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environmentally friendly rovers.

hi all. i am only 17 and have never actually driven a landrover (this will hopefullly change next week) but am already in love with them. their style, practicality, charisma and so on and so forth. i plan to own one of these bueaties within about a year, but i am also very concerned about the damage rovers, and all other cars, are doing to the environment with regards to air pollution.

one option for me is to run a diesel engine off vegetable oil or biodiesel (i heard that people in europe have been fined for this for lost tax revenue, but i don't think that happens hear in oz) but one other idea i just thought of is running a petrol engine off ethanol. does anyone have any idea how much modification would be involved in such a conversion? assuming it is possible to modify a 2.25 petrol engine to run off ethanol. we have a couple of buses hear running off the stuff and i believe they use an engine fairly similar to a petrol engine but somehow modified. any ideas (perhaps other environmentally friendly options i have overlooked) links, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

Sam.

Reply to
samuel mcgregor
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The main modification to the engine is in the fuel system, to ensure seals and flexible pipes and such will stand up to ethanol. This includes the diaphragm on the fuel lift pump.

Ethanol is mostly used as an additive to petrol, rather than straight. I think it has some effect on octane rating, and the mixture is undrinkable.

Reply to
David G. Bell

Hi Sam

If you intend to be environmentally friendly then you can do no better than buying an old Land Rover. Most people wrongly concern themselves with what comes out of the exhaust of a vehicle, when in reality more than 90% of the lifetime pollution associated with a vehicle is generated during it's production rather than it's working life. It is clear therefore that the most environmentally unfriendly thing you can do is regularly buy new cars, the building of which causes huge pollution and are therefore better off keeping a vehicle many years, like you will with a Land Rover.

What you run it on is of far less importance than the fact that it was built

20 or 30 years ago and that you keep it many years rather than buying new regularly! :)
Reply to
Exit

You can also run a petrol engine on LPG/propane gas. There are various kits available over here that you can fit yourself, come with full fitting instructions and parts needed for your particular car, but you can ask about it on

uk.rec.cars.fuel.lpg

Reply to
Nikki

Yes, that is a very good point julian, but i strongly feel that if i can do more, i will. i found a wonderful site which gives exact instructions on how to modify fuel systems etc to run engines off ethanol.

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it is actually very simpleand in fact has many advantages over petrol. engine runs cooler, no carbonbuildup, virtually knock proof etc. on that last point, as it is less likelyto knock, the compression ratio can be increased from the standard rover2.25 petrol ratio of 7:1 or 8:1 to 14/15:1, as the petrol block is identicalto the 2.25 diesel which runs at a compression ratio of 20:1. sounds likerunning an engine off ethanol will not only be environmentally friendly, butin fact improve every aspect of the engine. you should all look into it!! Sam.

Reply to
samuel mcgregor

I run my Disco V8 on lpg which also gives all of the benefits you list and as it is 114 octane I have an RPi box which advances the ignition significantly on lpg so it actually performs better than on petrol. Additionally lpg is available at many petrol stations and is half the price of petrol. The complete lack of availability of ethanol makes it a none starter for running a vehicle on here in the UK.

Reply to
Exit

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