why do we burn gasoline so foolishly?
 

Because most tinkerers haven't the slightest idea about partial pressures I wrote this theory. Look in the last part for the tinkerer advice
http://www.mediafire.com/view/l18u5x...so_foolish.pdf

...because playing around with hydrazine is dangerous to life & limb.

hydrazine
 

We had unsymmetricaldimethylhydrazine rocket fuel at Edwards Air Force base and I was told that we were very fortunate to never have had to dispense any of it in the 30-months I was there.:o

During WWII the Germans used it in both aircraft and missiles...sometimes with BOOM results. It's considered a hypergolic fuel.

Thank you for your concerns about the formed chemicals. Hydrazines are reputedly unstable, but they are used with far less C atoms than this. Nitrates are also used in explosives (diesel fertilizer bomb) but the formed nitrate molecule has far less N atoms in it. If anyone would know the formation enthalpies for these big molecules it would be greatly appreciated. As for tinkering your only concern is the condensing fuel. By the way treating the cylinder with steam would also work for diesels, they condense even more fuel due to the fact diesel has a high boiling point. (And you would have guessed that by looking at the soot that comes out)

steam converter
 

I found a nice picture of an LPG vaporizer using exhaust heat at Cats citroen It boils LPG with the vaporizer on the exhaust .http://cats-citroen.net/citroen_atypes/lpg/gazu_18.jpg

Sorry, what temperature do you figure fuel is condensing at? 100C like the coolant temperature? But then use the pressure of the compresion, and ignore the temperature the compresion creates?

explanation
 

The example given is only to demonstrate how you could make use of the exhaust heat to boil and make steam of water. In this 2CV they boil liquid LPG in this thing so they have gas at sufficient pressure. And I thought it would give you an idea of how something like that would look like. (mostly it is better to steal idea's than to come up with your own rubbish and this works so..... why not use as an example for a steam converter?)

I thought a lot of this was trying to fix an issue about fuel condensing.

What temperture do you figure fuel is condensing?

pressures an temperatures
 

The temperature is kind of unknown because we don't know the inside temperature of the cylinder head. But we do know the temperature of the coolant (its a dial on the dashboard) and it is kept mostly at 80-85 C(and this varies a bit per engine type). However if you really step on it (you will have to transport a lot of heat from inside to outside) there will be a difference between the inside (which is heated) and the outside (which is cooled). My guess for the inside temperature when you really step on it constantly(going up a hill) would be 100C. But when you are accelerating and the water pump still turns slowly and the thermostats is still closed I guess it could run up to 110C.
The pressure at which the fuel condensates will vary with the temperature. The condensation pressure is something like P= 10Power(a/T). The boiling point of septane is about the same as water so as a first guess you could look the pressures for 80 100 and 110C up in a steam table. And once you've done that fill it in in the Raoult law sum.
However the car will enrich the fuel (with a acceleration pump) and with an enrichment formula for heavy loads. So you could take the condensation pressure of the fuel constant. The water vapour pressure would vary.

Back in the day all they cared about was kerosene for lighting and heat. Gasoline was let loose down the river as a waste product from most distilleries.

kerosene
 

Although I am not legally authorized with so many beers (its 32C an I cooled myself down with beer) I'll try to answer your post. Yes in the days that man we made of steel and ships we made of wood they did that. And even a model T Ford could burn kerosene al well as ethanol (beers) and gasoline

Adiabatic process - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
a common example of adiabatic compression- the compression stroke in a gasoline engine... (lots of math) ...a final temperature of 751 K, or 477 °C, or 892 °F, well above the ignition point of many fuels. This is why a high compression engine requires fuels specially formulated to not self-ignite...

condensation
 

Condensation is done on the cylinder head. The gasses are much hotter. It is like a drink with ice in it on a summers day. the water in the air will condensate onto the glass. But why is it so important start condensation with a low pressure?

The burning of fuel is a 3D process. Imagine all the available fuel represented by a sphere . The fuel is consumed from the middle outwards.
When you change something in the middle it will affect all the outer layers.
So when you start condensing all the outer layers are affected and that gives a cubicle instead of a linear effect. I have updated the PHP file

spheres might cause a linear pressure change, looking at the shape of combustion chambers, I would expect less

If fuel condenses on the surface of the head, wouldn't that be the outer most edge?

sphere model
 

well it is olny a model for your thoughts and in the beginning when a little fiery balloon is floating through the combustion chamber a rather accurate one.
But I have explain somehow how small changes in the beginning lead to large changes at the end. It is best to read the explanation in the changed pdf file.
Combustion is almost like building a fire. There is a series of survivalists on TV where the always find some moss that will really burn well. Lets suppose they found a lot of it and also made a funnel shaped basket an filled it with the moss. They hang it from a branch and lite the piece of moss with a tinder.
Then they fan it and it gets going- first slowly and then with a great whoosh.
In engines this is the same you lite the mixture with a spark then fan it by compressing it. An example of things going bad is late ignition. You are not only late but you also don't fan enough so you become even later. Then when the fire gets going the piston goes down so it you cannot build up pressure and finally when the piston decelerates you build up pressure and heat but there is no way to expand it. The good thing is you burned all the gasoline in one whoosh, but the bad thing is you cannot use it. It only heats the engine

Sometimes it is hard to apply the match to cause the appropriate ignition. The anti knock additives I found interesting IsoOctane? Today that may be toluene as often as may be the case. Its cool. Some high revving engines like those used in Indy racing achieve those high RPMs by lowering the compression. Engines are smart like that are getting sensorred all and calibration checks. Or in accidental advances.