My thanks to Mr. Jim P., who, knowing that I had experimented with Acetone as a fuel additive, ultimately achieving 89mpg hwy., from a V8 full size car,[ Article:Truth About Acetone and Ethanol ] cracked a joke at a discussion forum. He was signing off for the day, saying funny little things about each of the participants, in the day's discussion. When he got to my name, he wrote something like "and Steve Gage will get 80mpg from dry ice." We had been discussing the properties of CO2, dry ice, and how it "sublimates", that is, turns straight from solid to gas when it melts, skipping the liquid phase.
When I read that, the thought popped in to my mind that there is in fact energy in dry ice. I thought, "why not build an engine that runs off of the pressure created from the sublimation of dry ice"? A real 'brain fart' idea, perhaps possible, but not something I was able to see in my minds eye how to engineer.
A NO BRAINER POPPED IN TO MY HEAD.
Following, is what I theorized and then tested, with pretty darn good results.
1] I theorized that if drag racing technology uses COOLING of intake and fuel lines to increase HP then it should follow that if X amount of fuel can give more HP by cooling intake and fuel, it should ALSO increase MPG.
It stood to reason that the HP, MPG and the amount of fuel used, are all part of the same equation. Perhaps someday someone will literally put it into mathematical form.
2] First highway test: Air temperature about 70 F. Baseline run on E-10 [gasohol]. No cooling of intake. Result was 22.2 mpg hwy. Epa rating for this car is 22 mpg hwy. No surprise there. Test car is same car as I tested in the Acetone testing. 1985 Ford T-Bird 5.0L V8, full size car.
3] Second highway test: Air temperature about 75 F. Packed plain old chipped ice all around air filter in metal intake cover. Stopped every 15 miles to check. Each time, the ice was already gone and water evaporated. Got stuck for about 10 minutes in a stop and go traffic jam, because of a wreak, up ahead. So this was a very primitive and uncontrolled test, the results being LIKELY 'off' due to too many variables. BUT...it DID result in 28.2mpg. This is a 27% increase over baseline. I needed a more controlled test to get certain data.
4] Third highway test: I studied the location of the opening of the intake line at front and bottom of car. I then found an appropriate sized FRYING PAN and filled it with tap water. Then froze it overnight. Resulted in an appopriate shape and size to fit under the car, with a flat surface, positioned about 2 or 3 inches directly in front of the intake.
I had set a 'dreamland goal' to achieve a 100% gain, up from the baseline to 44.4mpg.
Result of test three was 57.9mpg! This is a 160% increase! From a V8.
Very likely, a small four popper that already gets 35mpg, could well really reach that 80mpg that my pal Jim joked about.
DAMN, love may make the world go round, but seemingly, so does laughter!
Einstein stated that "God doesn't play dice with the Universe." In my experience, he is right. X+Y=Z. Z doesn't just 'get lucky' and win a hundred bucks in Vegas at dice. His win is based on LAWS of cause and effect. No magic kids...sorry...but indeed there IS serendipity!
I did NOT test either solid or liquid CO2, because of the risk of FREEZE UP.
Both of these have a temp. of -109 F. Experiment at your own risk.