How to build a muscle car for better fuel economy?

[jakobnev]

Butanol is a great gasoline replacement, but where do you get it from at a good price?

[spacemanspif]

Since you have a manual, focus on EOC and less on engine mods. You're doing more idling than anything so start coasting a bump staring. Making better torque is nice but weight reduction is free if you can stand to lose carpet, useless back seats and other panels. Get a light weight battery or switch to those fancy super capacitors. You're rack and pinion right? Delete the PS pump and loop the lines. What kind of smog pump do you have? Can you delete it and stay DOT legal?

[oil pan 4]

I have found that unless you have an oil to coolant heat exchanger the oil takes a lit longer to warm up.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

Butanol is a great gasoline replacement, but where do you get it from at a good price?

Well I plan to contact GEVO, the company that is promoting this variant of bio-butanol, and see what can be done. In all honesty, I highly doubt that I will be able to get it for a competitive price to the pure non-ethanol gasoline I am currently using. Since Iso-butanol is not being sold at any fuel station in the country, I will likely have to purchase it by the 55-gallon drum and have it shipped to my house. From there, purchase a hand pump to suck out the fuel from the drum and fill up my car.

This is REALLY the only way to start getting this product on the market, people willing to spend the money initially to consume this product and start driving a demand to have it sold from a retailer.

My only incentive to use this fuel over cheaper gasoline is the knowledge that I am using a cleaner burning fuel and a fuel that will keep my motor running clean since it produces negligible amounts of carbon deposit. I don't expect any payback in using this fuel, but I do intend to promote it with my car as I drive around town.

Again, I need to see what the final cost will be and decide on whether or not it is worth it. Maybe GEVO can cut me a deal if I am a year-round customer, who knows.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Since you have a manual, focus on EOC and less on engine mods. You're doing more idling than anything so start coasting a bump staring. Making better torque is nice but weight reduction is free if you can stand to lose carpet, useless back seats and other panels. Get a light weight battery or switch to those fancy super capacitors. You're rack and pinion right? Delete the PS pump and loop the lines. What kind of smog pump do you have? Can you delete it and stay DOT legal?

I am not going to go crazy by trying to shed as much weight from my car as I can. There is only so much I can possibly do to my motor to make it more efficient than the efficiency that GM was able to achieve back in the days of research and development during the mid-to-late 1980's. Even then, after all my modifications, I may net a marginal fuel economy increase that is far from stellar, but at least I will have net some gain and with all the reduced friction inside the motor, it should have a marginal power increase as well, paired with the compression ratio increase.

I won't even play games with shutting off the motor and coasting down hills. One guy on the performance forums suggested I have my stock computer tuned to shut off fuel delivery whenever I use the motor for braking, like a jake brake, since I have a stick shift. I am not sure if this is even possible but it would help with unnecessary fuel consumption at higher RPM and no throttle!

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I have found that unless you have an oil to coolant heat exchanger the oil takes a lit longer to warm up.

I will have to research it but it is hard to believe. The motor oil is cycling through the motor long before the coolant starts cycling through after warming up, I don't see how it is possible for the coolant to warm up faster than the motor oil...

[spacemanspif]

It's been shown on this forum that DFCO (deceleration fuel cut off) is less efficient than coasting in neutral so no real need to add DFCO; you're better off staring to coast in neutral earlier instead of relying on the engine to slow you down.

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Phoenix'97

Well I plan to contact GEVO, the company that is promoting this variant of bio-butanol, and see what can be done. In all honesty, I highly doubt that I will be able to get it for a competitive price to the pure non-ethanol gasoline I am currently using. Since Iso-butanol is not being sold at any fuel station in the country, I will likely have to purchase it by the 55-gallon drum and have it shipped to my house. From there, purchase a hand pump to suck out the fuel from the drum and fill up my car.

This is REALLY the only way to start getting this product on the market, people willing to spend the money initially to consume this product and start driving a demand to have it sold from a retailer.

My only incentive to use this fuel over cheaper gasoline is the knowledge that I am using a cleaner burning fuel and a fuel that will keep my motor running clean since it produces negligible amounts of carbon deposit. I don't expect any payback in using this fuel, but I do intend to promote it with my car as I drive around town.

Again, I need to see what the final cost will be and decide on whether or not it is worth it. Maybe GEVO can cut me a deal if I am a year-round customer, who knows.

I would be very interested in a drum of this for testing on my car. When you find out could you please let me know the cost for a 55 gallon drum? Thanks.

[oil pan 4]

Most vehicles I owned will allow me to put my hand on the oil pan if I stop as soon as the coolant is up to operating temperature on a cold day.
There are at least a few posts on here talking about oil to coolant warm up times on exchanger less systems.
On a vehicle that does not have a heat exchanger or cooler the oil can get hotter than the coolant by up to 20°F, but it takes a while.

I'm putting together a 454 bored and stroked out to 489 with 11:1 compression. Instead of running expensive fuel all the time I am going to try to run regular unleaded and then have cheap water methanol kick in when I get on the throttle.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

It's been shown on this forum that DFCO (deceleration fuel cut off) is less efficient than coasting in neutral so no real need to add DFCO; you're better off staring to coast in neutral earlier instead of relying on the engine to slow you down.

My driving style incorporates both. Depending upon driving conditions I take my dear sweet time braking for a stop light or congested traffic ahead of me by pushing in the clutch and lightly, featherly, applying the brake with added increments of pressure until I am at a full stop. I drive like I have air brakes and am hauling a trailer. This gives traffic behind me ample time to be alerted to stopping traffic ahead if they are the type who don't pay attention when driving and like to ride your bumper dangerously!

There are times when it is safer to use my motor for braking to slow my car down more efficiently than the brakes, this is usually on the expressway but even going thirty miles an hour and making a turn I can squeeze in a downshift. So for conditions such as this, I might as well have my stock computer tuned for deceleration fuel cut off! The name of the game is optimizing fuel efficiency and pinching it where I can. I even suggested trying to tune my car to idle as low as 500 RPM, if possible, or as high as 700 RPM, to maximize fuel efficiency for those long idle periods I will end up facing in traffic.