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The health care system is run by one Iranian-backed militia and the national police are dominated by another. Death squads terrorize Sunni neighborhoods. Sectarian cleansing is pushing people into segregated enclaves, protected by Shiite or U.S.-backed Sunni militias and spurring the flight of thousands to neighboring countries.

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Depending on how Iraq's petroleum law shakes out, the country's enormous reserves could break the back of OPEC... Both independent analysts and officials within Iraq's Oil Ministry anticipate that when all is said and done, the big winners in Iraq will be the Big Four -- the American firms Exxon Mobile and Chevron, the British BP Amoco and Royal Dutch Shell -- that dominate the world oil market. Ibrahim Mohammed, an industry consultant with close contacts in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told the Associated Press that there's a universal belief among ministry staff that the major U.S. companies will win the lion's share of contracts. "The feeling is that the new government is going to be influenced by the United States," he said.

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
He thinks he's saving the future of our country by securing oil wealth.

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Mussolini

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Originally posted by SignyM:


Boy I dunno, but I think this is more than just "I'll dump anyone Butch supports".

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, but here's the kicker: We don't need the oil. The USA automobile fuel economy standards are the lowest in the industrialized world, including China. And WHO has been conistently blocking efforts to improve fuel economy....? The same could be said for our energy consumption all arounbd.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
He thinks he's saving the future of our country by securing oil wealth.

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I truly believe that he truly believes that.
Hitler was out to save Germany, too. Not equatin' them, just stating a small similarity in motive.

Bush is an econo-fascist, not a political one Chrisisall

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Originally posted by rue:
More a truth is spoken in jest --- than you'll EVER find on the news.

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Originally posted by rue:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Home-Building/1979-09-01/Water-In
jection-Wizardry.aspx

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Originally posted by rue:
Hey MAl4
I have two words for you - water injection ...

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Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:
As Geezer points out, there are flaws in the technology, but what is being done to address the flaws?

Even if introduced in a more limited area, say city buses in Southern climates it would be a proving ground as well as a sales exhibition for the possibility of a wider use.

In a fleet situation the maintenance could be manageable, and likely attractive with the fuel cost savings.

It would be a start, and once in use the technology would evolve at a faster pace.

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Originally posted by Geezer:


Goggle "water injection" diesel and you'll find any number of research projects and papers. most will note that the technology just hasn't developed enough yet to think of applying it in a real-world situation. I know that this isn't as dramatic as positing some secret government-oil industry plot, but there it is.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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So it looks like water injection works for gasoline-powered engines but not diesel powered engines. Right?

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THE CONCEPT of injecting water into the internal combustion engine has been around for over 50 years. But the desire to extract more power from the standard production engine has increased at a neck-breaking speed. ERL has just revived this old principle, applying the latest techniques in both electronic and mechanical engineering to take water injection into the next millennium.
WATER? Water exists mainly in a liquid state because that is its most stable inter-molecular structure. When we apply heat energy to it, its molecules begin to expand: a great deal of heat is absorbed during this process owing to water's specific heat capacity - approximately 4.2kJ/(kg.K). When the water changes from the liquid to gas state, large amount of heat energy is consumed in sustaining the process. The latent heat of evaporation is 2256kJ/kg, approximately six times more than gasoline!
SO WHAT? Because of its huge specific- and latent- heat capacity, water is the perfect liquid for regulating excess heat under certain engine-operating conditions, for example induction charge air cooling; but its biggest contribution is inside the combustion chamber where, under excessive loading, pre-ignition and detonation can otherwise occur. Such abnormal combustion is particularly common in force induction engines, where exhaust temperature can exceed 1100°C!
WHAT CHANCE has a piston got under these conditions, given that aluminium melts at 660°C? 99% of production cars keep exhaust temperature below 850°C by fuel-dumping, and hold crown temperature below 550°C by conduction to the underside and skirt of the piston, which is constantly being quenched by engine oil. Most of the heat is transferred to the cylinder wall. Simple and wonderful solutions, but ...
TURBO-CARS are easily upgraded just by adjusting the boost pressure and adding a commercially-available pre-programmed chip; but the hidden drawback of this solution is that even more fuel is being dumped -- as a coolant! -- to compensate for standard engine-cooling arrangements (inside the engine bay your fast-road car has more-or-less the same radiators and cooling fans as the family car next door). But as you upgrade your power-upgrade, you will get to the point where the fuel becomes so rich, and the flame is burning so slowly, that power is being lost rather than gained.
WORSE STILL your piston is no longer being lubricated properly: bore-wash is taking its toll of the pistons. You might decide to combat this with a very special synthetic oil, developed from years of research, which helped some car to win a few championships last season. Your favourite racing-driver recommends it on TV, so of course you want to believe him. But have you ever wondered why he has to get his engine rebuilt after every race?
HELP! Help is indeed at hand! The ERL Aquamist system, using sophisticated electronics to process engine-data, injects a precisely-metered quantity of coolant: not gasoline, but water, six times more effective, and freely available! We eliminate fuel-dumping, leaving your air/fuel ratio unaffected, enabling maximum power to be extracted from the engine. To ensure that each cylinder receives exactly the same dosage, we deliver the coolant in a fine mist: not only does Aquamist eliminate piston-ring damage ... it steam-cleans your engine with every stroke!
THERE'S MORE ... The Aquamist system offers a full range of diagnostic features, enabling you to detect blocked nozzles, cut water-pipes, and all sorts of other smashing things. If track record and expertise is what you want, don't wait for your favourite racing driver to tell you about Aquamist on TV: it might be too late ...

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Originally posted by rue:
That's b/c you used diesel in your search. Look under "water injection" engine and you'll find gems like these.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me3.ht
ml

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Originally posted by Fletch2:
You mean like the water injection kits that have been available for diesel cars in the UK for at least the last 20 years? And can be bought easily today?

http://www.aquamist.co.uk/

In the UK serious off roaders see water injection is a standard addon to any high performance turbo-diesel because it helps lower the flash point of the diesel air mixture and therefore counteracts some of the problems with compression heating.

It's not been popular in cars because you would either have to increase the compression ratio or add a turbo to see any benefit and that makes it more complex than a simple bolt on upgrade.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Yeah, but what about the electric car? I want an electric car, damnit! And that's a clear example of a technology being killed so naturally you avoid it and hyperfocus on water injection.

---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Yeah, but what about the electric car? I want an electric car, damnit! And that's a clear example of a technology being killed so naturally you avoid it and hyperfocus on water injection.

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You can easily do the plug-in Prius conversion Fletch suggests.

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There are other ways to retrofit to a pure electric car if you want - just don't try any long trips Current range is pretty much under 200 miles per charge at best. ... Pure electric cars are a niche product that fits the particular requirements of a small portion of the population

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Besides, the electricity you use to charge your car has to come form somewhere, quite possibly a coal-fired plant. A nation of electric cars would require massive increases in electrical generation, distribution, etc.

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Aside from the Prius, with it's cachet as the car driven by earth-friendly celebs, even hybrids aren't selling well due to relatively high cost. The extra cost generally isn't amortized by gas savings in under 200,000 miles.

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Originally posted by rue:
1. I used Diesel because Gino was talking about city busses, which burn - guess what- Diesel.
1. But if one is talking very generally, which is where the discussion is going, restricting the search with diesel artificially limits the responses.

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Also from the article cited: ... "Since that first attempt, Ron has installed his "bubbling bottles" on all sorts of vehicles ... from a BMW R60/2 motorcycle ... to a 1973 Opel GT ... to a 1968 Cadillac. In each case, gas mileage improved dramatically! So, folks, there "ain't no reason" why you can't get better performance and gas mileage by building your own water injector ... no matter what form of gasoline-engined transportation you're driving!"

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[3. Rigorous may be missing, but repeated is certainly there. (see above)

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But making a variable output water mist generator that's precise, accurate, and repeatable is no big deal, we do it regularly here all the time. All it takes is a pump, capillary, and sonicator.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
But why do I have to make a DIY car? What about capitalism? Isn't it the be-all end-all of technology advancement? (NOT)

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Like only about 95% of the urban population who don't drive more than 50 miles in any particular day!

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The studies have already been done. Despite the inefficiencies of power generation and transmission, even coal-fired plants come out to a net pollution-savings.

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The price would come down if the car were mass-produced. That is supposed to be the genius of capitalism, so why isn't it working?

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BTW- If the batteries were lead-acid you'd have a point about disposal, but LIH batteries are OK.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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You can easily do the plug-in Prius conversion Fletch suggests.

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But why do I have to make a DIY car? What about capitalism? Isn't it the be-all end-all of technology advancement? (NOT)

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Originally posted by Geezer:
You can buy the Aquatune if you believe the spiel of the folks selling it, or some TV station who take the word of a guy who makes $400.00 for the hour it probably takes him to install one. Or maybe you should look at this Popular Mechanics test, the only independent test I could find which used at least a bit of rigor and scientific method. http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1802932.html?page=
4



"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Geezer:
How about economic savings? Someone still has to pay for the increased generator capacity, the increased transmission and switching capability, the increased amount of electricity used. If you can't always charge up your car at home there has to be some sort of commercial infrastructure to charge it somewhere else. Even if you just swap batteries rather than hooking up to a metered system for a few hours every 200 miles, there is still a massive infrastructure involved, which someone has to pay for.

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... water injection is currently used in specialist applications only, and note the reasons.

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... without some sort of structured, repeatable process, just anecdotal. Still ignoring the lack of emissions data, engine longetivity data, etc. ... Any repeated routes? Any dynomometer runs? ... the only independent test I could find which used at least a bit of rigor and scientific method. http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive /new_cars/1802932.html?page=4

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To use it effectively requires a higher compression ratio or turbocharging, either of which place added stress on the engine - requiring more expensive alloys or heavire parts

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Also requires a seperate, precisely metered water injection system

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which had better not fail without some computer failsafe or the engine is toast.

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And we still have the problem of water freezing at relatively mild temperatures and being an oxidizer of iron and steel.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Geezer: So, if only CHEAP products can be introduced and only mass production can make products less expensive, how does capitalism introduce relatively expensive new technology? What you're saying is that we can drown in hula-hoops and 50 different kinds of toilet paper but nothing ground-breaking stands a chance.

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Rather than emulate Japanese carmakers who have seen success by enhancing fuel economy across varied product lines, it seems Germany's auto industry is closer to the US model: keep pumping out the most historically profitable classes. In their case, that happens to be high-end fuel guzzlers.

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