I've been looking into differnt fuels for years for my
cars, mostly out of hobby & interest then anything
else.
In fact, I pretty much know how to convert much of my
3.3 to run off of anything from typical pump gas, to
racing fuels, to alcohol, water (yes, WATER), natural
gas, and a few other odd balls.
"in a nut shell", an engine is a combustion camber.
Explosions move a piston inside a cylinder. To get
this, you need air, a fuel, and a way to lose the
exhaust gases. That fuel can, on paper, be anything
which will combust.
Now what makes an engine want a specific fuel is the
engine's octane requirements, the design of the engine
and fuel/intake systems. Basically, you can't run
certain fuels unless the engine is made to do so (and
thus the reason why we don't run street cars off of
hydrogen gas). Pistons, internal engine parts, are
only made to take a specific max amount of heat (and
thus the reason why lean means bad).
These "new" fuels aren't pure. And aren't clean
either. Look at the by-product of pure combustion-
water, heat, and CO2. Now look at the current exhaust
gases of a typical modern car- heat, water, CO2, CO,
and some nitrous compounds! Why is this? When we
switched from leaded fuels (which also had lead as a
by-product!), we needed a more user-healthy/friendly
fuel which would still have the octane amount
required. Alcohols consisting of just hydrogen,
oxygen, and carbon, are amoung the cleanest, purest
fuels. Our current pump gas, on the other hand, is
cheaper to produce, can include water (and more often
then not does!), and other "add ins" which actual make
it a less pure fuel (remeber though, water isn't
typically bad for an engine- remeber the concept of
water injection?).
My best example for explaining all this is with
vintage Saabs (this isn't OT- it explains this quite
well). The early to mid 60's models used three
cylinder two-stroke engines which ran @under 60 HP and
leaded gas with added oil. That's because the car's
systems (fuel, engine, etc) were designed to use that
combination. When Saab switched to the Ford block V4
in 1967-1968 (same basic 62 HP V4 used in the Saab
Monte Carlo, Somet, etc) ran off of typical leaded or
unleaded gas, and was enough to drive the carb cars at
speeds great enough for 11 and 12 sec 1/4 mile times,
and these light wieght cars are still used as race
cars in European mountains!
Now interesting, the carb wasn't a big change when
changing to typical pump gas on those saabs. In fact,
if my memory is correct, the V4's can be used with
some 3-cylinder carbs (I believe our '67 Monte Carlo
uses the 58 HP Saab V4 with the Ford block and the '66
carb). But if the carbs are going on the Imperials
because of pump gas, then it would definately be worth
the try of using a differnt carb (not stock). I know
that Holley makes carbs which work with pump gas,
alcohol, and racing fuels.
As a side note, alcohol injection has been a popular
modification for modern engines on both the racing and
home performance sectors. Basically a mix of distilled
water and denatured alcohol is injected into the air
intake (in the form of a mist) of the car.
This has several results. It first cools the air
(which is good, no?). It also cools the combustion
chamber, increases the octane level slightly, and
"steam" cleans the engine and exhaust systems. The
only possible side effects are: too much= hydrolock,
dirt or minerals in liquid (like if tap water is used)
leaves mineral deposits. Now in the world of electric
fuel injection, that means that denatured alcohols are
perfectly safe if used correctly (key term is
correctly). Pouring gallons of denatured alcohol into
the gas tank isn't the koser way of doing it, and
probably would have ill effects (as every form of
alcohol/water injection since the days of WW2 military
aircraft has used the mixture with the original fuel).
Now a carb set up can be used with alcohol/water
injection. Just mist it inside of the aircleaner at a
slow rate.
Either way it is a documented fact that water alcohol
mixtures lower the effects, chances, and occurance of
engine knock (in fact, that's why racing teams use
them presently, and why I'm going to be using it on my
blown 3.3 Dynasty).
Now alcohol/water injection systems are pretty
expensive on the aftermarket kit world (price range is
$200-2,000+ US). The turbo Mopar guys have been using
this stuff however with perfect success rates. Here's
a site on how to build your own alcohol/water
injection system:
http://www.DawesDevices.com/water.html
Now the Buick Grand National guys have been using
these setups since the 80's, and aircraft since the
40's.
Water and alcohol would do harm, and cause a car to
not start, but only if there's too much of it. There
is a line/boundry where too much is too much. I.e. why
its bad to run on less then 1/4 a tank in the winter-
in cold enough temps (like in the winter), water can
actually seperate from pump gas!
So I guess the main key is moderation (though I'm sure
it might not work well on an engine using natural gas
or hydrogen gas for fuel, but that's due to the design
differnces of the engine).
Sorry if I wondered some here, but I believe it was
all needed info.
Oh- and here's an idea- if the older Imperials have
problems starting due to water or cold, etc., may be
worth looking into a cold start fuel injection system.
Been popular in Europe car companies for a couple
decades now... basically sprys fuels into the air
intake when starting. Figure if you used a seperate
tank and kept a "pure" fuel that is known to work in
the extra tank... the possibilties are almost endless.
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