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[T3] Gasohol


I got the scoop on alcohol in gasoline this afternoon.  

When you run gasoline the ideal air/fuel ratio is 14.7:1, but with alcohol that 
ratio is about 7:1. This means that if you switch to alcohol you have to open 
up your main jets about a factor of 2 to get your engine to run right on 
alcohol. If you don't, the engine will be running lean.  

Of course a 10% mix of alcohol would only take you ~10% of the way to a 
factor of 2, or a factor of about 1.1. In most cases, this would not make 
much of a difference, but if your carbs were running rich already (running with 
gasoline) then the switch to alcohol would make an improvement, but not as 
big an improvement as getting them set up properly for gasoline would make. 

If your engine is currently running too lean on gasoline, converting to gasohol 
will make it run even leaner.  

Another thing I learned today is that all the charts we see, which claim to 
show us how to set our mixture using the appearance of the plugs, are no 
longer valid. Modern gasoline with its low lead content will not make plugs 
darken like the gasoline of 30 years ago. A correctly set up system will leave 
the plugs running very close to white, and you won't be able to tell the 
difference between the correct mix and a lean mix. They will both be nearly 
pure white. If you set up your engine to darken the plug insulator a bit with 
today's fuel it will be much too rich and your performance will suffer.  

-
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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