"Inspired" by gas prices...

Boston, the 1st generation VW TDI was in the 1995,96 and 97 (B4) Passat, they had a 1.9 turbo prior to that but not computerized, ive never done anything to mine other than the timing belt/water pump/pulleys which are a scheduled maintainance item, which i did about 6000 miles before i wrecked it, it will be going into the wagon without doing anything to it other than a good clean and possibly a new clutch in case i decide to chip it, it only has about 250000 miles on it. It is a much more tractable engine than the VR6 which is in the wagon now as it produces all its torque in the 1800 - 2100 rpm range. My son put the same drivetrain in a VW Corrado which he has put on about 40000 miles by now. While i have an interest in other technologies such as CNG, Hybrids, perhaps hydrogen one day,diesel is NOW,no waiting for infrastructure, if everyone replaced their 25mpg cars with 50mpg cars TODAY, the infrastructure is already in place. CNG would be a great fuel as apparently we have plenty of it, hell, i heat my house with it as do millions so if we could just have a filling station plumbed into our garages and buy the conversion kits from Brazil we could have our choice of vehicles. Honda has been selling natural gas Civics in California and New York for years as well as the filling stations (which are ridiculously expensive) but unfortunatly without filling stations at the gas stations it is not viable.
Steve.

 

I just rebuilt a diesel so your preaching to the choir

Thanks for the info. I'll have to see how well that engine runs on alternative fuels. I make my own so having a better mileage car would be a real help.

 

No he's not, that's kind of point the that Angélique was getting at, capturing your own energy is expensive as hell. Cat was referring to Energy from nothing in terms of Physics. You cannot create Energy, it must be transformed from another type of Energy (i.e. thermal to electricity, kinetic to electricity, potential to thermal to electricity, etc.). "Free Energy" would be referring to Energy not transformed from another type but created anew. Just as Mass cannot come from nothing, neither can Energy.

 

does seem to be what he just said, so lets just let ole Cat speak for himself shall we.

Also I did mention that the cost of sail was higher than the cost of motoring, so I think you must have misunderstood me. Clearly its not free to collect wind or solar energy.

Oh well chalk it up to poor communications, sometimes the written word simply doesn't convey the intended meaning.

 

Yes you did say sailing is expensive, I didn't mean to imply that you didn't. Reading back over the first part of my post I'm realizing that I could have phrased it a lot better, sorry about that Boston..

 

no worries amigo I think we're actually on the same tract

 

Back on the topic of tricks to stretch mileage...
A former acquaintance was putting Acetone in his gas tank and claimed it to have a measurable effect. Here's the first link from a Google search
http://pesn.com/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/

Edit (and a very quick one at that.)
Seems to good to be true, slightly better Google-Foo has turned up this one...
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/acetone.asp

 

I'm on an energetics forum and acetone has only a short term effect. If your going to be immediately driving then it has some small effect. But wait any appreciable period of time, and no, the stuff evaporates very quickly. Also to much or to little and its ineffective

 

So much for my calculations . . .

Why didn't you guys warn me . .

It should have been . . .

‘‘ Than... a good pair of walking shoes will cost me € 100 and I can walk 2,000 km on them before they are worn out. So they cost me 5 cents per km. Which makes walking with a family of five will cost € 0.25 / km for good shoes alone. I can drive a medium size car for that..!! ’’​

So the car that can be driven from the 'walking family shoe costs' can be even bigger, and that's a shame as it shows there isn't much need for inspiration from the current gas prices . . . .

Cheers,
Angel

 

If you don't mind me asking,how much will all that cost?



Angel..I noticed your calcs were off..but its the concept that matters.

If I am not exercising,I eat very little..when I am doing heavy work or such I really eat a lot.... I am quite tall and heavy.


I have an Audi A2 3l...a small and efficient diesel car that uses 3l/100 km and diesel is @ 1.50 Euros/liter right now.

So to go 1000 km it would cost 45 Euros/$60 so 6 cents a km.
At 70-80kmh it uses 2.3 litres/100km,so 1000 km would cost 35 Euros/$45 so 4.5 cents a km

 

Nice car

I was talking 'over all car costs' not just fuel costs.

Cheers,
Angel

 

To make it a meaningful figure, please also tell the kind and size of the boat . . ? ?

Cheers,
Angel

 

I'd like to see public DriveOn/DriveOff freight-trains for long distance commutes.

As someone said, it is about 500 miles/gallon per ton on steel rails.

I'd like to see not just passenger cars and motorcycles 'cattle cars' but an option for your typical small biz with a cube van of goods going a couple hundred miles between cities.

Half of transport is the loading and unloading, and scheduling. That is why a businessman will say "screw it, Bubba, just load it on the truck and drive in it over, I can't think about fuel prices and other companies schedules".

Maybe include a porta-potty outhouse for longer trips, but mostly just have people take a long nap in their own cars.

$1000 to ship a car by semi-truck from SF to NYC, but I'd imagine a drive on/drive off train would be 1/10 of that or less.

 

One way you look can look at it all energy is "free". Water flows from the mountains to the ocean for "free", it might as well flow through some turbines on the way. Sun shines for free, wind blows for free. Oil and natural gas is in the ground free for the taking, same with coal and uranium. All there for the taking if you get it yourself. We are completely awash is all forms of "free" energy.

The cost is in getting it, converting it, refining it, transporting it, delivering it to the gas station or to your power meter. That is in a form that is convenient and useful, and why we are willing to pay for it, and well worth it. If you lived in the forest and supported yourself alone, you would spend all your waking hours trying to find enough food just to stay alive, and waste a lot your valuable time and energy just to eat, let along find shelter, clothes and other survival needs. AS it is now you are free to make a good income doing valuable work for others, and make enough income where you can enjoy your life, have free time, and go sailing every once in a while.

Low cost energy means freedom from a hard and short life, and that you can be so productive you only need about 40 hours a week (or less) to earn enough to make a comfortable life for yourself. That is how an economy works.

That is also BTW why recycled materials often cost more than getting it "new". Recycled paper and plastic cost more than new paper or plastic. Recycled lumber cost more than new grown lumber. Recycle motor oil cost more than new motor oil, and so fourth. This means it takes more resources to recycle than to make it from raw materials, so you waste resource when it cost more than buying new.

If you can make a profit recycling (without the tax payers supporting your operation), than you would do a good thing since it would save resources. But to have tax payers support you, or to pay more for recycled goods than they are worth, you damage the environment and waste resources.

 

Yes darling..
Just giving others some idea of potential fuel economy...and I have others from the 1950's that get better fuel economy.

Squid..in Canada we can have right hand drive Japanese vehicles,there are quite a few kei class cars around.
Micro vans,and Nissan S Cargos are frequently seen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_S-Cargo