Greasecar improvement(?)

[thrival]

Most of you no doubt saw the guy on the news who retrofitted his volkswagen diesel rabbit to run on french fry grease. This isn't really so special for a diesel engine to do, but what if regular IC engines could be made to run off the stuff?

This isn't really a new idea, but maybe the application. Some of you may remember a patent shown in the back of old Popular Science magazines, called a "cold vapor fuel system." Basically it amounted to just a mason jar with two pipe fittings in the lid, one reaching near to the bottom of the jar. The jar held a small amount of gasoline, the fuel level breaking just above the lower pipe end. Engine intake was plumbed to the upper fitting and sucked fumes out of the jar while the lower pipe sucked air in from atmosphere to replace it, this air bubbling up through the gasoline, producing more fumes as the bubbles' surface tension shattered into billions of vaporous fragments; (the principle is common to middle-eastern hookahs or water pipes.)

Now this system does work. I got my Old Mercury Grand Marquis V8 to run off a mason jar described. It didn't have much power because the fittings were small, starving for both air and fumes, but it ran, with no other fuel input. The large throughput of ambient air that enters makes the whole jar frosty, even in summer, when I did the test. Perhaps running the jar inlet to the radiator or an exhaust or header heat shroud could warm the incoming air. That might help a lot.

But reading about people who get sick from standing near deep fryers got me thinking. Obviously boiling grease gives off fumes. Is it possible those grease fumes in sufficient concentrations could be caused to ignite? Running on grease fumes would improve mileage over liquid grease. Such a system might let a person run on virtually any liquid hydrocarbon, even alcohol.

I've got other projects to work on, so maybe someone out there would like to try this?

[adam666]

hmm, interesting, Ive seen some IC engines running on a device which sounds very similar to what you describe.

they could run it on anything using it apparently

do you know where I can get a copy of the patent/ info pertaining to its construction?

cheers
Adam

[kww]

Sure, heating grease will help it vaporize for ignition. Ever blow out a candle and relight it by putting a flame to the thick smoke/vapor coming off the wick? Btw, you can even heat dry wood and ignite the vapors it gives off. In the old days some cars actually ran from this.

[thrival]

Dear Adam:

I don't have the patent number but if you PM me with your email address, I'll send you a sketch attachment.

--thrival

[adam666]

no PM available on this board

mail me @ adam666 [at] gmail

cheers
Adam