I have a secret fantasy of slowly drifting from the grid but still retaining my hot rod and custom desires. You know: farm, solar/wind power, well water, that kind of thing. No I'm far from crunchy or hippy, despite where I live. Any ways I have started reading a book by David Blume called Alcohol Can Be A Gas! Good read. It's about running cars on pure or mostly pure alcohol, ethanol. So I am curious, is there any one out there running fuel from their still in the hot rod? Because come on, who doesn't want to still some alky! Moonshine forever!
Have you looked at the alternative fuel social groups here on the HAMB? I have run a ton of E85 but other than studying distilling thats all I got.
Where are the social networks? I still need to learn the art of distilling, for now I would just try and find a good source of industrial alcohol. For adding and tuning experiments. Never mind found them.
Alcohol, whether methanol or ethanol, has been used for fuel as long or longer than gasoline it is extreamly popular in many forms of racing. Some of the draw backs are the amount of fuel load needed to be practical, you need twice the volume as gasoline, also it is corrosive so you will need some different materials in your fuel system but all of it is readily available. third is availibility if you run out your not going to hoof it to the corner shell station. If your still not skeerd it makes great power runs very cool and is also clean burning and renewable if your into all that green crap.
Doesn't scare me one bit! I like the power and cool running bit. I have a couple of good reads I'll be putting my face in to. My dad always told me about how he ran it long ago, so I'll probably bug him for all his secrets. Thanks.
I forgot to mention it also has a wicked smell you will grow to love although it can be rough on the eyes. there are tons of methanol carbs out there and several E85 carbs most EFI can be mapped for whatever you choose or if your going to run mechanical injection hilborn will set you up with a base tune up you can tweek although that might be a tempermental way to go on the street.
This is completely false. Alcohol is a solvent, it is in no way corrosive. This means that other materials dissolve when exposed to it. They do not corrode. You don't need twice the volume either. Gasoline releases about 112,000 BTU per gallon burnt. E100 (100% ethanol) releases 76,100 BTU per gallon, or about 68% or 2/3 of gasoline. Since power output and efficiency of the Otto Cycle (internal combustion piston engines) is based on the combustion ratio, Ethanol is at a disadvantage when it is used in engines designed for gasoline (combustion ratio less than 10:1). Ethanol becomes a much better fuel choice when it is run an an engine designed for it (CR > 13:1). It is hard for people to believe, but an engine that is designed for ethanol will be more powerful (Hp per ci) and efficient than a similar one that is designed for gas. This is why Indy cars, alot of drag racers, and most dirt track series either run Ethanol or Methanol. To the OP. If you want to run E85 or E100, go for it, and post your results when you do. I am guessing that you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.
go for it, its something i always wanted to do to....ever since workin on alcohol roundy pounders........only problem i know of if u wanna live of the grid is making the stuff........they make ethanol around my area and its alot of work and material for the return....and thats made from corn pruducts here......and for methanol.......think would be even worse, made from trees..........gotta chop up alot pf trees.......think thats the main disadvantage.....was an article i read recently about cost per gallon to produce ethanol and it wasn`t very eco friendly.......for the amount of plant material it takes to produce.....so...donno......
Price of Corn Flakes and corn based food stuff goes up because food is taken away to become fuel. Primary fuel source for corn base alcohol is diesel, oil based. Alcohol based fuels absorb water if not sealed from atmosphere correctly and then won't burn. Ask a dirt track guy from a humid area if he as ever bought track fuel that has absorbed water and won't fire an engine even with ether and hair spray. Good ideas. Learn about farming and product sources.
If you are running a diesel in any of your stuff, hit the fast food joints and scoop up all their old cooking oil from the friers. Strain it good then add it to your fuel. Its free
thats true patrick....some can be hard to start even with fresh fuel, that has been one of the problems i thought about, have to fire your car or ether then switch to meth. at least thats what alot of those roundy poundys have to do........and yeah, when i used to have a mercedes diesel, i would just put whatever oil i had in the tank.....mix with a few gals of diesel, it didn`t care, had a friend who found some special injectors from germany that aren`t really legal here, and swore up and down it would burn about anything u could pour in the tank.....
i just make ethy from any ol veggie matter that contains enough sugar to produce alky, rice does it, so does cabage and a billon other things, evean wood, it all works and you just double distill it and you got something runnable, make sure you throw some type of lube in it that burns well or your screwed, i use ultra cheap dollar store auto tranny oil at cup per 180gallons, works quite alright. people call me crazy... and they might be right but it works for me.
oh and im drunk right now so pardon my spelling. guinness not shine so dont go thinking i drink the fuel.
Cold starts can be a pain I'm in florida so not so much here but we were at the world bracket finals in steele alabama in october about 7 years ago it was 45 degrees when we got to the track... drbbled race gas through the carb for about 2 or 3 minutes before it would finally run on it's own, never could get the engine temp over 130i by the way we lost 1st round. Keeping your fuel sealed is critical as Patrick said it is very hydroscopic ( or some scientific word) which in the real world means it bonds to water, any water, humidity condensation in your tank, rain, anything wet. If i gave the impression I thought it was a bad idea let me say I love the idea I just want to help work out the bumps in the road. I dont know anything about distillation other than whats already been said here, I like the sugar cane idea I have heard idycar is using it and it grows like fire around here.
stop looking here and start looking at whisky forums and such. look in the right places and the world will open up for you
There seem to be a lot of myths and misinformation out there. Thanks for the good input, I will definitely keep all updated. I have some good reading to do that pretty much debunks all the negatives said about it, written by a man that is a big part of permaculture. First I am gonna convert my L6 Chevy II, play around with it, then I plan on running my Cadillac 390 on ethanol when I build it up for my hot rod. It will have high compression and will be built alcohol specific. I think beets have the best yield, so I will be planting a good amount in the coming years. Now off to learn how to still.
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