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Saw a segment on TV this morning on alcohol engines. Was pretty interesting. One thing they pointed out was alky burns cooler and slower than gasoline. They said you could make more hp on an alcohol engine (albeit using a little more than twice the amount of fuel than a gas engine would use) though you need things like a bigger carb (I believe about 200 cfms more than a gas on the same displacement engine) using almost double the size of a carb jet and almost double the size squirter, tighter plug gaps (to help light off the extra fuel)...and also the c.r. they used I believe a 12.5:1 c.r....is that typical on alky engines? Or wouldn't they be higher? Also is a higher voltage ignition required?
This reply covers most alcohol but is specific to methanol because that is what I run in my circle track car.
You are right on a few points. You do burn almost double the fuel. You need a carb that has been modified for methanol as well as a high volume fuel pump that is compatible with alky. If you are going to run a carb you are also going to need a low speed bypass and return. Everything in the fuel system needs to me alky compatible. So basically you need a whole new fuel system.
On the the engine I would say that 12.5 is the lowest I would run with alky. I have one motor that is 14.5:1 ans one that is 13.5:1. Both are 383 SBC and both are over 600 hp. I have run them on gas as well and they were down about 20 hp but the torque was up a little. The reason I run alky is it runs cooler. That is the only reason.
Some will say its cheaper but its not in my opinion. Alky is corrosive so you have to rebuild carbs more often. You have to change the oil more often.
Most cars sold in Brazil can run on alcohol - they have the same "flex fuel" components used by a rather small percentage of cars and trucks here in the US to run on E85 (corn based) ethanol. Brazil is the largest producer of sugar cane alcohol in the world. It's simply distilled sugar cane juice, and is sold at every fuel station in Brazil as 100 percent alcohol, or as a gasohol blend containing 25 percent sugar cane alcohol and 75 percent gasoline. In Brazil, the 25/75 blend is the lowest percentage of alcohol that you can buy at a gas station. Most gas stations don't sell "straight" gasoline (without alcohol).
When I drove a rental car (sub=compact 4 cylinder) on pure, 100 percent alcohol, it got the equivalent of about 30 miles per gallon. When I drove it using 25/75 gasohol, it got the equivalent of about 40 miles a gallon. It's quite simple - pure sugar cane alcohol has about 25-30 percent less "BTU" as the same quantity of gasoline. However, pure sugar cane alcohol is usually 35-40 percent less than the cost of 25/75 gasohol, so drivers end up saving money with sugar cane alcohol.
That's my summary of real world experience with alcohol powered internal combustion engines. Some pros and cons - not many places in the world outside Brazil can mass produce enough alcohol at this time to make a huge dent in the market. If oil production ever takes a big hit, somebody will be scrambling to come up with a way to mass produce alcohol for vehicles using something besides corn or cane sugar.
usafracer is right about running methanol. we used it in our fuel altered in the late 70s. we ran mechanical fuel injection rather than a carb though. a few things about running methanol, you best keep the fuel mixture right on, too rich and you wash down the cylinders, too lean and you burn a piston if you are not careful.
i agree with running better than 12.5:1 compression, we ran 13.5:1 only because we wanted the engine to last the season before we freshened up the engine. methanol does burn a lot colder than gasoline or even ethanol does.
and as stated methanol does have its problems, being quite corrosive is the biggest one, being harder to light off is next. you need to make sure your ignition system is in top notch shape, and putting out a lot of energy. we started off running a mini-mag ignition system, but changed over to a unilite system running a hyfire 7 for better reliability at lower voltages.
Most cars sold in Brazil can run on alcohol - they have the same "flex fuel" components used by a rather small percentage of cars and trucks here in the US to run on E85 (corn based) ethanol. Brazil is the largest producer of sugar cane alcohol in the world. It's simply distilled sugar cane juice, and is sold at every fuel station in Brazil as 100 percent alcohol, or as a gasohol blend containing 25 percent sugar cane alcohol and 75 percent gasoline. In Brazil, the 25/75 blend is the lowest percentage of alcohol that you can buy at a gas station. Most gas stations don't sell "straight" gasoline (without alcohol).
When I drove a rental car (sub=compact 4 cylinder) on pure, 100 percent alcohol, it got the equivalent of about 30 miles per gallon. When I drove it using 25/75 gasohol, it got the equivalent of about 40 miles a gallon. It's quite simple - pure sugar cane alcohol has about 25-30 percent less "BTU" as the same quantity of gasoline. However, pure sugar cane alcohol is usually 35-40 percent less than the cost of 25/75 gasohol, so drivers end up saving money with sugar cane alcohol.
That's my summary of real world experience with alcohol powered internal combustion engines. Some pros and cons - not many places in the world outside Brazil can mass produce enough alcohol at this time to make a huge dent in the market. If oil production ever takes a big hit, somebody will be scrambling to come up with a way to mass produce alcohol for vehicles using something besides corn or cane sugar.
understand that there is a big difference between ethanol, and methanol. methanol has less btu potential that ethanol does. methanol is also known as wood alcohol, where as ethanol is generally grain alcohol.
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