Altered1

Hey All,

I've been thinking that with all the problems people have with their glow engines (not just now, but for time immemorial), if they were your car, you'd have it back to the dealer as a lemon very quick!

I know there are so many variables with glow engines, and they can be trying at times, but you have to laugh.... we still persist!

This is not an attack on glow (I love my glow engines, and the hobby in general), nor am I saying gassers are better or anything....I'm Just having a laugh at it all ....... and I guess, I'm tipping my hat to car manufacturers that they can produce an item that (mostly) performs reliably.

So - join in laughing at ourselves in the our obstinate refusal to let a little lump of Aluminium get the better of us !

May glow continue to drive us all nuts !



Altered1

Mr Cox

There is no problem with glow engines to me.

Imagine instead that you had to charge your car in a firesafe place, drive it for 8minutes and then have to charge it again...

bogbeagle

You won't have to be "imagining" that for too much longer.


I love the idea of having one of those big fireproof wallets that you put your car in. I should think that a very large biscuit tin would do just as well, though.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Maybe we could put a windmill on the roof?

earlwb

Considering how many people had trouble with their automobile engines over the years since the automobile was first invented, the number is uncountable. It is still a common sight to see someone off on the side of the road broke down for one reason or another. Plus the vast majority of people have no idea how their car works either. But way back in the early days of automobiles one had to be a mechanic, engineer to drive a car as it tended to need fixing and tinkering all the time. But if they had invented the glow plug back in the early days of automobile engines and even airplane engines, the world might be a lot more different today.

Ethanol might have become more popular but unfortunately people like to engest it too. But engines run quite well off of ethanol or methanol. But then methanol works with glow plugs though.

But then maybe it is for the best. At least we don't have millions of automobiles with glow engines spewing the excess oil out on the roads. But then maybe with oil injection and a computer controlled fuel system it might be very minimal.

But then it might be pretty neat to someday convert a big V-8 automobile engine to use glow plugs and methanol for fuel. The smaller edge trimmers and leaf blower engines work pretty well when converted, so I see no reason a big one couldn't be done. Methanol burns really cleanly in a internal combustion engine, so it ought to pass the current emissions tests too. Plus as a 4 stroke engine with a oil sump, it doesn't need oil mixed in the fuel either.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

The trouble is that my F-150 lost 4.5 mpg and my wifes Saturn lost 5 mpg on it. Consider that you put 14+ gallons of air through the engine to burn each of those gallons of fuel. That's a whole lot of extra air that goes through an engine and gets ruined. Ethanol does not make good sense no matter how you look at it.

aspeed

They use it in Brazil all the time.  The motorcycles are set up with really small carburators for better economy.  Over the last 20 years the opposite has been done in North America because everyone likes the power (me too)  It should have a higher compression ratio than gas to be used exclusively on alcohol.  5 MPG loss isn't too bad.  I'll use gas as long as I can though.  Alcohol doesn't like winter, or plastic, or steel gas lines or.....

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I understand your point. But now consider a gas engine that makes as much power per cubic inch as a glow motor. Without a super or turbo charger, a Formula 1 engine is the only thing close. It takes a team of mechanics and computer to even get one to fire. So I think we are doing OK

David

cutaway

Most of my glow engines start with one or two flicks and glow plugs last for a season or more typically.

freakingfast

My Feedback: (3)

Well obviously it would go through fuel quickly. And IF you could directly correlate the horse power, that would be something. Say the average muscle car has 350 cubic inches and say for example it made as much power per cubic inch as an OS 91 VR DF engine (4.8 HP) then you would have 1846 non supercharged horse power. Remember guys, I said IF.

Or take the silly thought farther, a CMB .45 gear drive marine engine that's Dave Marles modified, rated 5.4 hp then that muscle car would make 4200 hp[X(]

Altered1

I'd like a 350 Chev running 50% Nitro then !

378

My Feedback: (4)

If my glow engine was in my mom's minivan it would be a marked improvement in reliability!


To be honest I've never had any major issues with my engines. They all run just fine.

AMB

Quite a few full size auto diesels used "glow plugs" for starting a few years back I had a mercedes 220D and Chevy van V8 diesel that did, a must in cold weather
in these older ones martin

iskandar taib

My Feedback: (5)

Not too difficult to find.. just head on out to your nearest drag strip on race day.

Iskandar

blw

My Feedback: (3)

5 mpg is a lot to me. My 1993 truck now needs either medium or premium grade gas. It used to run smoothly on good old regular. Just more $$$ out of my pocket every time I gas up. My 2005 car lost 6-7 mpg and ran like crap. It had a rough acceleration, and had a poor, rough idle. The engine has quit from idle a few times with methanol. This one needs premium and I'm lucky to have non ethanol gas nearby.

aspeed

Like I said, I'll stick to gas as long as possible.  I had a 1973 Mercedes 220 diesel.  Must have been the slowest car ever built.  The 0 to 60 mph time took longer than the 1/4 mile on my digital meter.  I liked it though, but not the parts department. If you would run a car on alcohol/meth. it would be best with the smallest four cyl. available with a small carb other than for racing. 

378

My Feedback: (4)

Odd. I have an '85 F150 and it doesn't care. 280K, all stock, straight six, and it runs on the cheap twigs-in-it regular just the same as the pricey premium. Also doesn't seem to care about E10 at all.

Curious what your '93 pickup was, my '85 doesn't care and it's even older.

357ross

Glow engine in a car? It would work ok, however, you'd need a 500 gallon fuel tank filled with $24 dollar a gallon glow fuel in order to have a viable range. Almost anything is possible, the question here is practicality. The oil mess is another problem to work out.

tiffitech

... not, there must be no mess on a 4 stroke with an oil sump, earl wrote this above already.

Regards,

Holm

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Change your car over to a carburetor. Take off the fuel pump and run a gravity system with the fuel tank mounted level with the carb and see how well that works.

I think if the gas guys had to give up their Walbro pumped carbs then those engines would be little beaches to run like the normally aspirated, gravity fed, muffler pressure boosted glow engines.

Mr Cox

SAAB used to make 2-stroke engines for their cars, they sounded great!

[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NbRe0bVIN-U]2-stroke SAAB[/link]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NbRe0bVIN-U[/youtube]

378

My Feedback: (4)

They had a big problem with overrun though. Cars use engine braking a lot, but if you do that to a two stroke for any length of time you'll rather quickly ruin the bottom end. There's two solutions to this. One is to run the engine on an EXTREMELY oil rich fuel, and B: Install an overrun clutch on the gearbox somewhere and transfer that excessive wear to the brake linings instead.

aspeed

Hobbsy.  I don't know what year your stuff is.  I thought you were using the E85 fuel.  The 93 F150 is just talking 10%.  5MPG is a lot for that little bit of alcohol.  We are being legislated to at least 5% and later to 10%.  I think one company is still gas though. I don't know anyone that uses the E85%.  It costs more here and is hard to find.  You can't buy it in a gas can to try in an airplane motor either.  (Alcoholics would likely buy it and poison themselves)

378

My Feedback: (4)

Hrm...again, odd. There is no straight gasoline available here save one station, which I'll get to later. It's all E10. My '85 doesn't care. My dad's '84 F150 doesn't care. They both have the same 300ci inline six, his around 175,000 miles and mine pushing 280,000. Idunno, maybe the fuel injected F150s are more sensitive to the E10 than the old carb'd ones?

Now, if I visit a Citgo on the outskirts of town I can obtain pure gasoline. But, for some odd-as-hell reason, my engine runs worse on it. It gets hard to start, runs roughly at idle, loses power and generally acts like something with over a quarter million miles on it. Only thing it doesn't do is randomly stall. I'm not sure what aspect of that stuff causes it, maybe they just keep stale gas, maybe their containers leak water, who knows. But all I can tell you is that my truck runs better on E10 than it does straight gas.

hugger-4641

My Feedback: (6)

I've had mixed results myself. My '91 Ford Ranger and my '97 F150 both get about 20mpg no matter wether its pure gas or 10% ethanol. However, my '94 Honda Goldwing and my wife's 2005 Grand Caravan both have a 3 to 4 mpg loss on 10% ethenol. I can still get ethanol free gas at two stations in my town, and I do when I can, but neither one of those is open past 5pm.