[AT] AT Digest, Vol 39, Issue 6 cylinder Chevrolet

[Larry D Goss]

You're right, George.  The last I knew, neither the laws of physics nor the 
laws of thermodynamics have been repealed.  There are a few things that work 
to reduce gas consumption -- decrease the mass that's being moved, decrease 
the rolling resistance, decrease the wind resistance, decrease the auxiliary 
power requirements, decrease the acceleration and deceleration, and decrease 
the amount you drive.  Almost everything else is wishful thinking.

A gallon of -- whatever you want to burn -- contains a given amount of 
energy.  The closer you can come to perfect energy conversion, the better 
mileage you get.  Most vehicles are doing well to get around 10% to 12% of 
the total energy out of the fuel.  The rest is lost.  Some can be accounted 
for because of friction and other phenomena, but there is always that big 
bugaboo called Entropy.

This brings to mind the "layman's" version of the Laws of Thermodynamics:
1) You can't win.
2) You can't break even.
3) You can't get out of the game!

Still, it would be nice to look at the article from "Look" again.  They did 
a fairly credible job of maximizing the mileage in that old car.

Larry


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Willer" <gwill at gwill.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] AT Digest, Vol 39, Issue 6 cylinder Chevrolet


>> > His son overheard him report that he was getting 38 miles per gallon.
>> >
>> > The carb was obviously never seen in production.  We used to figure the
>> oil companies had something to do with it.   Seemed like a nonsense 
>> theory
>> then--- but now???
>
> It still sounds like a nonsense theory.  The oil companies would love it 
> if
> some genius could make an engine that could survive running on a leaner
> mixture so we could double our mileage and pay $7.00/gal for our gas. 
> Most
> any of us can modify a carburetor so the mixture is only half as rich... 
> but
> if we could get the engine to run it would quickly self destruct.  :-(
>
> The way to cut our fuel cost in half is drive half as much.  :-)
>
> George Willer
>
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