Fuel blanket?

[DifferentPointofView]

I don't know if this has already been addressed, but has anyone thought of warming their fuel up before they head off in the morning?

Cold fuel has a hard time vaporizing, and you tend to get white smoke from your exhaust while your engine is cold until your engine warms up. Unless I'm wrong and the white smoke is just water vapor.

But I've noticed even when my engine is hot, like near 210 if i'm driving in the city without the heater on, when I stop I still have white smoke coming from the exhaust. even though the engine is plenty warm, the fuel is still out in the freezing weather (below 32*F) and is still insanely cold.

Has anyone thought about having an electric blanket on the fuel tank? or routing coolant to near the fuel tank to keep the fuel warm? This would increase fuel mileage I'm guessing. It's just a thought that has ran through my head the last few days.

[metromizer]

My Metro has what I would describe as 'coolant warmed fuel log' about 18" upstream of the throttle body and injector. The factory system transfers some coolant heat into the fuel through this liquid-to-liquid <the name escapes me right now> radiator. On my car, if I added a block heater that warms the coolant, I would likely acheive warm fuel during morning start up.

Another system similar to what you are thinking of, warming the fuel tank and/or fuel lines, can be seem on any site that describes waste veggie oil conversions for Diesels. They has lots of inventive ways to keep the WVO warm and flowing, heated fuel tanks that use coolant through coils, heated fuel lines, heated filters, even pre heating the WVO tank with a 110v probe type oil sump heater has been done.

[wyatt]

The words you were looking for might be "Heat Exchanger".
Here's a schematic of a large heat exchanger. I would guess yours is much smaller.

[metromizer]

Originally Posted by wyatt

The words you were looking for might be "Heat Exchanger".

YES!

I'm sure the OEM heat exchanger on the Metro is some easy-to-manufacture version. It also has a plenum-type intake manifold that has water jackets and coolant flow, as does the throttle body.

[trebuchet03]

Helping fuel vaporizing....

The question is - does it have trouble doing it in the first place?
Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view
And
Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view

In fact, any modern engine in good condition and at normal operating temperature emits only about 1 - 2% of the input fuel as unburnt hydrocarbons, even before passing through the catalyst.

With respect to white exhaust in the morning (when not at normal operating temperature)....
That's water Unburnt fuel coming out of your exhaust looks black and nasty. H20 is a natural by product of combustion (for what we burn). Warm and humid going mixing with cold - condensation. Not to mention the extra water that is leftover in your exhaust components after your car sits overnight

But I've noticed even when my engine is hot, like near 210 if i'm driving in the city without the heater on, when I stop I still have white smoke coming from the exhaust.

That's really weird - especially the part about the heater.... White smoke (smoke, not super fast disappearing cloud) is potentially burning coolant.... If you're worried about it - have your oil analyzed to see if there's coolant and what %.


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If I were to heat the fuel - it wouldn't be the tank... I'd do it inline with a heat exchanger Do I think heating the fuel is beneficial? I don't have empirical evidence either way. Do I think gains are significant? Based on the information presented - not really. If it can be done cheap and reliably, I see no reason why not to tinker

[bennelson]

I started a thread similar to this one a while back.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...fuel-3773.html


I have been doing a lot of reading lately concerning heating fuel as it applies to non-gasoline systems - ethanol, biodiesel, and veggie oil.

It appears that there is little benefit to heating gasoline.

However, you almost HAVE to heat biodiesel in the winter, just to get it to flow. Vegetable oil is usually heated with engine coolant, but it's best to NOT do it in the tank, as that can cause some premature degradation of the fuel.

The most interesting one though, is ethanol!

It appears that heating ethanol can greatly improve fuel economy!

[diesel_john]

the gasoline engine's ability to adjust correctly for temperature has slowly evolved so that by the late 1990's and early 2000's the startup mixtures are much closer to optimal. At least they don't smell like raw fuel.

[bgd73]

Originally Posted by diesel_john

the gasoline engine's ability to adjust correctly for temperature has slowly evolved so that by the late 1990's and early 2000's the startup mixtures are much closer to optimal. At least they don't smell like raw fuel.

That is rather funny. even an spfi sube from 1985 with singular injection got 38mpg all year5 round in maine...-30F to 100F. there is a bullcrapper in the fuel air world, it has elctronics to blame all over it.

I got a kick out of my 1987 carbed sube (nothing fuel heated) and recorded it at -18F in anorth wind, going up the highway. the heatinside the car was clombing out hot, and I still had to pull over. and it got the same fuel mileage as always on the highway.

It may be a decent fact to keep fuel source a to b out of the wind and elements. the fact that it is flowing heats it. And the miracle for fuel injection pretending correct mixturers (all my carbs and the electronic SPFI sube are the worlds greatest, no lies) Fuel has a return line for unjecteds, the fule pump is hella fast. Again crabs make that very pump an idiot, at <3psi...and startign in all weathers.

Maybe a boigger crushing than the big 3 is in order, I defend myself. Let us not all bow to babbling math and slow chips.....

To finish off my mispelled babble: all vehicles for a given bore and stroke have a tuned intake for the 87 to 93 octane. Electronics did away with that perfection.Intakes are now slobs of wannabe oversized man parts."Look at the size of my... intake. yes intake manifold." the very few years it over lapped with singular throttle bodies were american failures. the oldest subes with the first injection singular, was and is a genious with it form the same time frame.... an epiphany I have not forgotten.Even the ecus were low micron and slow reactors.Why didn't the rest of the world catch on? Why didn't singular injection and tuned intakes catch on? A dollar sign followed by 7 zeros changes alot of minds....

[DifferentPointofView]

It may be a decent fact to keep fuel source a to b out of the wind and elements.

My fuel tank hangs down right in the wind, and is way far back away from the engine unlike a car. so the fuel has to travel a significant distance to get to the engine.

[Red]

Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView

My fuel tank hangs down right in the wind, and is way far back away from the engine unlike a car. so the fuel has to travel a significant distance to get to the engine.

True, but if you ZJ's fuel lines are anything like mine, they get prewarmed by the header. The lines run pretty close to the #6 tube.

What kind of smoke are you seeing when you are warmed up? Billowing clouds of white? That would be a blown head gasket. Else a small puff of white smoke would just be the condensation.