Barney Gaylord <barneymg@MGAguru.com> wrote: At 11:19 AM 5/1/06, Bullwinkle
wrote:
>....
>Not without a jet and needle change. And then ....
Before you get too excited about switching to alcohol fuel, keep in
mind that alcohol has about one half the energy content of gasoline,
so you neeed to use twice as much of it for the same power production
and travel distance. When 90/10 gasohol gives 5% less fuel economy
you might not notice. But when 85/15 fuel gives 42.5% less economy,
and you need 74% more of it, you will notice. Your 27 mpg MG would
suddenly be getting 15.5 mpg running on E85. A 15 mpg sport utility
might go down to about 8.6 mpg on E85..
If a substantial portion of motor fuel use was switched to E85 it
would recuce the world demand for oil, somewhat. If successful this
might bring the price of gasoline back to $2/gallon in the U.S. Then
you would have to be able to buy alcohol for $1/gallon at a time when
there would be increasing demand for it. Good luck there.
A wholesale switch to E85 in North America has to have a greater
cause than the price of fuel. Reduction of reliance on foreign
supply of oil may be a driving factor. Increase of total world fuel
supply could help a little. Reduction of polution would likely be
near nil, as modern cars are phenominally clean already, and you
would be burning twice as much alcohol as gasoline for the amount you are
substituting.
My only thought here is that a switch to a different type (or ratio) of fuel
would certainly start to drive development of that fuel to perform better, I
would think. If it's posed as a way to increase fuel economy or reduce the
price of gas, it's probably doomed to failure. But if it's pushed as a way to
reduce our dependency on foreign oil, it would probably be more palatable to
many. And maybe even force people to start making different decisions about
driving and vehicle buying habits, of their own free will (versus legislation).
Dan D
The Garden State
'76 MGB Tourer - Driver - "On the Road Again....!"
'65 MGB Tourer Project - Yep, still is....
'04 Audi A4 1.8T q MT-6 - quattro, baby!
NAMGBR #5-2328
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dibiase/Working_MG_Gallery.html
|