How to build a muscle car for better fuel economy?

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by pgfpro

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.

Well, that could be a few years out. Right now I am unemployed by choice and going to college for a career change, so I don't have the money in my savings account to splurge on this fuel. All you need to do is e-mail GEVO, get in contact with a business agent, and talk about options, pricing, and how to go about it. That is what I have planned when I am earning a paycheck finally.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by 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.

Okay, so you are using the exchanger to cool down the motor oil to help cool down the motor. Hmmm, I need to research it. I am not so sure I even need it, especially for the motor oil that I am using.

[oil pan 4]

There are 2 different kinds of oil coolers.
Oil to air.
Oil to coolant.
The oil to air just keeps the oil from overheating.
The oil to coolant heat exchanger actually regulates oil temperature, that's why all heavy duty engines have them.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

There are 2 different kinds of oil coolers.
Oil to air.
Oil to coolant.
The oil to air just keeps the oil from overheating.
The oil to coolant heat exchanger actually regulates oil temperature, that's why all heavy duty engines have them.

The question then becomes, do I really need one for my application? It could be beneficial if I were to use lower viscosity motor oil than my recommended 5W-30. The lowest I could go is 0W-30 but I am not sure if this is too thin of motor oil to use in my motor, even with an aftermarket low friction ceramic coating of the motor internals and even if I am using top tier Amsoil Signature Series or the European Formula, and changing it out every 3 months like it were conventional motor oil.

For me, this is like a quest to see how far I can improve upon my "obsolete" motor, but it is worth it in my eyes. I don't race the car, but for a daily driver, improving the fuel economy while retaining the fun factor of having a V8 motor is the goal. This is where low end torque on tap comes in to play while using a very small camshaft for fuel efficiency.

I wonder if anyone can chime in on the selection of parts I have in mind for this build...

[oil pan 4]

Will you be driving get short trips?

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Will you be driving get short trips?

The car is a daily driver. Average driving time is 30 minutes in a mix of city and highway. Sometimes I have sat idling in backed-up traffic for more than ten minutes and a half hour trip could turn into an hour or more! On rare occasions, the car may take a cold trip two blocks to the store and back. Why?

[oil pan 4]

Oil to coolant heat exchanger is ideal for short trips.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I have no experience with any alcohol fuel other than ethanol, but it tends to work better with a more accurate temperature control. Not sure about iso-butanol, but it may eventually benefit more from an oil-to-coolant heat exchanger too.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Oil to coolant heat exchanger is ideal for short trips.

Well, it is something I will have to consider then when I have the motor totally overhauled. Thank you.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

I have no experience with any alcohol fuel other than ethanol, but it tends to work better with a more accurate temperature control. Not sure about iso-butanol, but it may eventually benefit more from an oil-to-coolant heat exchanger too.

This youtube video is what started my research on butanol years ago. However, it wasn't until much later when I realized that normal n-butanol was too low in octane number for me to use in my V8. The only saving grace was stumbling upon GEVO with their "iso-butanol" which has a higher octane content, perfect for my V8 and perfect to increase compression ratio! A cleaner burning fuel with better combustion efficiency will yield better fuel economy when the motor is tuned appropriately for these changes.

From what I learned, Ethanol requires modifications to the motor to allow 100% use whereas Butanol does not require such extreme modifications albeit a minor change to the air-to-fuel ratio but as a stand-alone pump fuel to mix with gasoline, you won't have problems using it in an unmodified gasoline motor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s09ujb35w4s