Ah. Must've been the Bosch Platinum spark plugs that made it work.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

propane/CNG tech it's been avalible since the 80's in Argentina, in fact I believe that we're on the cutting edge developement of that. I don't like it, thoug. You have to stick a big tank in the trunk and you have to have above 10:1 SCR to make it work anywhere near gas powered. Not to mention the durability issues wich practically kills the savings... A bunch of fellows down here advocate for CNG, but I don't like it. They say "it makes as much power as liquid fuel". If they would say "OK, not so much power, but it's enviromental safe and cheap I could accept that.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

We've been working with a university team in Canada that's building a hydrogen powered airport tow tractor. This isn't one of these monkey business setups where they're trying to generate the hydrogen onboard - it's simply using hydrogen in welding style cylinders. For the most part, it operates the same way as a gasoline engine. Biggest problem is that conventional wideband oxygen sensors don't work too well with hydrogen.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/h2.htm

The biggest problem with hydrogen is its poor power to packing density ratio. Sure its lighter than air but it has to obey PV=nRT and you get more with bang with propane for the same volume (at the temperatures we are talking about, lets not get into activity coeficients!) Any weight saving you gain with hydrogen you loose with the thick wall high pressure tank.
The next biggest problem with hydrogen is that 99% of it comes from oil and gas via steam reformation at pretty poor efficiency and a very high CO2 cost. But with the hydrogen economy big oil will retain control of the supply line. If it were a battery (or electron) economy then everyone can make their own with solar or wind. this is part of the reason gm called in all teh ev1 leases. Don't forget, protons and electrons have the same charge, but electrons are about 1000 less heavy than protons, 2 protons in hydrogen (unless its monoprotic) and actually very easy to store and make do work (you just need wires! no pipes required!)

anyone selling you a home hydrogen system is a shyster because the round trip efficiency of electrolysis and recombination is less than 50% so unless you have solar or wind, forget it, and even if you do have solar or wind, you'd be better off charging a battery at 80+% round trip efficiency.

gasoline and diesel and alcohol based fuels have the single biggest advantage over coal and gas: they are liquids at operating temp so they can flow through delivery pipes without a compressor or conveyor belt and they can be pumped into a motor (or gravity fed if a motorcycle) with very low effort, and thier flow rates can easily be monitored and controlled. Gas management is a PAIN. Not sure witch is worse, solids management or gas management, but I dont think i want to drive a coal powered slant...

I work in solid oxide fuel cells at St andrews university so I get paid to read about this stuff all day. yes Hydrogen burns clean. yes electrolysis is clean. Managing it is not, and the calorific value of combustion/mole is not worth it. Propane is usable, but then ad an OH and its a liquid and you can pump it (ill take pumping for 100 alex)

I would suggest someone go green with a slant by brewing thier own ethanol and running with that. There must be someone on the board with a moonshine still.

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63 valient 4 speed over drive, holly 390, dutra duals, power steering, ac, hydraulic roof, KH 4 piston disks, kyb gas adjust all round, sway bars front and rear, 8 3/4 rear axcel and the ugliest green you ever saw

I think Hydrogen would be a very viable fuel source...if treated properly. But, it'd require a good bit of custom hardware to run a slant well on it. Firstly, stainless exhaust is mandatory, ultrapure steam is quite corrosive...this is why autoclaves and other pure steam equipment are made of stainless(it's the official color of the pharmaceutical industry). And there's the issue of hydrogen embrittlement. I'm not sure just how that gets tackled, but I'm thinking it would involve some sort of exotic metals in the combustion areas, or exotic treatments to existing metal. But, aside from those two issues, if you can make it fuel-injected, you can run it on hydrogen. The good people at united nuclear are trying to develop a bolt-on hydrogen conversion now...and they're honest about it taking more energy to make than it releases...hence the wind/solar powered hydrogen generators.[/url]

Hey evilsizer, Im a new member to this forum. I also live in Austin and am doing just what you mentioned, converting to LPG. Using salvaged forklift parts. I am certified in LPG and CNG so if you want to try it gimme a PM and I'll invite you over to benchrace. I can help you acquire the stuff you need. Bobby

I've been waiting for our "Public Servants" up in DC to pass home distillation laws that prove this is a free country. Yeah right. I'm holding my breath.
There was a house resolution to legalize limited personal production some years back. It was to make it legal to distill just like making beer or wine.
I put together most of the stuff for a Reflux head. I refuse to finish it till it's legal. It is illegal to thermally refine Ethanol, just in case you were prepping to lose your house, bank account, and move into a slightly more secure surrounding.
Those dirty buggers tabled it, and let it die. Heaven forbid that somebody should make a compound that could be taxed.
If I wanted to go through TTB and play all their silly reindeer games, I could get a permit to make Fuel Ethanol. But not at home. I would need a commercial building at the least, with full fire supression, and keep a bunch of records that I don't want to mess with, make my property open for search at their whim, and so forth.
It's expensive enough to make the stuff without adding all that garbage on top of an experimenter. Visit TTB's web site for a full run down.

Doug Powers is running a drag car on E-85. He's deep into the 14's, brushing the 13's sometimes with that slant. There are issues.

With FI set up for it, E-85 might be a bit more useable, but your economy is going to draw a vacuum.

Speaking of fuel delivery, check out Hydrogen Embrittlement. If that doesn't turn you off to using Hydrogen fuel in a motor vehicle, I don't know what will.

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Methane!

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.