Can we use any alternative fuels?

S

sofasurferlinux

New Member
Will these little engines permit the use of anything beside gasoline. I'm just saying, if the economy goes to heck and there is no gas available is there anything else that will work as a fuel?
 
I don't think that is dependably true. We have never seen our society in bad times. Bad times could bring a lot of unforseen things with it.
And a somewhat related question, how long can gas last with preservative in it?
 
Well you can use alcohol. About half the thermal content, so you use twice as much.

But you can grow your own corn and ferment and distill it if you want.

If it gets so bad that there is no more gas, then you will want to have some guns before you plant your cornfield.
 
Diesel fuel can be made from animal fat, algae excretion, corn oil, hemp seed oil, and others I cannot think of right now.
Also, Henry Ford was a pioneer in the alternative fuel field.
His first model T was never intended to burn gasoline, or even have a steel body.
Ford And Deisel Never Intended Cars To Use Gasoline
Also, there are internal combustion engines that burn wood.

Do a y a h o o search. Enlighten yourself to the incredible possibilities!

Gasoline is only but one form of fuel.
One form that lines the pockets quite nicely of certain wealthy individuals and groups.
Our little 2-strokes and 4-strokes can burn alot of other fuels too. ;)
 
i guess you could just ditch the motor and pedal in the event the nations fuel supply runs dry ..


that's what i will do .duh.
 
Diesel rocks!

But the motor has to be designed for it. Bearings need to be bigger, crankcases need to be thicker, pistons and rods need to be heavier.

Pressures are much higher.
 
Ya but a man can dream about it. Maybe one day. I wonder what kind of crap the chinese have ran these things with.
 
Last year I saw a moped in a parking lot and it has solar panels deployed for charging. Anyone own/seen one of these? Looked pretty societal-collapse-proof to me.
 
I've been burning alternative fuel in my China Girl since day one. Sometimes I burn Exxon instead of Texaco, but sometimes when I'm really feeling jiggy, I burn Chevron. When I get tired of that, I burn Shell.
 
biknut said:
I've been burning alternative fuel in my China Girl since day one. Sometimes I burn Exxon instead of Texaco, but sometimes when I'm really feeling jiggy, I burn Chevron. When I get tired of that, I burn Shell.
Click to expand...

I use a lot of Velero in mine I don't ever get jiggy enough to spring for the Shell gas though, it's always about 8-10 cents a gal. more around here.


You made me laugh with this one bro.........LOL!

Peace
 
So you could convert a China Girl to run on Alcohol? How would that happen?
You'd still need to add oil the fuel or even more- alcohol seems rather "thin"..
 
Swapping out any/all fuel system components known to degrade from alcohol exposure (rubber & plastics), rejet the carb (larger) & readjust the floats (up), increase the compression (alcohol has a higher octane rating), install an alternate fuel cold start system (gasoline/propane/ether) & use a fully synthetic ester-based premix oil (such as Amsoil)... I suspect you'd need to upgrade the bearings as well in a 'China Girl' not due to the alcohol, but the added stresses of the above & lack of quality control during manufacturing, for that reason alone they may not be the best candidates.

It's not particularly complex tho, the techs been around forever...
73ef7d9d.jpg


heck, In 1925 Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that “ethyl alcohol is the fuel of the future.” lol

...and there's a bunch of reference links here BTW: Ethanol resources on the Web & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_fuel
 
Last edited:
I'm working on a "witch's brew" fuel mix that starts with washing the alcohol out of the fuel with water. This reduces the fuel volume 10-15% depending on the alcohol in the mix. To replace the alcohol use Toluene at the same percentages as the alcohol. Toluene is used as a TEL substitute in the petroleum industry due to it's high octane rating. I buy mine from the paint section at ACE Hardware.

I don't really want to go into the fuel make-up, yet, until it's tested out some more but results are promising. :)
 
Kerosene as a fuel is a possibility. There are dual-fuel engines out there that start on gasoline, then once the engine is warmed up, it can be switched over to kerosene. When running on kerosene, the timing is advanced.
To do this on a MB, you would probably have to cut away the magneto housing and mount the magneto on a plate that can be rotated about the crankshaft's axis in order to be able to change the engine timing easily.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top