[Sparkeysmall]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Lugging your power generation equipment around is inefficient. Ignoring the aero penalties of solar panels and the silly inefficiencies of vehicle mounted panels, the weight would be better spent on battery capacity. Think of it as a couple 5 gallon gas cans in the back instead of a mini biodiesel refinery filling the bed of your truck.

Upping the compression ratio, or doing anything else to your engine is going about things backwards. Your truck is one of the sloppiest, most inefficient messes on the road. It's heavy and unaerodynamic with gobs of rolling and powertrain resistance being pushed around by a big V8 through an automatic transmission. Driving it is like moving a bean bag chair around by kicking it. You seem to think that changing the way you kick it will change the way it moves, but it's still a bean bag chair even if you get Adam Vinatieri to kick it. Work on what it does once you've fed power to it before you worry about the exact way you feed power to it.

It doesn't take much of a gain to make a huge difference in your rig's economy, and that's great, that's our focus here. Trying to do it backwards leaves that gain sitting on the table, wondering why you don't want it.

I would slap a manual transmission behind it before i ever tear down the engine.

How does increasing the compression reduce economy? By that logic a prius would be running 4:1. But it uses the atkinson cycle. And from what i found in one min of googleing in the NZ engine, it uses a 13:1 static but with the cams gets dropped to an effective 8:1. So why would they squeeze the 1.5l engine physical size with a smaller effective size because of the atkinson cycle to such a high ratio? Because the greater expansion from spark to exhaust stroke allows better use of the heat generated.

Now. Compairing any atkinson engine to an otto is like apples and oranges.

So what about a typical non-hybrid, otto cycled car. From the multiple modern econoboxes i googled they all where around 10.5:1. Pretty much the max you could use while pumping regular gas. Albiet with a very tiny camshaft.

Anyway. Squeezing a large mixture into a tiny mixture increases heat generated by compression alone. And a hotter mix burns faster, producing more power earlier on the down stroke, as well as a more complete burn (warm and hot air intakes for instance. (Ya ya "smaller" engine, less dense, less parastic losses)). So with higher heat generated from the same amount of air and fuel, more efficiency. Why compress the fuel at all if just igniting it at ambient pressure makes more power than compressing it. Explode a small box vs a gymnaisium with the same amount of fuel and air.

And like i said. A watt is still a watt. What about high noon in the middle of summer? Panels sloped on the back of the car driving away from the evening sun? Sure if you could fit 400 dead on straight watts on the roof you probably wouldnt get more than 200 realistically. And anyway they make flat flexible panels now. And they dont weigh very much. Less than all those airbags they keep shoving into every knook and cranny. The point is its still some electricity coming in by a "renewable" resource. And you all said it yourself. "Every little bit counts.". If a few cells on the roof of a car saved x number of gallons of fuel over its lifetime. Some idiot with more money than me and a "save the planet" ego would still buy it. It doesnt even have to be a standard feature. Just some silly add on. Somebody would buy it.

Personally i could care less about the environment. Call me a pessimist but the world as we know it is one asteroid or volcano eruption away from going back to a ball of nothing. If i wasnt so cheap yet living this lifestyle i would either be kicking it in alaska doing nothing but finding heat and food. Or driving a $200 econobox (aka the old hyundai i had when i was delivering pizzas) to some desk job for some econo whatever company. I decided i wanted to be able to travel the country and work wherever. I needed a pickup that could handle everything i needed. Diesel was out of the question because of its high inital cost and massive oil/maintenance bills. Ya sure someday ill have one. But i got this v10 for a good price. It handles everything i need it to and then some. And i knew good and well when i bought it that it would get nothing for miles per gallon. And also had the intentions of modifying it to suit my needs. I would love to have a pickup that smokes hondas at the lights. But at the expense of fuel and towing abilities.

Simply put everybody is different. Im young but momma diddnt raise no fool. In this economy its hard to get a decent living without a degree. And i totally dont have the cash for higher education. Welding is my skill. All i need is a weld test and i got a good paying job. And by widening my area of work over the lower 48 states ill have work for as long as i live. i cannot use a prius for my profession. And i am way too cheap for the $60,000 price tag on new diesel pickups. Let alone the average $12000 everybody wants for the typical lifted with 22's and a 10" pipe out the back "rolling coal"... Simply put its hard to find an all original diesel pickup (in general) for less than $10,000. And if it is less than that. Its got 400,000 miles on it and or beat to hell.

Im sorry for these long posts. And i can get on a bit of a rant. But simply put i do my research. I have mechanical logic. Ive done my automotive homework. Ive owned a plethora of different vehicles. And this truck takes the cake on being a turd. But its the best turd ive ever had. Its clean, lowish miles and all original/bone stock. I hate buying modified vehicles. And the only one ive modified past a stereo is my beloved '95 jeep grand cherokee. Im never getting rid of it. I plan to keep this truck for a good long while. And the more i modify it the more i will love it. Theres something to be said for your own project vehicles. I took on the challenge of a less than 10mpg pig to making it efficient to modern standards.

Anyway. Im lowering it down today. 4" in the back and 1 or 2" up front. We will see how it sits when i get the rear dropped down.