Anybody consider alternative fuels?

[timinator]

You know, it really ticks me off that OPEC keeps jacking up the price of a barrel of crude. Plus our idiotic government ties the hands of the oil companies on getting our own oil and making it impossible for them to build refineries. Problem is, oil companies have no competition. Anybody look at running their cars on methanol, E85, nitro-methane (joking). Bio-fuels are easy to make and now less expensive than gas. Geez, I'm about ready to fire up a still in my back yard and make my own so I can drive my Chargers cheap! Some jetting and ignition changes would be all that's required I would think. Any thoughts and what are our options for alternative fuels to keep us driving our classics at a reasonable cost? 

[mikepmcs]

No, to answer your question, but found this interesting.
But I will be burning wood next winter instead of heating oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_fuel_cars

v/r
Mike

[Hemidoug]

I hear burning Liberals works well, but you have to really dry them out. Tree huggers are the best to use...something about the tree sap......

[Blown70]

I plan to run my charger at least the supercharged one on E-85 or 98.  That what you meaning? 

My house has a geo-thermal system in so the heating bill per month in ND is only $100 at most.  So I really dont use FUEL but electric to run the pump for the GEO SOURCE....

Ohh and only about 30-40 per month to cool the house....in the summer

[Rolling_Thunder]

I will be running E-85 in my Charger when it is done...    But the problem is there are damn near no E-85 Stations here in Los Angeles - you would think the idiot liberals of this shit hole would be crying for them...        maybe i'll set up a still in my back yard and start brewing my own fuel   

[modmidget]

I've ran methanol (alcohol) in my race cars and found that it was more expensive than gas. My cars used about 4 times more methanol than gas.  Methanol requires bigger jets which results in a BIG decrease in mpg.  Of course, I did see an increase in horsepower but it was very expensive and I wouldn't try to run my street car on it.

[Blown70]

I've ran methanol (alcohol) in my race cars and found that it was more expensive than gas. My cars used about 4 times more methanol than gas.  Methanol requires bigger jets which results in a BIG decrease in mpg.  Of course, I did see an increase in horsepower but it was very expensive and I wouldn't try to run my street car on it.

4 times?  Not to offed but comparied to gas you will normally use 2 times as much with methanol and usually a factor of 1.6 times the amout with ethanol. (e85)

In addition for my application it will help to cool the charge from the supercharger......

[Mefirst]

I have converted my Holley Dominator carb to run on E85.

-No idea at this time if the conversion done will work or not .. Need to get the car out from the garage first and then do some major T&T...

/Tom

[modmidget]

No offense taken Blown70.  We've ran oval track quarter midgets for 25 years with gas and alcohol engines.  With the gas engines I can run a 3 minute round of practice, two 15 lap heat races and a 30 lap main on one tank of gas (not counting yellow flag laps).  The alcohol engines usually burned a tank of fuel in a 30 lap race if there were yellow flag laps.  But even if you only burn twice as much alcohol than you do gas it would be real expensive trying to run your street car on alcohol.

[suntech]

I will set up my Charger to burn both E 85 and 98 ron. With EFI it is easier to dial in. I dont really want to use E 85 to save money, cuz i dont really think there is a gain there, since you need app 30% more off it. But it will give a little more power , and that is always fun, regardless of what there is to begin with!!

[Blown70]

No offense taken Blown70.  We've ran oval track quarter midgets for 25 years with gas and alcohol engines.  With the gas engines I can run a 3 minute round of practice, two 15 lap heat races and a 30 lap main on one tank of gas (not counting yellow flag laps).  The alcohol engines usually burned a tank of fuel in a 30 lap race if there were yellow flag laps.  But even if you only burn twice as much alcohol and you do gas it would be real expensive try to run your street car on alcohol.

Mod all good, I have friends in the circle track racing too, that is fun times.  I wont be drving my Charger all that much that it will be as much of an impact to my wallet.... and HECK FUN always costs money!! 

Tom

[modmidget]

Hey Blown70, you can see one of my oval track cars at this link.  The young lady (driver) is my granddaughter.  I own 3 of these cars but only race the pink one right now.

http://westcapitalraceway.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=247

We don't take our Charger out very much either.  We drive it sometimes on the weekend and enter it in local car shows 3 or 4 times a year. 

I was doing some math earlier today just to find out how much I spend on gas for my work commute each month.  It's 8/10th of a mile from home to work and I get 14mpg out of my Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, so it looks like I'm burning about 6 or 7 gallons per month.  I go home for lunch every day which means I drive about 3.2 miles each day.  My wife's office is only 3/4 of a mile from home, so she uses less gas than me.  Since we don't spend a lot on gas for the work commute it leaves us with a little extra money to put gas in the Charger, or the motor home (Triton V10), or the old Harley Sportster 1000.

[HKCharger]

i ran E85 for a while, but lost about 20% fuel economy. Wasnt worth it to me.

[suntech]

i ran E85 for a while, but lost about 20% fuel economy. Wasnt worth it to me.

Just got a little comfused, fuel ECONOMY or fuel CONSUMPTION? Here in Norway the E 85 costs app 30/35 % less than premium pump gas, so dialed in for optimum performance there would´nt be any savings, moneywice, to do it. at least not much. Also, we do not have many E 85 pumps yet, so if i want to go for a longer trip, my milage would not take me to next pump, with the std Charger tank ! Hence the possibility to do both, since the power gain on E 85 is tempting now and then.

[kylem4711]

I hear burning Liberals works well, but you have to really dry them out. Tree huggers are the best to use...something about the tree sap......

good one....   

[kylem4711]

so no one here has one?

[plumbeeper]

 A few weeks ago I was reading on Moparts about a guy who used E85 for several years in all of his cars with little to no problems all with no modifications. These cars were not built as E85 cars. That got me thinking.
I was looking into E85 a little over a year ago when 87 octane gas was $2.50 a gallon for a few weeks then it dropped to around $2.00 so I gave up on it. Now it's over $4.00 and still going up. There are companies out there that make "stills" so you can make your own "ethanol" but you have to do a little work. I figured at the time it was going to cost me about $2,000 to start with for all of the equipment then about $1.50 per gallon to make E100. It's completely legal as long as you don't try selling it as a drink. Basically you just have to cut 15% gas or other fuel to make it poisonous to drink. I was worried most about investing a few thousand dollars in it and then find out my cars would not run right on it so I decided to just take a chance and start running E85 out of the pump in my 93 IROC RT. It's $3.29 per gallon which is $.70 per gallon cheaper than gasoline. I started with a couple gallons on top of a half tank of gasoline, no problems. Done that a few weeks in a row then just started filling it up on E85 only. 3 months now with no problems. If it goes good until next spring, I'm probably going to start making my own.

Dave

[onebadmopar]

automechanic of mine has buitl a hydrogen system he claims will increase mpg he put it on is 07 stang and his  dads chevy silverado says he,ll do mine if i ever get the thing running right and able to get it to him  anyone seen this done yet