Folks,
I'm looking at driving the 'B the rest of my life, and I think that by 2010
gasoline will be at least $5/gallon. With this in mind, my future engine
mods will take fuel-efficiency highly into account.
One thought I had was a supercharger on a very mildly-tuned engine. I read
about a fellow in Australia who used Hans Pedersen's supercharger on a B-GT
(http://www.hi-flow.com/HPSuperchargerKits.htm), and he said he got better
fuel mileage when driving mildly
(http://www.onvic.com.au/motoring/magazine/mg/7.htm).
Another thought I had was using a small European diesel and use alternative
diesel fuel in it (there are books on how to turn used restaurant grease
into diesel-fuel with little more than a washing machine motor and a 45
gallon drum). I wonder how much it would take to turn a VW 1.9L diesel 90
degrees?
Then there's converting to natural-gas or true corn fuel (pure ethanol). The
natural gas conversion would probably be easy, and would lessen pollutants.
The Ethanol is popular in many parts of the country, but not others.
Anyway, I'm looking to get over 30 MPG out of the 'B, with at least 100hp
(depending on torque). I think this is viable.
David Randall
'66 'B-GT (Basil)
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