-> -> I remember reading in older hot rod magazines that alcohol
-> -> runs much cooler than gasoline...
->
-> Well, starting out with the right mixture is a big help.  You've got
-> provide some flash evaporation inside the combustion chamber to help
-> keep the hotspots down, or you can get into some pretty serious
-> preignition problems.  "Lean burn" aint where it's at with alky as I
-> understand it.
That's right, alcohol has the reputation of being sensitive to
preignition.  The last time I ran an engine on alcohol (methanol) was a
small two-stroke motorcycle.  Took the metering rod right out of the
carb, and fed it a 30:1 oil/methanol mix.  It actually ran fairly well
considering I made no serious attempt to get the right air/fuel mix.
'Course, that was in the mid-1960's...
-> Besides, I don't understand all this conversion of potential energy
-> that everyone seems to want to get into.  Lessee, we take sunlight
-> and apply it to dirt to produce foodstuff, then apply distillation
-> to that, then internal combust it into rotation, then apply the
-> rotation to generation to make electricity to do.....?
->
-> Every process has some efficiency losses, makes our electricity
-> awfully expensive in raw material terms, don't it?
Yep!  Every conversion takes it's efficiency toll.  The idea of doing
a small methanol still, and running a motor generator is interesting
though!  It's not my project, but I'll do a bit of thought on it.  The
fly in the ointment of ethanol is the possibility of the @#$% feds
requiring a permit of some kind.  I really wouldn't want to deal with
that manure.
Well, maybe the person who started this will keep us informed as
to how it's going!
-c-
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