Frank Admits Re: <VV> If the General says...NO CORVAIR

[FrankCB at aol.com]

Dennis and V Vers,
    Yes, now that "the secret is out" I have to confess that son Jim has 
"liberated" that carb from Delphi and adapted it to get 60+ mpg on his Corvair.  
So at the Buffalo area Convention in 2006, we'll wipe out you guys in the 
economy run!!!
    If you believe this, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'll be glad 
to sell you.<GGGGG>
    Seriously, if the General had any such device it would long ago have 
appeared on GM cars to trump the competition AND placate the Feds in their never 
ending quest for better fuel economy to reduce our OVERWHELMING dependence on 
imported oil (60% of our oil is imported and that number is steadily 
increasing).
    Changing the A/F ratio has little to do with major improvements in fuel 
economy.  The precise control afforded by computer controlled fuel injection 
has certainly helped a bit.  But as long as our internal combustion engines 
THROW AWAY over 2/3 of the energy in the gasoline we use by wasting it into the 
exhaust gas and the engine cooling system (whether air or liquid) they won't 
make major gains in fuel efficiency.
    Certainly changing our fuel from straight gasoline to mixtures of it with 
ethanol or methanol could lessen our dependence on imported oil.  However, 
the economics for doing so are very questionable since these alcohols have 
considerably LOWER energy content than gasoline and require considerable 
subsidizing by the government (i.e. taxpayer $$$) to even BEGIN to make them cost 
competitive to gasoline.
    As far as hybrids go, they can certainly improve gas tank mileage, 
particularly in city driving.  But just how long will the batteries last and how 
many thousands of $$$ will it cost to replace them?  And for those thinking of 
"plugging in" their hybrid overnight to restore the charge on the batteries, in 
my area of NJ gasoline cost is only 56% of the equivalent house electricity 
cost on an energy basis.
    Not an easy problem to solve, folks.
    Frank "pedantically" Burkhard   
    

In a message dated 4/17/05 9:56:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ddpleau at earthlink.net writes:
Garth, there have been rumors that GM hid a carb like this for years.  I 
don't remember the exact details but Jim posted once about an older 
engineer at Rochester who had a 50 era Rochester 2 barrel mounted on a 
plaque with a sign this was the carb GM was hiding.  Maybe Jim can repost 
with the real story.

Fuel only has so much energy.  Gas is most efficient at 14.6 parts air to 1 
part gas (by weight I think).  You could get a little better mileage but 
running a little more lean but drivability would suffer.  To make a carb 
which would take a 20 mpg automobile to 60 mpg all you would need to is re 
jet it to 45/1 ratio.  Don't think you would ever get the engine 
started.  There is no way you could get 3x the mileage by doing anything to 
the carb.

dp