376 MPG Blast From the Past

[outsidethebox]

The Lab glass holding the fuel is neat. I have one just like it. You can do a lot with it distill alcohol or solvents by running cold fluid around the coils. You also could expand or vaporize fuel by running hot fluid say heated radiator fluid around the coils. It's glass and it's beautiful but fragile, nice for seeing and understanding the process. For practical applications you would want it made out of metal or stainless.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by outsidethebox

There is no reason we shouldn't have a 300 to 500 MPG car right now. They have had it wrong all these years. It will be easy to build but you have to realize what's wrong with what we have. Look at it differently.

That's a great idea! You should do that! It's easy!

Why haven't you modded your Neon that way? Have you owned it since new- 14 long years of using so much gas???

Lessee... pull the EFI off and stick a carb on it... insulate the engine compartment... throw the transaxle away and put a chain in there... put heat exchangers on everything... a few other lil things and yer set!

[Brillig]

I wonder what might be on the inside of the oil pan - perhaps a 1 gallon or so metal gas tank, set to evaporate in the heated up engine oil, the gas would evacuate through that funny 'air intake' and would probably break the test. Dumping gas in the oil would have the same effect of course. Excuse my skepticism.

Where is the intake air going in to the engine coming from, by the way, it is unclear from the picture.

[hu_man]

Do some research on Smokie Yunicks Hot vapor engine. I have been wanting to build one for sometime now. I now have the fuel injection technology so it maybe a lot easier to control the fuel. He basicly heated the fuel up with the coolant then with the exhaust the sent it through a turbo charger that he called a mixer then into the engine. I think the key here is to reclaim the heat. I have looked at heat regenerators on turbine engines and they do the same thing to increase eff.
Good luck getting 300+mpg on the cheap gas they sell today.
Hugh

[dcb]

lol, Smokey Yunick, the guy who builds a complete 7/8 size chevelle to try and fool the judges and slip in a smaller than stock car

Smokey Yunick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[hu_man]

He was getting 100+ mpg on a Feiro. I can not remember the exact figures but he was getting some amazing results with it. I did some study on it in 96 at UNO library. Unv. of New Orleans. They had a lot of magizines with articles on the subject. I have not found anything with any depth to it. I would like to try something like this with a rotory valve engine. I think that the automakers are missing the boat on rotor valve engines check out the british aircraft that had the Knight engine mods they got more power and better fuel consuption than the same size American aircraft engines.
Hugh

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Brillig

I wonder what might be on the inside of the oil pan - perhaps a 1 gallon or so metal gas tank, set to evaporate in the heated up engine oil, the gas would evacuate through that funny 'air intake' and would probably break the test. Dumping gas in the oil would have the same effect of course. Excuse my skepticism.

Where is the intake air going in to the engine coming from, by the way, it is unclear from the picture.

I doubt there's a hidden gas tank in the sump. It is evident to me they burned volatiles from the crankcase "oil", which could be regular motor oil spiked with gas or two-stroke mix.

It's funny, I've seen pics of this thing for decades and yet yesterday was the first time I really looked at the engine pic to see what was going on. Then it became clear. That insulated funnel coming off the radiator is the combustion air intake. It goes straight to the crankcase. The carb inlet is fed by that large rubber hose going to the valve cover. To heat the air going through the sump in order to stir up the volatiles from the oil and combust them is partly (mostly?) why they went to such lengths to insulate it.

Another funny thing... there has to be a million stories about this thing online, and I've read many, many of them, but NOT ONCE has anyone commented on it's crankcase fume burning system... and the effect that would have on fe. Hell, I laid it out here and it didn't generate much response either!

Of all the techno stuff I laid out earlier, "outsidethebox" only talks about that stupid lab heat exchanger.

[JeremyinIndy]

So that's what the funnel thing on the Rad does! I hadn't figured that one out yet.

Want to bet that the only cooling the radiator is good for then is what air the intake pulls through it?

Stripping volitles out of the oil or a 2-stroke mix in the crank could work, and seems to be in the spirit and theme of FE competitions. Cheating! Otherwise it's the biggest PCV ever installed on a car.

Plus, it's an engineers plaything for 1 competition. You run it total loss. If we blow the engine, so what? It's a one-shot deal using old stuff they picked up dirt cheap. You can bet they pulled atleast the backup compression rings off, and probably the oil scrapers. The more I think about it, the sump is probably almost dry, you don't want to rob anything from the crankshaft splashing through oil. I wouldn't be surprised if just to start it took heatguns, a guy adding propane, a guy just to work the carb settings...

So it started off as a wagon, then they went all Ranchero style on it, chopped on it angrily, and put lightening holes everywhere, the interior was gutted and lightened... It's not even CLOSE to the 2100 - 2500 lb curb weight mentioned earlier.

BUT, why didn't they do an aerodynamic seal on the grille in the front? Babymoons or full spheres in the headlights instead of the blanking plates? Or run lighter, narrower motorcycle rims&tires instead of aircraft tires?

[dcb]

lol, 93 octane oil Smokey would have been proud.

[cfg83]

Frank -

I am curious. Forget about the 376 MPG claim. Assuming no cheating for the moment, what do you think the configuration could have realistically gotten back in the day?

CarloSW2