Ive been wondering recently what are some environmentaly friendly fuels that i could convert my 1979 type II kombi to run on? Also if i were to convert to gas does anyone know of the costs involved and how much better it is for the environment?
Peace,
Tom

Gas conversions are for water cooled motors as the gas needs to go through radiator water or the pipe freezes.
Tom

Diesel running on cooking oil maybe.

If there was some thing cheaper than Petrol...

We'd all be using it...

French fries cooking oil can be used in diesel engines with some small modifications....

Old cooking oil will be able to be sold soon if the demand keeps going up....

Lee

Was looking at using enviro-diesel in my Patrol, apparently works real well, BUT: 1) requries fuel filters to be changed more frequently especially during the first few tanks as the Patrol has a plastic tank liner that gets "eaten" by the detergent in the fuel, which by all accounts doesn't cause any harm other than dumping sh*t in your fuel lines, and more importantly 2) immediately blows the Nissan warranty - don't know about other manufacturers warranties. Suffice to say I'm not yet willing to go down that path, yet.

Nice idea - but looking at the 'big picture', forget it. Make sure your car(s) is in good tune, catch the bus every now and then and make compost from your kitchen scraps :thumb

[ Edited on 2-8-2006 by VWCOOL ]

thanks everyone, ill keep looking out though,
who knows mabey in the future people will realize
a way to power cars without damaging the environment
too much. I have heard rumors of a hemp powered car being
made! ill keep dreaming.......
Peace,
Tom

Here's your options, assuming you want "environmentally friendly", rather than "cheap running"

1. run it on ethanol. The same stuff that drag racers run on (someone back me up on this) probably expensive, but ethanol can be made from plant material.

2. convert to electricity. Do a Google search for Volkswagen EV. Many VW Beetles, and even a few Kombis running on electricity. *Very* expensive, but it'll pay for itself over a decade or so.

3. go to this link. The NSW government will plant trees to offset the amount of CO2 your car produces. Of *all* options, it is the cheapest, and you can even pay to have them offset *all* the carbon your car has *ever* produced.
http://www.carbonplanet.com/home/index.php 


Hope this helps, and again, I'm assuming you're taking the "green" option for non-economical reasons

Bicycle

Wait a decade for hydrogen fuel cell / electric technology to become widespread and efficient enough to be AIRCOOLED.

Quote:

Originally posted by Oasis Bicycle

Energy for hydrogen production does not have to come from coal.

In the meantime, get a 13b rotary and Howard will give you some of your own money back to help with the cost of the conversion if you run it on gas.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_0406/article.html 


BTW a Rotary will burn hydrogen too.

[ Edited on 25-8-2006 by bus914 ]

There are alternatives coming...

This is what I'm working on at the moment. It's not my invention, it's actually very old technology, but this one is my design (the fancy bits are inside).

Is that a post war charcoal gas converter?

How about a gas converter warmed using the heater boxes.
Or full flow oil cooler (might make the oil a bit thick)
Water cooled heads?
Put the converter in the doghouse so it pre cools the cooling air. Additional cooling for the engine....
Converter with electric preheat.

I've been thinking about a CNG conversion for a while.
Did you see the bloke on the 7:30 report the other night?

Okay, just to clear things up, it is a "wood gasifier", or "wood gas producer". It burns wood chips in order to produce carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane gas. It produces almost the same temperatures as a wood fired forge (hot enough to melt steel). So, using it to cool your motor won't quite work...

It's flow and gas production are directly controlled by the intake of the motor, so it produces just the right amount of gas for the revs you are at. The tall bit is the gasifier, while the smaller bit on the left is the gas scrubber, which cools and cleans the gas. The car has run quite well at home on this unit using cypress chips, but I haven't completed the intake manifold yet, so I can't drive it around on wood gas just yet.

Very interesting looking conversion!
The best thing you can do for the cheapest price is go to www.greenfleet.com.au
For the meagre price of $40 a year they will plant trees that will offset the Co2 emissions from your car. This also restores a lot of previously logged land and helps with salinity, rainfall and is a genuine really good initiative. While it doesn't offset all your other emissions it's still a very good step and cheap. The whole 'carbon neautral' thing is starting to become more wide spread.
Definitley reccomend it!! I'll even buy you a beer for it!
Cheers,
Dustin