alternative fuel on an F134

Just curious.. but would it be possible to convert an F134 to run on another type of fuel--say something not made from oil?

 

Sure. Build a wood gasifier and run it off firewood. Check it out.

http://www.gengas.nu/byggbes/index.shtml

Not really practical, but it does work. You could also convert to propane, (I think there's a couple guys here that have done it), but propane isn't cheap anymore...there may or may not be any cost savings with it (I haven't done the math recently). Other ideas?

 

Running it off of a wood gasfire sounds pretty cool--does it damage the engine at all?

What about some form of corn oil or something like that?

 

From what I remember, as long as you filter the wood gas before it enters the engine it's actually cleaner than burning gasoline. Most people have never heard of wood gasification, but during WWII many tractors and boats used them (and some cars did as well) due to a shortage of gasoline. I've seen people run generators with them as well. Do a search for "wood gasification" and you'll find all sorts of interesting projects people have built. I suppose you could (theoretically) do the same thing with any solid fuel like corn, wood pellets, leaves, sawdust, etc. How well it works I don't know. You could always put in a diesel and run it off straight vegitable oil.

The big problem with most of these things is that it's hard to make them "practical". Would be a fun/interesting project though.

 

Corn oil, aka biodiesel, is diesel only. You need very high compression to ignite it. Plus the corn oil has to be treated to remove the glycerin, otherwise it will gel at low temperatures.

You could make ethanol (ethyl alcohol, moonshine) from corn - that would work. Not sure what would have to be changed, but I'm pretty sure you can run a carbureted engine with 100% ethanol. Not very practical for a backyard project though; aside from the legal dangers, it takes a lot of heat to distill ethanol, so you'll burn a lot more wood or gas than the equivalent power stored in the ethanol - the energy efficiency from distillation is low.

 

like homebrewed alchohol?.....

 

There's a couple guys out here that run straight corn oil, but to get around the solidification problem they run a heat exchanger through the "fuel tank" and use engine coolant to heat the oil up. They have to run regular diesel until the engine warms the oil up enough to run off it, then they switch tanks.
It's an interesting idea, but only as long as corn oil is cheaper by the gallon . There is at least one gas station here that sells B20 biodiesel, but they might be the only one.

AFAIK the only problem with running a lot of ethanol (or methanol) is that it's really hard or rubber and plastic parts in the fuel system. That's really only an issue in older cars though, I think. Newer cars have fuel systems designed for it (like all the new cars that are rated to run E85 fuel). Other than that, it should run fine. Would be better in a high compression engine since it has a higher octane than gasoline.

 

SACRILIDGE!!!! It is made for personal consumption, not to waste in a vehicle!

 

Propane is your best bet. It has all allready been figured out. Longer engine life, cleaner exhaust, fuel never goes stale, no junk in fuel, etc etc. Just change out the gas bottles just like a fork lift. they hold about 8 gallons. Doug