have heard about everyman and his dog running diesel engines off vegetable oil with varied success.

But what about petrol engines? What could you brew up in your shed that you can run a petrol engined car off?

Alcohol based fuels such as ethanol and methanol, as I understand it, are too corrosive and eat at fuel lines, pumps injectors and engine internals?

So, is there anything that could be added to the above to make it more engine friendly, or what do you need to do to make an engine run off it without problems? Or what other base chemicals could you use instead?

AB

beemerboy

anyway you choose, it would cost more than petrol, and not be readily available, so why bother????

BB

fast bloke

you could run it on really really strong home brew

Anal-Boy

For now, maybe it would cost more.....but what about in the future? We know petrol is going to go up and up to the extent that cost-wise it will be feasible.

Maybe handy if another fuel protests occurs with the mass cha0s at the petrol pumps.

It's all Blair's fault

Also, I'm sure a few JDM owners maybe insterestedproducing 100RON+ fuel

(For now ignore the need to pay fuel duty...it's just between me and you, so shhhhh! )

ajm

Why would ethanol/methanol cause any more corrosion of engine internals? You are probably thinking of Nitromethane based fuels?

The primary products of combustion are the same as for all hydrocarbon based fuels, CO2 and water! Depending on how clean you can make the alcohol it should be less corrosive due to lack of sulphur, although nitrogen dioxide could still be a problem during combustion. There may also be solubility issues with some plastics, although if they are ok in petrol they will most probably be ok in alcohol.

The main change to run on ethyl alcohol (ethanol), which you can brew up and distill, is that it requires a richer fuel to air mixture than petrol.

Anal-Boy

Ahh, you maybe right.

From seeing speedway racers and some stocks cars said to run on "meths" It may have been Nitromethane as opposed to Methanol.

What is the problem with the nitrogen dioxide? I take it this is why Nox is sneered upon when used as a modification? Is that for the same reasons? (it combusting to a dioxide).

Sulphur I know to cause problems with nickle plated cylinder liners, but I would think they would be ok with standard cast liners.

chaos.

Wow you know what I just found out that chaos is still alive.

Ach and analboy is not me, I know my chemistry thanks and your right Nitromethane is used in drag racers, but I mix it with ammonium nitrate (40% )

Much more fun

LAAter.

ajm

The problem with N02, which is formed from high temp combustion in the presence of nitrogen in the air, is that it dissolves in water to form nitric acid! Engines produce NO aswell, but this usually ends up as NO2 when combine with UV sunlight, as is the case with London smog.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an oxygen source as it breaks down into N2 and O2. It feeds more oxygen into the engine, but the higher presence of nitrogen would doubtless lead to more NO and N02 being formed.

Anal-Boy

Ahh, Understood, so it's just the engine internals that I need to worry about. Being most engines have alloy heads and pistons this maybe the problem which I have heard about alot (in gossip).

Anal-Boy

Damn...Busted!!

ajm

I would have thought ethanol would produce less nitrogen oxides than petrol because of the lower burn rate. It should be more resistant to knocking for the same reason.

David_Wallis

you cant run on just methanol.. afaik you would need much bigger injectors.. you may also have probs with bits freezing.. also ecu wouldnt like it as lambda 1 for petrol is 14.7:1 where as with methanol it is 6.4:1

It also eats rubber, so fuel rails and injectors would need consideration.. but power