mormanman Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I would like to devote this topic for cars and gas mileage questions or comments. I'm looking to buy a 1996 Ford Ranger with a 4.0L.I know that most of us know about Hydrogen power and I have been looking into it but I'm unsure of the price for the kit, how hard it is to install and the most important, where to get the kit. BTW, I saw this VIDEO and was wondering if the acetone would actually work? Any input would be great. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tentacles Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Unless you need a truck, buy something that you can afford to put gas in. A 6cyl Ranger probably takes about 20 gallons... or, $60-70 in gas to fill up. Find yourself a nice shitty civic or something, that'll cost half that to fill, and go farther between fills. Plus, Rangers are notorious for transmission problems. As far as hydrogen/bio-fuel/whatever - unless you're using heated oil to run a diesel, this is all a big crock of poop. Even if you could generate enough hydrogen to run a vehicle for more than a nominal time, you have no way to store it. If you want to be eco-friendly, or whatever you want to call it, drive a more efficient car. My old 90 civic would get 36mpg - anywhere. It's hard to find a modern car that can get an *honest* 36mpg on the highway. edit: If it doesn't seem convincing, think about it this way: if you can save $30 on a tank of gas, that's $30 more you can spend on pyro! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Its not that I need a truck all the time but since I do some wood working I kind of need one. And the acetone is a load of crap? And the Hydrogen I see on united nuclear thats why I'm asking?I'm not trying to be ecofriendly I just don't want to buy gas for $4 a gallon. Its a load of crap.I also think its funny that people say we are in Iraq for oil and gas is $4 a gallon. Wheres the oil then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Dunno how much credence you give to the Mythbusters, but their testing showed a slight *decrease* in fuel economy with acetone added at the "magic" ratio of 2.6-3oz:10gal. A mechanical engineer at Kettering University also did a study and found no effect. http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=...auto&id=3951510 Hydrogen is bullshit right now as well. Just the energy used to compress the gas into a storage tank uses more energy than the tank could supply. The emissions at the production, storage, and distribution phases make for much more pollution as well. It's very difficult to compete with something that you can take from the ground quite easily in mass quantity, and then use in a vehicle with a minimal amount of fractioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 It takes more energy to split hydrocarbons into useful hydrogen than it takes to just refine them to be burned. However, the way to save energy and make hydrogen efficient is via solar power. Solar is the only really free and renewable energy source we have and the sooner we make real use of the sun the better off we'll be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Yup, the only time hydrogen looks good is when the electricity to make it is generated solely from hydroelectric, wind, ocean current, and/or geothermal power. Solar, thermoelectric, and other methods work too somewhat. Any way you look at it your using a bunch of power to make and compress the hydrogen, then your getting only a fraction of the energy it took to do it back. Personally if/when I get my own land I'm going to diversify into a few of these alternate power sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V2FgwN_re4&feature=relatedBikes still remain the most efficient vehicles. One of those designs could easily be extended to allow 4+ passengers and cargo room, and not depend on speed quite so much. There are millions of people on this planet that go to the same job day in and day out with nothing but the cloths they are wearing, a cell phone, and perhaps a briefcase. Yet they drive around in SUVs... 4+ people wouldn't even have to pedel much at all since they would all be working together. Now scale it up... There are MANY buses all over the world. Start with a super lite strong composite frame and have many seats and lots of cargo room, very streamlined. Have a system put in so that not everyone has to pedel, people can stop and rest, or if they are old, not pedel at all. The greyhound bus lines of the future perhaps. Remember, there are like billions of us on this planet, and that number is only going to go up. Edit:If anyone is wondering what the best possible way to harness energy around is, google: "dyson sphere" We will not make it that far any time soon, but if/when we do, we will be able to harness incredibly vast amounts of energy every second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCrewPyros Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Try a S-10... A buddy of mine had a 99 S-10 and it got great gas milage... Me on the other hand has a friggin 2001 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD 4x4... cost me 85$ to fill up here in north texas... and it is a gas guzzler... But it is Burnt Orange (= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Frank, I can understand why acetone can mess up you hoses. I've been looking into hydrogen and you can cut steal with it. . I'm not sure if you've seen it but its pretty cool. Bob, that bike(s) was neat but I'm too weak to do that. JCP, I just have a thing against Chevy. I'm not sure why I just don't like them. Do you know anything about the Dakota. I want one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCrewPyros Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 What year models are we talking about and maybe I can help alittle more... as far as I can remember they are fairly easy to work on... I used to do Paint and Body and slight mechanic work... A guy I knew had a 99 and it seemed like a fairly decent truck... Didn't have too much trouble with up keep... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 What year models are we talking about and maybe I can help alittle more... as far as I can remember they are fairly easy to work on... I used to do Paint and Body and slight mechanic work... A guy I knew had a 99 and it seemed like a fairly decent truck... Didn't have too much trouble with up keep... I want a 98 Dodge Dakota 4x4 for $4000 but I'm going to try to talk him down to $3500. Pictures anyone. LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3 LINK 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 If you can pedel a normal bike up to 15 you cna probably pedel an aerodynamic bike up to 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCrewPyros Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 What year models are we talking about and maybe I can help alittle more... as far as I can remember they are fairly easy to work on... I used to do Paint and Body and slight mechanic work... A guy I knew had a 99 and it seemed like a fairly decent truck... Didn't have too much trouble with up keep...I want a 98 Dodge Dakota 4x4 for $4000 but I'm going to try to talk him down to $3500. Pictures anyone. LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3 LINK 3 You cannot link to your google e-mail... Find a hosting site and link them that way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 You mean kinda like that Bob, but without the crappy cops of course. I'd like to get a diesel Mercedes Benz and run it on old veggie oil, anyone know of any problems associated with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Frank, I can understand why acetone can mess up you hoses. I've been looking into hydrogen and you can cut steal with it. . I'm not sure if you've seen it but its pretty cool. Yeah, I saw that news report a few months back. It's typical sensational journalism unfortunately. Obviously the electricity used during the electrolysis would be more efficiently used in a traditional or plasma welding system. I'm not sure what the hell he patented either since hydrogen has been used like that for years to do quartz glass and fine jewelry work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Lol yeah like that but more aerodynamic and lighter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 JCP, here these should work. http://i30.tinypic.com/30vhurp.jpg http://i26.tinypic.com/21ll5b9.jpg http://i27.tinypic.com/ab6sg4.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Whew, nice truck, but could anyone scale those images down? their like 2 as big than my computer screen. Sorry, if this message doesn't mean anything, been at a party, and well, drinking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 I don't know how do down size them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudidotdk Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 I don't know how do down size them.It's incredible what a few seconds of googling can do.Try it. http://www.google.com/search?hl=da&q=onlin...=S%C3%B8g&meta= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 I don't know how do down size them.It's incredible what a few seconds of googling can do.Try it. http://www.google.com/search?hl=da&q=onlin...=S%C3%B8g&meta= I don't know how do use google. You think you could google how to use google too. Just kidding Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 JCP, here these should work. http://i30.tinypic.com/30vhurp.jpg http://i26.tinypic.com/21ll5b9.jpg http://i27.tinypic.com/ab6sg4.jpg Not my favorite colour, but I like Dakotas, I'm driving an '07 right now, and have had a '04, and '97 Dakota. I switched to the 6 cyl this time around, gas usage is lower, but if towing anything heavy it gets really thirsty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 LOL, Thanks bonny. I don't like the color either but I like Dodge also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlmemt Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I'd like to get a diesel Mercedes Benz and run it on old veggie oil, anyone know of any problems associated with this? Jake, What I have heard is that it has to be preheated to burn properly, winter isn't so good. And you will loose some power from the engine. It will also make you crave french fries, or so I'm told. Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Oh Yeah, I forgot to say I plan to run engine coolent lines through a separate tank of filtered, boiled veggie oil, start it on diesel to warm it up, then switch to oil, then switch back to diesel for a few minutes before you shut it off to clean out the fuel lines. I think they make kits to do just this, but I've heard that useing straight oil can sort of half-clog the injectors and create a hot spot that can burn through the cylinder wall, seems unlikely to me, but what do I know?. And yes I'll probably get obese from smelling fried food all the time, oh well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Properly made bio-diesel works with most diesel engines, there is a huge amount on the web. search "transesterification" Basically just reflux veg oil with methanol and sodium hydroxide. get a big layer of bio-diesel and small lower layer of glycerol etc. - which youhave to get rid of. The just scrub the fuel layer and neutralise the pH. It's only cheaper than road diesel if you have a good source of very cheap veg oil. -Retail is not price beneficial, but waste oil from a fast food chain is easily sourced and does good value. US fuel tax must be considered, or you get the enemy on your tail sniffing burgers and demanding money! I just wish there was a good plan for bio petrol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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