Definitive Proof That Government’s Attempts To Regulate Fuel Mileage Is Asinine

Needs of the Many ^

[vaper69]

Anyone interested in a car that gets 110 mpg, 400 hp, and 500 tq? Of course you are, but where can you get such an automobile? What if I told you that you just need to get the engine, and put it in your car? Awesome huh?

A man has invented an E85 engine that gets all those stats. E85 is known for being very inefficient, but it delivers more horsepower to engines that can run on it while reducing mpg. All we needed was someone to make E85 efficient. Well, now we have.

[avacado]

Looks sketchy.

A combustion engine uses about 40% of the energy from gasoline for work and the other 60% gets dissipated as heat. If you could contain all the heat and transfer it back to work, then there would be a 150% increase in performance. A Mustang that gets 25mpg would now get 62.5mpg if the engine was 100% efficient.

Not sure how the guy is getting the additional 47.5mpg? Also he’s burning E85 which is even less efficient than just gasoline.

[wastedyears]

Gotta love the government mandating food crops to be destroyed (turned into “fuel” is absolutely, totally useless and counterproductive).

[taildragger]

Both Ethanol Boosting Systems (with Ford) and Ricardo Engrg. are working on some form of Ethanol Direct Injection, either as a supplementary fuel or primary fuel.

They are claiming up 25% fuel economy improvement over current engines.

Which leads me to believe he has to have a compression ratio through the moon with Direct Injection to make up for the other 2 systems massive amounts of turbocharging, or this is a scam.

And yes no way his he going to get the marginal increases that these two other engine houses are not, I want to see engineering drawings, or I'll write this one off. Something doesn't pass the smell test.

[mamelukesabre]

Theoretically, there’s alot of improvements to be made.

Turbo chargers, direct injection, pulsed fuel charges, supplimental hydrogen injection, offset crankshafts, sterling cycle, higher operating temps, higher compression...blah blah blah.

Now that’s just talking about the engine.

Then there is rolling resistance, wind resistance, regenerative braking, hybrid drives, vehicle weight, internal friction of gears and bearings...blah blah blah.

I’ve no doubt they can build a mustang sized car that gets well over 100mpg. But the mods would be extensive and pricey and you would end up with a car that most people wouldn’t be happy with. Not to mention the EPA may not be happy with the increase in NOx emissions.

[mamelukesabre]

theoretically, a top of the line direct injected gasoline engine should be able to handle the same compression ratios as the highest compression ratio diesel engine....twenty something to one.

[John Galt's cousin]

I love free republic! Thirteen minutes and freepers post incisive comments

I have the impression that the comments on the dimi sites would consist of ad hominem attacks on the poster who posted a sacreligous (sp?) article that questioned their orthodoxy

Thanks for the insightful post

[BobL]

Agree with others - scam alert. If the mileage was as good as claimed, why doesn’t he share his secret(s), so that there can be some peer review.

Also, if it is not difficult to get 100 MPG, then manufacturers around the world would do it, and they would not give a damm about patent rights (they may not be allowed to sell it here, but big deal, China is huge and could use that car a lot more than the US).

There are thousands of excellent engineers at Japanese auto makers, and they would have easily invented a workable system long before some guy in his garage could.

[When do we get liberated?]

Theories are great, but there is a reason for the size of the bearing journals and the size of the crank and rods in a diesel.

[mamelukesabre]

Yeah so?

Whats the big deal about beefing up the lower end? All engine’s should beef the lower end up AND double the lube oil pressure. And double the oil reservoir capacity.

That’s my opinion. I want a million mile motor with double the typical efficiency. A 50,000 mile oil change interval would be nice too.

I also think a 24 volt electrical system should be mandated, but that’s a hole-nuther-ish-yoo.

[When do we get liberated?]

I was merely stating that there are design differences between diesel and gas. GM converted gas 350 cid motors to diesel with catastrofic results. Excess oil pressure will do nearly as much damage as low oil pressure. What you need is about 10 psi plus 10 psi per 1000 rpm to about 5000 rpm. Adding resevoir capacity will help you go longer between oil changes as long as the pan is deep enough to keep it out of windage. You are free to change your oil every 50k. and you probably will never do it twice....

On a humorous note, I ran a dealership and we bought a 145K GMC Jimmy. Pretty truck, ran like crap. I was doing paperwork with a customer and my foreman came in, notioning me to come see something in service. 20 minutes or so later I came out and the oil was still draining! looked like asphalt!. If you ran a screwdriver around the opening it would glob out a bit quicker, but it was the nastiest oil I had ever seen. A dozen oil changes later, It came out clean, but never was right. We sold that pos at auction.

[mamelukesabre]

You are wrong about the oil pressure.

In an ideal world you want oil that runs like water, a bearing clearance just this side of zero, parts dimensional tollerance just this side of zero, parts stiffness just this side of infinity, and very high oil pressure...so long as you got the oil reservoir capacity and the ability to drain the oil back to the reservoir from the heads very quickly. A dry sump system would be preferred.

The higher the lube oil pressure, the smaller bearings you can get away with.

The max allowable load on a bearing(plain bearings, not roller bearings) is defined as the bearing area multiplied by the lube pressure, multiplied by some kind of safety factor. Viscosity is like a secondary backup measure. When an engine first starts up, the bearings are considered dry and it relies on viscosity to sustain it until oil pressure builds up. It’s only a fraction of a second.

If they designed a motor to have electric oil pumps, they could pump up the lube pressure before firing up the engine. Then there’s no need for high viscosity oils