Bubbling Petrol

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

Tried this using a 1 Gallon plastic petrol can with 15mm copper pipe and an old washing machine hose attached to a washing machine water inlet tap .

The tap was positioned so the through flow ( pipe connector sides ) were the inlet and outlet between feed pipe and carb , with the washing machine feed ( valved section ) being for the air mixture inlet to the petrol vapour flowing to the carb .

Rigged it upto a 1200w generator and mixed the petrol at 1:1 with water and shook it up .

The little genny usually gives around 6 hours on a full ( 6 L ) tank .

Using the bubbling i got 45 mins from 250ml of petrol mixed with 250ml of water .

This equated to the genny going from 1L/hour to around 3 1/2 hours per L .

So it actually does work.

But a warning - A seperate water bubbler tank should be employed as a blow back arrestor between the engine and fuel tank .

Idealy this should have an easily blown out bung fitted in case of pressurisation from a back fire etc as the back pressure can blow the liquid fuel back out of the air inlet tube .

But as a way to keep the genny running in a blackout , it certainly does give a lot more KW per £ .

 

[Wallfish 698]

I'm not so convinced it doesn't give off ANY carbon monoxide fumes AT ALL. Especially since his detector went off at the end of the video. No way the "heat" as he explained, would reach the ceiling unless he ran thing for a loooooooong time and even then, that's a stretch.

Very interesting concept so thanks for sharing. I'm going to check out some of the other videos and info concerning this.

One question though, Could some or most of the gain in running time be contributed to a very lean running engine? That might explain the "heat" theory as a lean running air cooled engine will run hot under a lean condition.

[Wallfish 698]

For some reason I clicked on this link which appeared in the cluster of videos after the one you linked ended.

I was LMFAO so just thought I'd share it even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the content of this thread.

Sorry for getting of topic!

 

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

4 hours ago, Wallfish said:

I'm not so convinced it doesn't give off ANY carbon monoxide fumes AT ALL. Especially since his detector went off at the end of the video. No way the "heat" as he explained, would reach the ceiling unless he ran thing for a loooooooong time and even then, that's a stretch.

Very interesting concept so thanks for sharing. I'm going to check out some of the other videos and info concerning this.

One question though, Could some or most of the gain in running time be contributed to a very lean running engine? That might explain the "heat" theory as a lean running air cooled engine will run hot under a lean condition.

I think the emissions quoted by him are wrong also , but the concept works .This all started when a video of a 1970's Shell competition vehicle was found in a wharehouse .It used a hot glass coil to eveporate the petrol to get , apparently around 300mpg ! .

But as to the lean running , ? .Not sure as the set up i used had a straight through flow of the petrol vapours with a side vented valve to allow the air mixture to be adjusted to give the required RPM on the engine , so it is a basic carb similar to what has been running the such as Wolseley WD's for the past 75 years .The only difference being the use of saturated air rather than pure petrol   , or the Petrol is already vapourised into the air stream before being fed through the carb whereas a carb vapourises pure petrol into the airstream .

The 1st engine i tried this out on as proof of concept was an old villiers that i simply removed the whole carb assembly off and pushed a hose pipe into the inlet on the engine using my finger over a cut out in the hose to adjust the air mixture , but it started and ran straight away .So the petrol can conversion was carried out on one of the gennys .

[Stormin 4,458]

  In the late 60's early 70's, You could get a water injection system for cars. This injected a small amount of water/steam? into the air intake I think. Never went into it as my passion was motorcycles and not boxes on wheels.

 

 But something I did notice, was that on a damp summers night my bikes engines ran smoother.

 

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Interesting process, and like Stormin mentions, I recall my Father experimenting with Water Injection on his Morris 8 Tourer and 100E in the very early 60s.

I don't remember if it proved successful or not, but I suspect not, as it didn't seem become popular.

.....................But then I was still playing with Meccano and building Airfix Kits to be aware of it.    

[C-101plowerpower 548]

those kind of "carbs" are pretty widely used on small ic engines as they are pretty simple to make, i have toyed aroud with building one but never got round to it

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Well, by some coincidence, while scrolling through an old magazine online (dated June 1940, Practical Mechanic), I found this advert that look's to be a similar vapourising /oxygenating process to obtain the same, or similar result.-

Looking back into history, often surprises you and find that it can invariably repeat itself.   

 

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

So if it worked then then it still works today , only the bubbling only draws in the petrol vapour enriched air , not the actual liquid as is experienced with a std carb / injection system .

Some are even using ultrsonic vapourisers ( foggers ) to use diesel fuel as well .

I have as yet to get around to making a coal / wood gas generator to fuel an engine but have had limited success with Hydrogen generation on a generator .

But of them all i find the bubbling to be the easiest method of extending run time to an extent that it is worth trying .

[Wallfish 698]

18 hours ago, Mister Mad Mower said:

I have as yet to get around to making a coal / wood gas generator to fuel an engine

This is also on my to do list. Did a bunch of web research on the subject and gathered most of the parts needed but just need to get started on it. The plan is to power a small tractor with a gasifier using wood pellets for the fuel.