Eco-Friendly Nostalgic Muscle...Is it possible?

[Dinobyte]

There is a guy in Wichita who is building super power out of bio-diesel. It is a turbo or supercharged motor, that is putting out 700+ hp, basically running on vegatable oil. I saw something on TV where Niel Young and Arnold (Gubanator of CA) are having their cars retro fitted with these engines.

[Power Surge]

Do you want to really want to meet EPA standards, or do you want to meet legal state inspection/smog standards? There's a BIGGGG difference.

You'll NEVER meet current EPA standards with any carb. Just won't happen. Even the best full boogie adjustable race carb (fully adjustable metering blocks) doesn't have the ability to control fueling for what it would take to meet EPA specs. Then you also have no EGR, no canister purge with a carbon box for fumes, etc, etc. How do you control NOx? How do you control the 200 rpm increment between 3400-3600 at 60% throttle where specs go out the window? You can't.

You'd need a modern fuel injection system (i.e OEM spec, not aftermarket), and you'd need to have it properly tuned, on a 5 gas setup, to meet EPA specs. Oh, and that's even if the basic engine design even let's you get close enough to EPA spec.

On the other hand, you could easily build a emmisions friendly car that meets state smog tests. Just having the most basic crude, nothing on it, carbed Cobra PROPERLY dyno tuned, should give you excellent emmisions. My brother's 331 stroked small block, with 6-71 blower and two Demon 650 blower carbs, gets 18 mpg crusing. Why? Cause I spent over 2 weeks tuning the car RIGHT. That doesn't mean it would ever pass a state smog test with that kind of setup of course (the part throttle and WOT would be WAY too rich), but you get the point.

However, back on topic.... I've seen many old muscle cars converted to propane that have zero emissions, and actually make more hp because of the octane rating. Not the most convenient fuel to run, but then again, what is other than gasoline right now?

[Slick61]

look at all the replicas that are running the modular 4.6l 32 valve V8... great power, sounds amazing, great mileage, and clean/efficient. And there are probably even more running the SOHC 4.6l mod motor. If I ever build one, that's probably what I'll power it with... pick up a '96 to '98 cobra engine (aluminum block), have it rebuilt, slap a blower on it, and WATCH OUT!

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Slick61

look at all the replicas that are running the modular 4.6l 32 valve V8... great power, sounds amazing, great mileage, and clean/efficient. And there are probably even more running the SOHC 4.6l mod motor. If I ever build one, that's probably what I'll power it with... pick up a '96 to '98 cobra engine (aluminum block), have it rebuilt, slap a blower on it, and WATCH OUT!

Quite a few guys are running that 4.6 motor down here. Unfortunately it doesn't meet the latest emissions requirements. People are switching to the newer Aussie version which is the 5.4 bottom end with the 32 Valve heads on it. The only problem with them in a Cobra is they are a very wide motor and difficult to squeeze into the engine bay.

Cheers

[David Kirkham]

With the Hot Rodder spirit that abounds on this site and with our customers, I am pretty sure someone will figure it out--sooner than you might think.

David

[Ronbo]

Well it already has been figured out. We're just slipping under the radar running race cars on the street. Detroit is building higher HP engines now than ever existed in the past. Unless someone knows of a 500HP small block that was in a production car in 1969. Plus at that time a "clean" car meant it left a fairly small cloud behind it.

I'm sure many remember how impossible it seemed we'd ever see a V8 family car again. Wanna meet today's standards? OK buy a complete detroit setup. Wanna meet next year's. Uh OK, buy detroit's setup for that year.

This probably isn't the best crowd to ask for emmissions improvement ideas. Personally I'm trying to figure out were I put those remote controlled exhaust dumps I had.