Jeff There are all kinds of nontechnical reasons for E85, a lot of politics and hidden economic issues, not to mention concerted misinformation. Brazil has had E96 available for ages without any engine problems, the remaining 4% in that case being mainly water. It's been done; it's been proven repeatedly. Take a look at the JtF ethanol pages, follow the links, and see if you can get hold of David Blume's aforementioned book.
I wonder if your Chevy V6 was ever available in anything in Brazil, and if there was an 'alcool' version? Somehow I'd be surprised: GM wouldn't want any Americans getting hold of the specs! Tetraethyl lead wasn't a lubricant as such, as the areas where it was effective weren't subject to rubbing friction. It was more of a cushioning agent, which prevented the valves from slowly hammering the valve seats into the cylinder head. The fitment of hardened steel valve seat inserts in aluminium cylinder heads, which would otherwise suffer valve-seat recession even with TEL, has rendered that function of TEL redundant. Inserts can be and are fitted to iron heads, and once they're in they're in. As for the emissions controls, none of them are about residues resulting from fuel impurities. In fact, both EGR and PCV INTRODUCE impurities! In the latter case it's a motor-oil mist from the crankcase, which should be more than sufficient for your lubrication concerns. I have never owned a car that has had any "smog equipment" whatsoever, by the way, and I don't plan on getting one. It was the wrong approach to the problem from the start. -Dawie ________________________________ From: Jeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, 11 February, 2009 20:36:24 Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Viability of converting a vehicle to run straight Ethanol? Most people don't realize just how dirty fossil fuel is. It has a lot of bad stuff in it. This is not something I intend to get into a heated argument about. When you look at the normal car engine, it has a lot of emission controls on it to reduce emissions. By contrast, when you burn ethanol, the emissions go down, considerably. Ethanol burns a lot cleaner then fossil fuel. When you look at the pollution residue that is left when fossil fuel burns, that residue provides lubrication. You can find biodiesel station that sell B-100 as well as B-20. If ethanol could be burned as easily, then you would find a similar thing where you would see E-100 as well as E-85 stations. A lot of people forget about when they took lead out of gas, in 1985, that lead was providing lubrication for the valves and heads. The valves and heads started wearing out quick and a lot of mechanics made good money fixing them. Then, engines were improve so that unleaded gas wouldn't wear out the heads and valves as quick. Hopefully, in the near future, engines will be redesign so that they can burn 100% ethanol. But right now, they are not. I would highly suggest you talk to someone in the know in the ethanol industry to see if I am right or not. I don't want to see anyone mess up a motor just to prove a point. Jeff --- On Tue, 2/10/09, Dawie Coetzee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Dawie Coetzee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Viability of converting a vehicle to run straight Ethanol? To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 9:38 PM I'd be inclined to dispute that. I don't think the petrochemical component contributes any significant lubrication: I don't think it consists of those sorts of fractions. It would be almost as good a solvent/cleanser as the ethanol if it weren't quite dirty already. There are two friction areas that are in contact with fuel: the piston ring lands and the valve guides. The former is lubricated, albeit somewhat informally, from below. The latter is formed of materials chosen under the assumption that there will be no lubrication. In both cases sealing is never absolutely perfect; some oil will make it past the rings and valve-stem seals. The concentration of oil where you find oil is far greater than that of fuel in the air/fuel mixture, even at ethanol's stoichiometry. If your ethanol is washing oil off, your mixture is too rich or your ignition isn't working. Just off the top of my head. Best regards Dawie Coetzee <snip> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20090212/667870f2/attachment.html _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [email protected] http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
