Autogas and high end engines

Orval Fairbairn wrote:
: When you use autogas, you have to pay close attention to fuel system
: design, to avoid sharp corners in lines, cooling paths to gascolators
: and even locating boost pumps on the cabin side of the firewall, to keep
: things cool.

If possible, it would be great to have the return system of an automobile.
Flush most of the fuel to the engine and back to the tank. It requires double the
fuel lines (and thus double the potential for leakage, etc). It turns the fuel tanks
into a huge coldsink to keep the fuel cool as it circulates through the engine
compartment.

Of course, it's a little different since airplanes operate at a large
percentage of their maximum fuel burn. A car typically runs at 10-25% of its maximum
power, even on the freeway so fuel burn is 2-3 gph. In a high-perf engine cruising on
14 gph (max probably 20-25 gph), circulating the fuel would require faster pumps...
say 2x-3x, or about 1 gpm. Pretty beefy, now that I think about it.

-Cory

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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering Ph.D. Graduate Student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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