Re: Could you run an engine off moonshine?
If you made some modifications, could u run an engine off moonshine?
I wounder how much that would cost per gallon.
Alcohol from a pot still will be about 50% water. From a reflux distilling tower you can get up to 91%. Anything further has to be chemically dhydrated. A reflux tower is buildable by the average back yard mechanic.
And yes, the 91% will run better in an engine than 100%, based on a gazillion redneck experiments in the 80's. When we figured out, with our government experimental still permits, that we could make our own fuel and burn it directly, the response was to "still tax" us out of existance. NOTE: This is not a political comment, it is history as lived by me.
We found it needed a bit of castor oil mixed with it to keep the valves from sticking. I'm sure modern detergents and lubes would do also.
These were carbureted cars. Mix had to be significantly richened up, and we used a window washer with gasoline in it to spray in a starting fuel for cold starts. Compression had to be greatly increased to work well. The water actually added enough volumetric efficiency from the phase change cycle to make the mileage similar to gasoline.
The biggest problem we had was keeping drive tires on the car. They'd readily burn off if you got on the throttle.
Yep, we had a lot of fun with the corn burners, but we got shut down by regulations.
John
