musing about fuel savings

Mike Romain did pass the time by typing:

Possibly. There are always things they tried but other cost items kept it from being implemented. Like the subject sez, "musing" :]

True

It does. I don't like die-by-wire systems.

Lon did pass the time by typing:

That's what gave me the idea. Reading on the MSD multispark with RPM limiter and boost adjusted retard.

At least the new Hemi has twin plugs. All the serious 426 race engines were twin plug but the street Hemis, joke they were, had a dummy plug in the second tapped hole. Would have added build cost for the second distributor. Adding twin plugs to other common Hemi head engines like the Harley Davidson Shovelhead, the BMW motorcycle flat twin, or even the Jaguar XK improves economy and cuts octane requirement of the fuel.

Now if it only had a distributor hole...Even as it is EAA people are already talking about putting the New Hemi to more serious employment. After all a three blade constant speed Hartzell is the most efficient transmission we may buy...

Earle Horton did pass the time by typing:

The injectors are right on top of the ports so I don't think fuel mix would get into the unused cyl. The piston would have to go through the compression stroke with no relief, but for a cyl with good compression that should have some return force.

You mean that six cyl with the supercharger thinking. :)

If I was going to get a new/used vehicle for fuel economy it would be an import econobox or one of those hybrids.. problem is what you save in fuel you loose in insurance/tag/etc.

I'm just puttering with an idea.. putter..putter..putter..

They are out there. Many old car shops have a pile of them. They are common to industrial, ag, marine and aircraft applications and those people kept them long after all cars went to alternators. When Spards DDA in Reno, NV did their 53 series Detroit swaps in pickups as late as the early 80s they were still putting generators in...

There are in fact more generator cores out there than there are people who want generators. You just have to look where they are and not where is convenient. Even if 99% of those ever made have been smelted for scrap that leaves tens of thousands.

Mike Romain proclaimed:

Simply shutting down fuel and/or spark works best as a rev limiter, not a mixed operation mode. Or at least the way it was implemented on the cars I've ran into the rev limiter. You may get less handling upset that way, but it isn't a particularly unnoticeable or pleasant way of cutting power.

Suspect you'd need to pop valves to cut pumping losses to make it at all worth while.

Yes, that's why a reman generator is probably $300! But if it's a restored show car you have to have the generator.

Alternators are better in every way but one: they need external excitation power.

They COULD build a PM exciter in the alternator, but that would cost money. It's irrelevant on modern cars because you need to run the ECM to run the engine.

Lon did pass the time by typing:

Suspecting that much just by the replies here and some other research. Although I might just build the circuit to find out if it does any good.

I could have been worse. When my oldest was a baby I had a car with no heater. We used to wrap her up like a little Eskimo baby.

h e a t e r... an option on civilian cars.

If the EPA has its way and they reclassify Pickups, Vans, and SUVs as passenger cars (which they generally are) we may be seeing diesels as standard equipment or low cost options because they will need to up their mileage.

Add onto that they want to raise CAFE another 10%.

Small gasoline engines, which were fine for real Jeeps, don't put out enough torque for the modern large applications that people want.