The tricks up my sleeve... Methods I may implement for better FE.

[DrivenByNothing]

In the name of FE the turbo wouldn't be worth the effort IMO if it only worked during high range.

The optimal setup would be something like a variable geometry turbo that could dynamically adjust to be effective in a wide range of rpm's. These have been used on diesel motors for years, but have only recently been applied to petrol engines.

This means I have to come up with a way to create a "poor-man's" version of this technology or do some more thinking. I'm not totally bent on doing the turbo, but it's something I've always wanted to toy with.

One of the things I learned via the Eagle-Research documents is that the majority of fuel injected in a petrol engine is used to quench or cool the cylinder. I've read about it elsewhere since, as well. There are other fluids that can take the place of gasoline for that part of the process.

Actual thermal efficiency is much higher when the mixture is lean. If the problems associated with lean burning can be solved, that pushes our fuel economy way up.

Ceramics have been toyed with as a way of keeping the heat local to where it's needed for max efficiency. However, ceramics present their own set of problems (ie keeping them oiled, keeping them from clogging, cracking, etc)

I mentioned that drifting is a previous hobby of mine in the intro part of the forum. Well, one of my good friends built several vehicles for a local drift shop that are still used in the Formula D competitions. The cars are using Nissan SR20DET engines that are putting down over 400hp. I was talking to him this morning and he mentioned that one of the vehicles achieved 38-40mpg over a 750 mile trip as well as on a few other occasions (normally, the cars are transported via trailer, but problems with the trailer forced the cars to be driven on the highway.) They weren't hypermiling and were actually slamming the throttle down quite a bit.

I'll be talking to him about this much more once exams are done.

Matt