ALCOHOL (denatured/isopropyl 99) FOR EMISSIONS

[WILDHEARTEDSUN]

I googled mixing ALCOHOL into fuel line to pass emissions and got some threads in some other vehicle forums that mostly supported it as a way to burn off deposits in motor and clean fuel TO PASS EMISSIONS TEST. but most said ONLY TO RUN MIX to emissions center and IMMEDIATELY fill gas tank with gas after test to dilute alchohol mix.
some said ISOPROPYL 99% worked as good as DENATURED.

ive got my truck running cleaner now. but am inclined to try putting 1 quart ISOPROPYL 99% ($5.50 at safeway) into 1 gallon of gas in bottom of empty tank- a couple of blocks away from emission center. hoping this will burn really hot for about 10 minutes of engine time averaging 2500 rpms or less- and then immediately after test pour 5 gallon can of gas into tank and then drive to gas station and fill full.

any experiences, criticisms or warnings on this with 318 and holley carbs appreciated.

cheers

[shdnobetter]

Where do you live that you have to smog a vehicle this old????
I've never heard of using alcohol in a smog test, but I guess it makes sense, as long as the emissions produced don't send the sensing machine out of range and red-flag you. You chemists out there (I'm not one of you!); what are the byproducts of alcohol combustion? Are they similar to those of gasoline?

[712edf]

Ironic, driver's can't have alcohol is their system and go to extreme's to get out of breathalizer's.....yet we'll try getting our trucks drunk just to pass a stupid emissions test. or something to that effect.

buck

[WILDHEARTEDSUN]

they say NASCAR started out as moonshine runners. i bet they were brewing up some special stuff for their cars. only seems logical. if they were crafty enough to make stuff good enuff for people. they could mix it for cars. got me thinking about alchohol / HHO mixes to. browns gas HHO was around since way before the moonshiners that became NASCAR. an electrolyzed HHO gas mixed with premium alchohol. would benefit from the high heat combustible ALCHOHOL but be COOLED down by the still combustible HHO. TWO GOOD BURNERS COOLED DOWN TO ENGINE TEMPS.!!!????

[Jims68]

Where do you live that you have to smog a vehicle this old????
I've never heard of using alcohol in a smog test, but I guess it makes sense, as long as the emissions produced don't send the sensing machine out of range and red-flag you.

New Jersey uses smog/emissions tests all over the state. Not just cities. Of course, you CAN avoid this by getting "Antique" tags. However, if you get those, "technically" you ARE limited on vehicle useage. Supposed to be for occasional rides, or parades, or going to a car show. Not everyday driving. IF you have "regular" tags on a 1929 Model A, you would need to have that car pass emissions tests!! Of course, being that old, it WOULD be exempt from things like, Turn Signals, seat belts... etc. It has to match the "era" of when it was made. Not sure how those old mechanical brakes would make out in a "Brake" test at the inspection station...

Jim

[ramrod]

one quart to a gallon of gas?,,,sounds a little much,maybe one quart to 5 gallons.

[nfury8]

I wouldn't do it! I ran E85 in my Fury's 440 once just to see how it responded.
That is 15% alcohol. Engine temps dropped, but the exhaust temps jumped
and burned out the gaskets on one side of the headers. The motor is a fresh,
total, high performance rebuild, increased compression ratio, MSD ignition,
and MSD adjustable timing control, it still ran awful at lower speeds and only
ran decent on the Interstate. I tried it for the 108 octane rating. Indeed there
was no pinging and I was able to add almost 10 extra degrees to my timing!
A lower compression, older engine will not be happy!

If you want to clean out the chambers, do the Seafoam smoke machine!
Get 2 cans of Seafoam, with the engine running at a high idle, dump half a can
slowly down the carb, keep the engine running. Then dump the last half of the
can down fast as you can, so the engine stalls out and dies. Make sure the
windows in the house are closed! Wait 20 minutes and restart the motor.
There will be an incredible cloud of white smoke out the tail pipe! Then dump
the other can in a full tank of gas and let it clean out the rest of the system.
The Seafoam can really work! I talked to guys that said they had chunks of
carbon come out the tail pipes! By flooding out the engine and letting it set,
the Seafoam has time to soak the carbon deposits in the chambers.

Mopar also makes a chamber cleaner that comes in aerosol. It can be bought
at the dealer, and is about the same cost as Seafoam. It really works well also.
The aerosol is better for fuel injected vehicles and small engines. We used it on
my dad's riding mower last year when it started running rough, and it has ran
like new ever since. I used it on my Dakota also, and it picked up some pep also.

[MountainMoparRobin]

been their done that, doesn't work at all no difference period!

[dahooligan]

We use to run alcohol fuel in our modified race cars.It eats rubber gaskets and hose.Had to have alcohol carb too,rebuilt holley if I remember right.(Think company called Barry Grant makes them)Need bigger jets as you use more fuel and engine runs super cool.Big power gain though but price was also $8.00/gal and that was 10 years ago............Heres a thought, what about propane?Aren't some cars/trucks/buses using it now?If I remember right when I worked at Dodge garage(early 80s) we use to set carbs with propane connected to carb. to set emisson reading.Maybe run a hose to carb with small propane tank by seat and run for emission test?.................pat

[garrett]

If you wanna run E85 you have to run 30% more volume of fuel and the same adjustments on the carb very tricky stuff i does work well though i dropped 2 tenths in the quarter and 3 mphs also e 85 is 85 % alcohol and 15 % gas also 25 deg cooler at the end of run.