How's your MPG?

i was going to put a heater on my oil pan, however there $70-$80 here. also my father says i dont need one.whats better: putting it on your oil pan? or the engine block?

 

The block heater is cheaper and more effective in a water-cooled engine. Well, if you reuse the antifreeze.

 

Block heaters are standard equipment.
I have a magnetic pan heater that I will use only on the coldest of the cold mornings, just to do the engine a favour. I'm talking -30C and lower.
Hah tried to use it on the Topaz, it must have an aluminuum pan or something, dang thing wouldn't stick.
A battery blanket might be a better investment.

 

whats a battery blanket? Im a young wippersnapper, and am not familiar to these things.

 

http://www.jcwhitney.com/BLANKET-STYLE-BATTERY-WARMER/GP_2006128_N_111+10201+600000917_10101.jcw
Google is your friend.
They sell for about $25 up here.
Your local auto parts store should have them.
I did not plug mine in last night and was VERY lucky to get 'er going today.
Cranked over at the last second yay for fuel injection.

 

My dad says that the pan ones and the coolant ones are junk. He says you have to go with the ones that go to the, s%it, I'm blanking on the term, but the plug in the block, y'all know what I'm talking about. He says they're the best way to go. His Jimmy has one stock, must be nice LOL.

 

Yep, that's the ones, block heaters. They heat up the coolant. I had a Corvair with an oil heater, but that's because it was an air-cooled engine.

 

This thread is off topic!!

MANY GIRLS PER!!!!!

 

I just recently had the fuel filter and air filter replaced with an oil change, added some fuel injection cleaner, and replaced the spark plugs and wires in my '89 Ford Country Squire. The weather is starting to warm up now too. I figure I'm currently getting about 17mpg avg. I'm thinking about trying one of those water/gas conversion kits for a real boost in mileage. :icon_drive:

 

There's several Water Injection systems. The original ones used on WWII aircraft added oxygen and kept the combustion chamber cleaner. Some guys were getting serious about it for cars, back in 1978-1979, like this old one. Its for carbed engines. It would take a more complex system for EFI:

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me3.html

That one uses a bit of alcohol to avoid freezing in colder climates, like mine.

Then there's the Hydrogen-on-the-fly boosters. There's a bit of smoke and mirrors in this range of systems, so you want to do some research. A lot of them don't do much better than that first one, about 10 to 15% improvement. For the dollars, I'd want much better results.

The latest one is a derivative of Tesla's experiments with energy. It works, but the science isn't there for a reliable and stable system. It doesn't burn the HH O. It creates an energy field that depends on many esoteric factors.

The first one I posted is simple and cheap enough to prove it for yourself, and then gain a better informed insight into what the hype-sellers are flogging. It might cost you $10 bucks. Commercial systems of the same thing go for up to $500. I plan on starting with this first one above.

We debated about the different fuel alternatives in here.

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2383

As well as the main thread - Hydrogen boosters. There's lots of links to some of all types of the various water-fuel systems:
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=30

Really check out your car's fuel system and operating integrity (tuning, injectors, compression, etc.) if you're gonna get into a really exotic system. If they aren't up to snuff, you could do a lot of pinging or get water in the oil.

 

mpg

My 06 Magnum R/T gets 30 miles to the Canuk gallon with the wife driving...less with me lol.The Canadian gallon is 20% larger than the US I think.
I've had a couple of mid 70's 440 town and countrys.....even with duals they were hardpressed to get 15.
The best Mopar wagon combo is the 318.....even in a full size Fury wagon they will pull 20 mpg with duals and electronic ignition and still have plenty of power for towing.
If you are rodding a wagon the best thing to do is run a late model fuel injection drivetrain with an overdrive.I have a customer with a 69 Dart that installed a Dakota V6 and stick into his car...it's pulling low 30's on the highway and has way more power than the original slant 6.Of course you have to be some kind of a computer/electrical genius to do one of these swaps. I'm sticking to duals/tuning carbs etc.

 

I appreciate all the info. You are the only person that seems to even know what I'm talking about, that I've spoken to so far. You posted how to do a gas/water conversion on a car with a carburetor, any info on how to do the same thing on a car with fuel injection? Here's a website for one of the most popular E-Books. www.[B]water4gas.com[/B]

 

Its a good site, but you might just use the site name itself (to see if the folks that bought it have any Positive or Negative comments) as a search keyword.

There seem to be quite a few that have adapted water injection into EFI and other FI vehicles. It's mostly a plumbing task (running lines to the fuel input.) I don't know enough about Fuel Injection to comment. I do know that many SEMI Drivers have commercial systems for their big diesel injection rigs. You might check with a reputable Truck repair shop for what they consider reliable for FI.

A lot of the WWW vendors are resellers or knock-off artists. I'd suggest that you try to get a system from the firms run by the actual inventor/developer.

The big plus with straight water injection is a cleaner burning engine (Less Wear and carbon deposits), a realistic expectation of 10 to 15% increase in fuel economy. You might get more, depending on you engine's Compression Ratio (recommended by most is from 8:1 up to 9.5:1) and really well tuned. You'll have to tweak the timing advance, probably change plugs, and maybe a better Coil.

Again, don't ponder the Hydrogen systems just yet. Most of the sites are busy confusing people, with their theoretical setups. I think that a lot of the members are from the Oil patch, acting like they know something. Too much debate and bafflegab, and rudeness.

Science speaks for itself, and when it works, the debates end.

Just to reinforce my point, Charles Pogue developed the 100 MPG carb (an Updraft 1939 Pontiac IIRC) and about 20 years later, it didn't work as efficiently. It seems that the original High Octane fuel got additives to gum up the vapour. Nowadays, Ethanol isn't distilled enough to allow older engines (usually all over the map when it comes to compression) and the engines overheat in higher altitudes.

You can find Pogue's patents all over the WWW, but the fact is the Oil barons don't want to lose, and they've got the bucks to thwart any Fuel-based solution.

Don't buy a gadget that you don't understand, and think about how you could fix it if you broke down on a long trip. If you can disconnect it and drive to the next city, its probably worth it.

 

Thanks. I'll keep the forum posted if I decide to proceed.

 

Just found this Wind-Powered Speed record, made in a Nevada desert run no less! 126.1 MPH.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7968860.stm

Never work as a grocery-getter though, except for bird seed.