That's impressive Roland!
I'm convinced that a reworked Viper with good compression, tight 0.040" or better quench (piston to chamber clearance), lean cruise mix and plenty of vacuum advance - not overdone, but just optimised for cruising - could get 30mpg at 65mph interstate average. Yeah - it'd be boring as hell - but i know it'd impress me!
I've always liked the idea of being able to smoke pretty much anything I came up against, but when cruising along with the traffic getting as good a mileage as everyone else was in their econo family sedans.
I've played with fuel vapourisation and know there's a lot more to be had than what we can buy... but you need big resources to make it commercial - and the will to fight the vested interests who do not want you to do it. The 200mpg flathead V8 story of the 1930's with Pogue carburettor is alas true... but it won't work as well now as the modern fuel has chemicals in it that will destoy the catalytic reaction after about 1500miles (due to residue build up)... and I'm unaware of anyone overcoming that problem. There's enough energy in 1 gallon of fuel to send a Viper a mile straight up into the air... don't believe for a second the oil industry and car industry is giving us everything they've got!
I reckon direct chamber injection utilising commercial diesel pressures (15,000psi) would give some interesting results (very good atomisation)along with adding nickle plating to piston crowns and chambers then adding water injection and a tuned electrical current. Just a theory.... but when a molecule of water turns to steam (let alone "cracks") it expands instantly 1500 times its original size - time that right and its got to be good for you
..afterall, what is a 1,200,000hp Nuclear powered Air Craft Carrier - nothing but a steam turbine. Water is indestructible - if you superheat it, it will drive anything, crack it and it releases more energy than grandma after a bean and egg sandwich.
There's been a string of 100% water engines that you'll be hard pressed to find now... one guy here built em, and he's been missing for 2 decades. The skeptics can laugh, but try laughing to his family left behind, they didn't find it funny when they found out two guys in suits paid a visit and then he wasn't around anymore. A friend of mine knew him, I only wish I had - I might have picked up some missing links in the puzzle.
PS. these water engines did not need hydrogren storage tanks - just tap water! They were car engines as we know them that were modified. For a while he was a bit of a local legend in his home town and he used to drop some jaws pulling up at service stations and filling up from the tap!
Imagine refilling your Viper from the tap! And boy is there some serious power in cracked H20 - makes a gasoline engine look like a skateboard!
we played a bit one day and found that 50/50 water and gasolene mixes and burns really well if you add a few drops of dishwashing liquid... we later played with a few other things and got the lawn mower to run on 50% water and make more power than before.. the last 50% however... when I'm rich and semi-retired that's an area I'd like to play in some more
we also used to get a repeated 6% power gain on race cars by filtering their pump gas through an activated carbon filter... there were a few other tricks that worked too but I'm raving on...
better go before the anti-conspiracy buffs come to take me away
