[TR] Car Myths

Randall tr3driver at ca.rr.com
Wed Oct 21 18:17:15 MDT 2009


> In movies, when heroes are out of gas, they happen to have a 
> bottle of whisky in the car.B  Thinking on their feet, they 
> pour the bottle into their gas tank and--varoom--off they go!
> 
> To the engineers, tell me, could that be real????

"Could be" if the whiskey was high enough proof.  I have, in fact, done
essentially that.  Bought a gallon of denatured alcohol, which from an
engine's point of view is pretty close to 190 proof "white lightning";
plumbed it up to the TR's carbs, and drove around town on it.  

Had to disconnect the jet return springs and pull them way down to get the
right mixture, but pulling the choke would have done much the same thing.

Didn't go very far, and used most of the gallon, so I didn't experiment any
more after that.

BTW, I've heard similar stories about Model T rod bearings (which were
originally babbitt, basically just lead/tin solder poured into the end of
the rod).  Last one I recall involved a leather belt.  The Model T motor was
very low compression and made very little power for it's size.  Peak torque
was only about 900 rpm, and it would run much slower than that, so the
overall stress on the rod bearings was much lower than in newer engines.

Interestingly enough, according to the Wikipedia article, the Model T was
actually available in an ethanol version, to be powered with homemade
'shine!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T

-- Randall  


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