TECH CORNER: Efficiency For Power

Thinking outside the box these days is really the only way to get ahead of the competition.

When we are developing carburetors for specific classes you have to look at the needs of the customer and figure out a way to make power.

However, most of the competition is aware of the obvious stuff so to get an upper hand you have to look in other areas.

There are some designs that we use some odd metal treatings on to create power and some designs that we incorporate "known phenomenon's and/or effects" to create power.

But after that, you need to look at efficiency.

Remember unburnable fuel molecules are taking the place of oxygen molecules.

In reality when you think outside the box, there is tremendous room for improvement in this area. So much so that increases in power of 10 percent or more in an engine package could be easily achieved. You read that right. 10 Percent. But after you read the next paragraph, 10 percent will not impress you at all. Because unburned fuel molecules are not the biggest obstacle. They are just the only one we can effect...for now.

If you could run pure oxygen in your engine the power potential would go up 400 to 500 percent higher than it is now. Imagine a 100 cubic inch engine easily making 500 h.p. A membrane can make that happen.

That's the technology of the future. Efficiency.

Membranes to separate out nitrogen from oxygen have been used in research packages for awhile now. These systems previously inefficient in separating the molecules are getting better. Basically what they are is a filter that makes the nitrogen exit from the inlet stream and oxygen is the only thing allowed to continue down the path into the engine.

As we all know nitrogen occupies 78 percent of the air around us and oxygen makes up 21 percent.

Nitrous oxide injection revered for it ability to burn fuel only moves the oxygen percentage from 21 percent to about 30-33 percent!! Thats a maximum potential of improvement in power of 50 percent if the engine ran on Nitrous and a fuel alone.

That's minuscule compared to even a 50 percent efficient membrane.

A 50 percent efficient membrane can improve power output by 250 percent!

Now this membrane is like a fuel filter type canister with 2 exits...one goes to the right and pours out nitrogen and the other goes to the left and pours out oxygen. The oxygen goes into the engine and the nitrogen is told to "get lost" and is dumped into the air.

That's an amazing piece of equipment that is currently functional and only has to have its efficiency improved. BUT, unfortunately...that's a long road. But this data allows you to see how valuable each oxygen molecule has become.

You can see how working on improvement of atomization and the mating up of molecules for proper combustion by a carburetor for an engine is a very important thing.

Developing a proper fuel curve for the application to eliminate wasting space with excess fuel in the combustion area or improper mating percentages which causes poor burning or dare I say it "misfires" is the primary goal these days.

We recently developed a high emulsion package for a particular class of carburetor that picked up a 400 h.p. engine over 10-12 h.p. That's a three percent improvement in power from an already known good working combination, by incorporating improvements in atomization and fuel curve technology. It burned the same fuel by weight, but made more power with that fuel.

The power is out there...we know where the treasure is...we just have to keep working on techniques and tools to gather it up.