Mixing alcohol with gasoline

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk @See My Sig.com wrote in message
. ..
"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
.. .

wrote in message
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On Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:10:42 -0400, Sliker
wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2008 20:34:40 -0700, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields"
wrote:


We saw an experiment where an antiqu indicated horsepower device that
was
used on locomotives was used and an antique hit and miss piston engine.
The
indicated power gage plotted piston position vs pressure and the area
under
the pv curve was power. With as little as 10% ethanol added the loss
of
power was apparent. We also tried acetone, mek and some other octane
boosters. They all had the effect of reducing power.

Stu Fields

They had to run a test to find out that?
Alcohol contains olny about 60% of the power in gas so the power loss
should be quite noticable even with 10%. With E85 you are looking at
close to a 40% drop.
Roger (K8RI) ARRL Life Member
N833R (World's oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

No we didn't have to run a test. It was just a demonstration of his
engine and the internal power measurement device. I had never seen one
of these devices work, so it was a interesting thing for me to observe
the device in operation with different fuel mixtures. The device had a
measure of resolution that surprised me. Further discussions of the
technique lead to ideas of how it might be adapted to measure Hp in real
time on a Lycoming. Further how might that be adapted to show sticky
valves and individual cylinder problems.
Stu

The old mechanical systems don't do well at higher engine speeds, the
signal gets attenuated - pressure tranducers, charge amps, and digital
signal processing is the way to go nowadays. Kistler will modify spark
plugs with a pressure tap to measure the in-cylinder pressures wihout
drilling holes in the cylinder head.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.
Hey Geoff: Thanks for the tip about Kistler. I'm a retired Electronic
Engineer that was mainly involved in digital stuff. The pressure pickoff
was one point of interest and being able to do it without drilling and
tapping the head is a nicer method. (I did drill and tap my Bultaco head
for a compression release though). If we can get some of the NOW projects
off my lap I would like to explore the ability to real time monitor cylinder
health via a power calculations and changes thereof. BTW the Lycoming
engine speeds don't bother me too much. I was the project engineer on a
digital device that was running at a clock speed of 327 Mhz in the late
60's.

Thanks again for the Kistler tip.