This discussion almost touched on one of the most important, often overlooked, considerations for "street power". You see enthusiasts, such as the "rice burner" crowd spending thousands of dollars to up the net horsepower of their tiny engines. Some of these engines make considerable HP at a...
The greens in California that push electric cars seem to forget that it was less than 10 years ago that California suffered a (admittedly self inflicted) shortage of electricity that led to rolling blackouts across the state.
What would happen if electric cars became popular?
I would suggest a zero-sum game; the large amount of mass in ever changing motion, (accel/decel) combined with a large amount of total bearings, would negate any implied improvement in friction. But what the heck to I know...
Well, another anecdote, prompted by the CAT engine story...
I went out diving in Grand Cayman with a group. Boat had a CAT diesel, no idea how big. On the way out, engine quit, had a low oil pressure automatic shutdown. Captain went into the bilge, found oil all over, plug had come out from...
I have a personal experience to relate. In 1984, my Father in-law bought a used 1982 Toyota pickup with the 22R engine in it. It had about 20K miles at the time. From the day he bought it, the oil pressure warning light would take about 10-20 seconds to go off after you started the engine...
I agree that people may be able to hear/detect subtle differences in engine sound. That said, I don't believe anyone that says they can detect a change in sound or performance by going to a 1:200 ratio mix of oil and diesel vs straight diesel. This is snake-oil effect at its finest hour.
I agree with Patprimmer; this is just placebo effect. Witness the thousands of satisfied users of those $19.95 magnets placed over the fuel line to "align" the fuel molecules. I never trust anyone that says their engine "runs better", because it is almost never true....
The primary reason top fuel engines blow apart is not from the explosive nature of nitromethane, rather it is because they are always close to hydrolock from so much fuel. Nitro supplies it's own oxygen, so the traditional concept of stoich goes out the window; i.e. you can continue to go...
The only air coming in is thru the carbs. Keep in mind that these have a pretty high idle to start with (3,000 RPM), so I was probably misleading by saying the butterflies are almost closed. At idle setting, there is around a 1/16" or so opening.
As I said in the beginning post, this is well...
If you look at my previous posts, you will see that this runaway occurs with very little air; the butterflies are almost closed, and there is no leakage anywhere else. That's the purpose of the pressure test mentioned in my post just before yours; to ensure there are no leaks.
Remember we are...
30 years ago I used to race enduro karts, and used varying fuels. Usually ran 50/50 petrol/Methanol, and didn't need different jets vs straight petrol as the carbs had large jets to start with and needles to adjust for the shift. We started experimenting with Nitromethane, and to use a 25%/75%...
There are so many other ways to improve HP on a 2-stroke; tuned pipe mods, increased compression with more exotic fuels, porting, etc. that it would be foolish to start with something that isn't really adaptable to 2-strokes in the first place.
But what I really want to know is this. 25 HP...
A pressure test was performed on the engine to ensure the reed plates, case and crank seals were not leaking. Additionally, a WOT plug reading was performed, showing a nice tan color...
In the last thread on this topic, I posted my experience with my 2000 Toyota Landcruiser. It is stored winters. Before putting it away one winter, changed the oil and all filters. I log mileage regularly. Middle of the following summer, I was worried that the truck didn't have the power that...
This effect is already well known and documented in the heavy truck industry for large over the road diesels. No need for the government to study something already well understood.
