Ruthenium spark plugs anyone? E85??

[7milesout]

Will that shortage affect everyone? Maybe.

[Fummins]

I'm not gonna take any chances. I just ordered 7 pallets of tp. Quick, everybody panic!

[Basic]

If the country became truly unified, would two political parties even exist? A lot of time & energy is spent on being divisive, & I find that to be a bit depressing & very unproductive!

The country will never be unified simply because the two parties exist. I hate them both with a passion. Neither one of them cares about us normal folks in the middle, only their agendas. Depressing and unproductive indeed. I agree with you there.

My problem with your statement is that we are currently energy independent. Have been for about 6 months... What changed? Exports for one thing. Good old Capitalism says that our refined Gas and Diesel is worth more in another country. So out the door it goes. It's basic economics.

Also "2 years ago" is a moot point as over half the country was inside their house not buying any fuel at all...

Anyway, sorry I got rubbed the wrong way. I know you didn't mean it like that.

[Pimp_Daddy_Patty]

A lot of the turbo guys will switch to E85 due to the higher effective octane rating. E85 will typically require about 20% more fuel to maintain stoichiometry, as well as advancing ignition timing to compensate for the slower burn that higher octane fuel typically has.

The extra fuel problem can be solved by using larger injectors, and/or adjusting the tune in the ECU. The ignition can only be advanced by making adjustments in the ECU, which we currently can not do to my knowledge. Even with these adjustments, there is usually no benefit to fuel mileage for most vehicles.

[Basic]

PDP to the rescue bringing us back on topic!

"You down with PDP?" "Yeah you know me!"

[Pimp_Daddy_Patty]

PDP to the rescue bringing us back on topic!

"You down with PDP?" "Yeah you know me!"

I just figured I'd share what I learned from the tuner community.

[7milesout]

A lot of the turbo guys will switch to E85 due to the higher effective octane rating. E85 will typically require about 20% more fuel to maintain stoichiometry, as well as advancing ignition timing to compensate for the slower burn that higher octane fuel typically has.

The extra fuel problem can be solved by using larger injectors, and/or adjusting the tune in the ECU. The ignition can only be advanced by making adjustments in the ECU, which we currently can not do to my knowledge. Even with these adjustments, there is usually no benefit to fuel mileage for most vehicles.

The only proper way to burn E85 effectively is an engine built for it. Due to the innate higher octane rating of E85, it can be compressed more. I don't know the numbers, but for example ... let's just say a regular gas engine burns at 10:1, an E85 engine might probably work well at (I don't know exactly) 12.5:1 due to the octane.

At that point, it may be possible to get the same power (or more) as E0, E10, E15 gasoline at its lower CR ... but I think the E85 engine would continue to be less efficient (mpg) because of the lower energy value of E85.

And, as I understand it, octane and fuel burn rate are not related. The higher octane, the more a fuel air charge resists self-ignition ... or diesel type ignition. But when it does ignite, my understanding is it burns at virtually the same speed as a lower octane fuel of the same type.

[Top_Fuel]

The higher octane, the more a fuel air charge resists self-ignition ... or diesel type ignition.
...it burns at virtually the same speed as a lower octane fuel of the same type.

I wish someone had told me that when I was 17.

I used to pump a couple of gallons of CAM2 into my car for the horsepower boost it provided in my 350 Pontiac with 8.5:1 compression.

[Mark]

The country will never be unified simply because the two parties exist. I hate them both with a passion. Neither one of them cares about us normal folks in the middle, only their agendas. Depressing and unproductive indeed. I agree with you there.

My problem with your statement is that we are currently energy independent. Have been for about 6 months... What changed? Exports for one thing. Good old Capitalism says that our refined Gas and Diesel is worth more in another country. So out the door it goes. It's basic economics.

Also "2 years ago" is a moot point as over half the country was inside their house not buying any fuel at all...

Anyway, sorry I got rubbed the wrong way. I know you didn't mean it like that.

All is good! Personally, I think we experienced a third party, but most would never admit that. I wouldn't get too stuck on the two year thing. Most of us know what the economy was like prior to COVID. It goes beyond gas prices these days. Retirement funds and other things are also taking a real hit. At some point, we need to get past the blame game (Putin & COVID).

If there are policies in place to help address today's issues, I am not aware of them. If we are truly exporting fuel, blaming Putin for most everything seems a bit extreme. I am not saying the world scene is not impacting us all, however. Pointing fingers is not a solution.

On a positive Mirage related note - I appreciate my Mirage more than ever. Life without some type of small economy car would suck these days.

I went to use my Forester today. I had to wash it first, because it was covered in dust and bird crap from sitting in the garage for a few weeks. Cleaned out the couple birds nests inside the garage, and I am actually going to use my garage doors for a change to keep them out. I could tell the baby chicks were all gone. I am not a total monster.

[Fummins]

There's no sense getting pissy about things you can't change. Things aren't much different over here.

When I replace spark plugs I use the same kind that came in the car from Thailand. If it ain't broke...

If my car burned oil and ate spark plugs fairly often then I'd just use whatever is the cheapest pos I could find. Otherwise I try to replace them every 100,000 miles. Usually....

I just replaced a set of slightly overdue spark plugs in one of the Nissans the other day. It had 210,000 Miles(339k km). Surprisingly the plugs didn't look too bad. They were denso iridium iirc.