Actually, the Chevy 350 has three variants; Small Block, Big Block, and the Blue Print (which is really a 355).
The "rumors" of the 200 mpg and such are somewhat true. The small block 350 was able to run at 110 mpg on heated gasoline. The fuel was vaporized prior to entering the carb. The big block was able to run at around 80 mpg with the same apparatus. The problem was that the engines were not in a vehicle but in a test stand and actual numbers were not verified.
Smokey Yunick spent years working on a design and it was superseded by fuel injection which did the same thing but mechanically. Gasoline can be vaporized just by pressure in much the same way an aerosol paint can works. Liquid to vapor by pressure. This works at optimum temp by try and start it cold and you won't get very far.
The propane and methane work but do not have the energy of gasoline or diesel for that matter. The best vapor to use is atomized gas with an injection of hydrogen. This will give you the best burn in a NA engine. You can supercool the air in the cylinder but you don't want to cool the intake. Cooling the cylinder will increase density but cooling the intake with create poor mixing, however, not the case with fuel injection. I don't want to get into the technical run-on the makes my wife's eyes glaze over and drool ooze out of her mouth, but lets say the atmosphere in the cylinder has to be more dense than the atmosphere outside... Compression! Diesel runs on this aspect. The old cotton ball in the syringe experiment. The more compression, the better the burn and bigger bang! Resulting in better hp and efficiency.
You are right that the diesel will out perform the gasoline any day. Diesel is more efficient than gasoline but it is dirtier, that is the major reason that we don't have more diesels around. To give you an inside on the diesel... to make the diesel even better... turbo the hell out of it but do not put a supercharger on it. The more air the engine can pack in the better bang you will get and less diesel you will have to use. If you have a newer diesel vehicle with ECU and computer management controls that auto adjust the mixture, then you wont have to worry about adjusting manually.
Hope this inspired someone!
TK
robert luis rabello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
robert luis rabello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Jerry Eyers wrote:
> Not to knock everyone who has responded so far, but such items do exist,
> although I don't believe 300 has been achieved, but there are documented
> cases of big block 350's getting over 200mpg.
Documented by whom? (By the way, a 350 is a small block.) Under
what test conditions?
> The process involves replacing the standard carb with a vapor only carb (like a
> propane one) then pre-heating your fuel to a vapor, and feeding the
> vapor.
I have a lot of experience running gaseous fuels in engines, and
NEVER have I seen any evidence that a fully vaporized fuel (such as
propane or methane) can attain higher efficiencies than a fuel
injected liquid fueled engine. (Though it is true that certain gases,
hydrogen for example, can run leaner than gasoline. However, the
difference in economy is incremental.) The calorific value of gaseous
fuels is generally LESS than that of liquid fuels because they are not
as dense, yet the fuel economy remains proportional to the overall
energy available for combustion.
To put it simply, vaporizing gasoline will not magically enhance fuel
economy. Among some people, there remains a persistent myth that
liquid fueled internal combustion engines are incapable of fully
burning a fuel load. People who believe this insist that the vast
majority of the air / fuel mixture leaving a combustion chamber is
unburned, yet this is simply NOT true!
> That said, I don't know of ANY that have worked with diesel engines,
> only straight gas.
A diesel engine will outperform a gasoline engine by virtue of higher
compression pressure and the lack of a throttle, which considerably
reduces pumping losses. In addition, diesel fuel contains more energy
than gasoline.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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