Exactly. You'd think they'd just do away with gassers and go diesel across the board, but we probably won't see that happen. At least with a Civic, you can still keep your man card.

Those Priuses have 600v to power those motors, no way to jump start them, and if you have ever sat in one, you'd notice right away that the gauge cluster is in a very stupid spot... I wouldn't be caught dead driving a Prius, to be honest. Call me what you want, but everything on that car is set up stupid. If you find something that isn't stupid, then you've just stumbled upon something that requires safety training to tinker with.

Thanks, but I'll take a Civic (even a Metro, for that matter).

 

The Chevy Volt is what really cracks me up. GM built the EV1 which was all electric and actually well liked... GM freaks out and pulls the plug (pun intended) and then a few years later comes out with the Volt hybrid and pats themselves on the back like they did everyone a favor.

Ummm hello! people wanted an ALL electric car, not a hybrid. Leave it to Nissan to pull the rug out from under them and unveil the all electric Leaf. Which has outsold the Volt by a landslide in the hybrid/ electric world.

Josh

 

I agree... on most points. People who don't want to hear the vroom vroom of a v8 want an electric car. The Volt is (in all honesty) a pile of crap. More recalls on that thing than I think Chevy ever had with any other vehicle. And catching FIRE because they don't know how to cool down the battery packs? Engineering at its finest!

The only problem we're going to really run into with an all electric car is the power grid. If everyone in America were to switch to an all electric plug in car, the grid would fail because it's abusive on the system. There's going to need to be some upgrades to the grid before everyone in the country can have an all electric car.

 

Totally, the grid can't handle electric cars. But it won't be a problem until the majority of cars can do over 300+ miles on a charge.

The other option is to knock I off with E10, E85 and just go E100 like many South American countries. Sure the mpg is much less, but the fuel is dirt cheap.

Same with diesel. Embrace it like Europe and push for 55+ mpg cars and 35+ trucks.

Josh

 

Yeah I've always liked the idea of E100. Sure, you can't get the same amount of power nor mileage as you could out of straight gasoline, but if you can make it dirt cheap, then people won't care. That, and people won't have to go and buy a new car, they can just bring it in and get synthetic everything, new sensors, injectors, jets (if carbed), etc and they can go happily on their way. Only downfall of it is making a pipeline to carry the E100. It's too corrosive by nature to send through a regular old oil pipeline.

 

The main benefit of ethanol is its renewable. However it needs to be produced from sugar rich plants like sugar cane and not corn.

Brand new vehicles could take advantage of the switch with much higher compression ratios, like 15:1 versus a normal 9:1 we have today.

The only vehicles with the biggest problem are those with pre FI engines. Could be a big cost involved to replace rubber fuel lines and rejet carbs. Some carbs have a hard time even getting jets like some autolite, stromberg etc.

Another funny fact. The model T was designed and intended to be ran on ethanol, nOt gasoline. And electric cars outsold gasoline cars for several years in the beginning of the 1900's.

Josh

 

Haha learn something new every day! Didn't know about the T built to run on ethanol, nor the electric cars fact.

I'm tempted to just build my own still and make my own, but that's called moonshining. And moonshining's "wrong," children.

 

But you can make your own biofuel.

Actually you can make your own alcohol. It's the DOT and IRS that has a problem with you running fuel tax free.

Which is funny they are somewhat hush about using waste oil as a diesel fuel, but "moonshine" gasoline is a no-no...

Hypocrites?
Josh

 

I'd say. I wouldn't mind paying road tax on whatever biofuel I make. Road tax goes to fixing the roads that I'm driving on so really, I can see a reason why that's there. What I DO mind paying is nearly $4 a gallon.

 

And paying it too a bunch of greedy speculators and wealthy sheiks. The price of a barrel of oil is artificially high due to speculators IMO. Everytime a storm gets a name or Iran threatens to close the straight of Hormuez they use that as an excuse to drive the price up. There is no shortage until we have gas lines.

 

I should get my glue from the EPA lol. I have a hydrogen generator I built, and am going to install on my 78 351M and maybe I can see some numbers like that. For now, this beast gets me about 7mpg.

 

Oh, and a lil nerd info on fuel. The reason you burn through more alcohol but make less polution is that the molecule for alcohol has less bonds than petroleum molecules. The more bonds, the more energy is released during combustion. So, you get more energy from gas because of this more complex molecule. If we learned how to fully extract all the energy from petroleum we would be getting 100-200MPG in our big trucks... I promise.

Or do we already know how? And the oil companies keep this tech off the market?

 

I built a crude gas vapor system. Truck ran like total dog *****, but it did run (very rich, might I add). And at "idle" it consumed the equivalent it would when the truck ran at perfect tune with the carb.

 

Actually you can build yourself a still and make your own alcohol for fuel. You are required to add an additive to it so it cannot be consumed and you do pay a tax on it but it is completely legal.
This is something that i have been kicking around for awhile. I just have not had a place that i could set up a still to produce it.
There is a gentleman that has a website on the subject Welcome to Alcohol Can Be a Gas! | Permaculture & Alcohol Can Be A Gas he discusses some of the benefits of alcohol maybe it can give someone some more ideas on the subject.

 

Thanks, Death85e! Just checked the video. Funny how this started out as a rant about the stupidity of the EPA and ended with alternative fuels lol.