Alcohol instead of Benzin-fuel

[Billman]

Hi, i was reading in the forum about the car that running with alcohol in Brazil, so i was wondering:

1. What must be done in order to run an engine on alcohol?
2. What are the benefits?
3. What will this car produce (fumes)? Does it need catalizers?
4. What about the MOT?
5. How many alcohol degrees must there be?
6. How much does this convertion costs?

Thanks a lot

[Billman]

Anyone???

[Ski]

lol isnt alchohol more expensive than fuel?

[Jamo]

Christ, if this happened Beetie would be going round syphoning petrol tanks to drink!

[Ski]

And if he ran out of petrol he could just p*ss into his tank?

[zlobo]

you need ca 30-40% lager injectors it depends on how much alcohole some time they have some petrol in it like here in swede they have E85 its echanol and petrol mixed but mostly ethanol. the car is going to comsume more fuel with ehanol. then you have cold start problem with ethanole, and then there is a problem at 70 degrece celsius.

and you have to remap the car. it need catalizers.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

You would probably need to plate a lot of metal components too, as the alcohol would etch into the surface. Def need bigger fuel delivery as the efficiency of alcohol fuels is a bit lower than gasoline fuels (in fact, possibly only 50% of petrol). Cold starting is very difficult, there are also possible icing problems in the intake - cold is good but stuck throttles aren't!

Another problem is moisture absorption - the alcohol will suck water out of the air. Mixed fuels do that as well. Best to use alcohol fuel as soon as it is poured into the tank.

On the plus side, it does run very cool, and it's extremely clean. Water can be used on methanol fires (if you can see them!)

AFAIK alky burners are legal in the UK, I even remember a guy using an alcohol dragster engine in a road car and running it on alky on the street, about 1800bhp...

__MDC__

[S2sedan]

Billman,

I run my S2 limousine on alcohol and ran my daily a Golf GTI MKIV with 1.5 bar.

The main point is, you need a nickel bath in your fuel pump or a methanol fuel pump, You need a 42% bigger injector, to attend the need of fuel. The cold start is only diff below 15ºC, thats why I have a cold start system, that injects gasoline, after that no bigg deal. The engine can be mapped with much more agressive timming, which can deliver more power. Alcohol is much cleaner for the enviroment than gas, and for the engine too. I change my oil every 5000 km, and it stills with that yellow colour from new. You also need colder grade plugs ( I use temp grade 10). And thats it. For example, With the injectors that a friend of mine gave me, I used My S2 without a remap for a few time. I worked perfectly. I have 2 fuel pumps, 2 fuel lines with 2 fuel filters, that i change every 5000 (its very cheap). At least for me it's ok, as we have alcohol at the pump.

[Billman]

@S2 sedan
What is a nickel bath?
you can change from gazoline to alcohol anytime? One pump off, othen pump on?

Must you change the fuel rails because the alcohol destroys them?
How many degrees alcohol is it? 80-90-96 ?

When you what to run for longer time in gas (for a trip for example) you must have extra programs or am i wrong?

The lambda sensor reads ok with alcohol or not?

@keeper of kitten
The water is not so bad! After all water - alcohol injections system are used to reduce knocking and by the way cleaning the combustion chamber!