AIR/FUEL MIXTURE RATIO METER - a very useful tool.

As most of you would know by now, I have been experimenting with various fuel saving techniques for a lot of years and with some good solid results. (average of 80% decrease in fuel usage) I have been using a device called a Colour Tune to make sure that the air/fuel mixture was in the ballpark during the above experiments. The Colour Tune is basically a sparkplug that has a clear top which means that you can see the colour of the spark inside the cylinder as the plug fires. A yellow colour means a rich mixture, a light blue colour means the correct mixture and a really light blue or white colour means the engine is running lean. This technique has proven good enough so far with good economy and no engine damage due to lean mixtures.

However, after about three weeks from fitting one of Brian's Rocket Power mufflers, it was obvious to me that the air/fuel mixture had become very rich. I played around with decreasing the size of the main and secondary jets but could still not get the fuel gains I had hoped to with the new muffler. Brian offered to put his very expensive fuel mixture analyzer on the car and see what was happening. It immediately showed that the mixture was perfect under acceleration but was not lean enough on idle, light throttle and overrun. After a few changes, the basic air/fuel mixture looked pretty right over the whole range that was able to be tested in a suburban street. This short test showed me the immense benefit of using a meter like this to be able to test the fuel mixture dynamically under real conditions.

Not willing to fork out a lot of dollars for one of these analyzers, I began to look around for alternatives. I found a kit that Jaycar produce which is based on an article that was published in Silicon Chip magazine in September and October 2000. This unit gives a bargraph display to show trends in the mixture with the bargraph moving up or down to correspond with the mixture going rich or lean. It also gives a digital readout of the actual value, all done in real time.

From memory, the kit cost about $65 and provides everything except the oxygen sensor which gives the information to the unit in the form of a voltage that is proportional to the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gas. This amount of oxygen is also proportional to the fuel/air ratio that the engine is burning. There are different types of oxygen sensors with one of the main differences being that some have an inbuilt heater (12v electric) and some rely on the exhaust temperature to heat them up. These sensors only work when they are hot so a constant temperature is important for accuracy of their output. I decided to make my setup temporary and designed it as a bolt on unit only for testing. This also has the advantage of being able to transfer it from one car to another. I fitted the oxygen sensor into a section of pipe that clamps onto the end of my exhaust pipe and ran the electrical leads back to the readout. For this reason I opted for a sensor with an inbuilt heater because at this point the exhaust gasses would not be hot enough to keep the sensor accurate. The one I used comes from an EA Falcon and cost $25 from the local wreckers. Power is supplied via a plug into the cigarette lighter socket.

After calibrating the unit I found that the readings that I was getting were very close to those obtained from using Brian's more expensive meter. I then used the meter on a trip to Adelaide and found some very interesting results. As shown in the graph, the mixture became very rich under hard acceleration, indicating that the secondary jet is still too large. Under normal acceleration the mixture is near perfect although it does have a tendency to be a bit lean under medium acceleration. I think that this is due to the fact that the fuel vaporising system only works under vacuum so at low vacuum readings before the secondary  throat opens, there is not enough hot air entering the manifold to vaporise the fuel and so the carby is running "normally" and the mixture will be leaner. Also the on the overrun end or high vacuum, the readings are not as high as normal, in other words the mixture is normally showing very lean. This is because at this point I am only feeding air into the engine and so it cannot show a lean mixture on the meter. (If the meter is left exposed to air only it will give a reading of 14.5)

So as you can see I still have some work to do in setting up the carby after fitting one of Brian's mufflers, but with this Fuel Mixture meter it will be  a whole lot easier and more accurate to do.                            ..............................................Bruce.

Transparent Alumina - Three Times Stronger Than Steel From Randy randyl@sierratel.com 2-25-2 A ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, has developed transparent Alumina by subjecting fine-grained (I'm guessing extremely fine-grained) aluminum to a whopping 1200 degrees Celsius ...the result of which is amazingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness, and it's see-through. The above can be found at http://www.rense.com/general20/transparentalum.htm

Toyota Announces It Will Make
A Hydrogen-Powered Car
BangkokPost.net
2-25-2

TOKYO (AP) - Toyota Motor Corp hopes to become the world's first automaker to launch a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle for commercial use by marketing a car using the futuristic technology next year, a report said yesterday.
The full text of the above can be found at http://www.rense.com/general20/toyotaAnnounces.htm

The tzero Electric Sports Car
For the full story go to
http://www.autospeed.com/A_0941/viewarticle.htmlviewarticle.html

In 1996, US company AC Propulsion began development of a high-performance electric sports car, the tzero. Now, tzero prototypes are undergoing in-use testing and safety certification development. In actual tests, the tzero accelerates from 0 to 97 km/h (60 mph) in only 4.1 seconds, yet it is one of the most energy-efficient cars on the road.

Motor Specifications
Motor type AC Induction w/copper rotor bars, 4 poles
Peak torque 246nm (181 ft-lb)
Peak power (at 326V DC input) 177kW (237hp)
Base speed at 330V 5,000 rpm
Maximum speed 12,000 rpm
Peak current 687 A rms
Mass, include plenum and blower 50 kg
Dimensions (less fins, termination, plenum) 213mm dia by 257 mm long
Dimensions of motor incl cooling plenum 305mm dia by 305 mm long
Maximum winding temperature

The battery pack consists of 28 series-connected 12V lead acid batteries. Two rows of 6 batteries are packaged along each side of the vehicle between the front and rear wheels.

The traction control system was demonstrated recently in a staged drag race in the rain against an all-wheel-drive Porsche Carrera 4. The tzero handily out-accelerated the Porsche without a hint of wheel spin, and at the end of the run, transitioned to full regenerative braking at 145 km/h on the rain-slick runway without any loss of traction or directional instability.

The Freedom Reclamation Project
CONVERT YOUR ENGINE TO BURN HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN VAPOR FROM WATER ON DEMAND

Please go to this web site for a water as fuel article
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bp/16/waterasfuel.htm

Overdue video's

61 Lost Cities & Ancient Technologies.....?
109 Secrets of Perpetual Power...............?
110 The Global Gardener, Permaculture...?

25 Noble Gas Engine...............................D Pritcher
81   82 Vital Flows..................................I Hobbs
119 Compilation on New Energy..............J Scott
139 Vaccination Aids Ebola......................?

Jan 2002

26  132...............R Norman
6  73  74............S O'Malley
103  150........... H Rees
136  149............B Brady
127  145  147....R Sanders.

Robert opened the meeting at 8.20pm with a welcome to all.
Athol read the previous minutes. They were moved by Cedric and seconded by Jan.
Athol put a motion that ASTRO SA only have four business meetings per year. This was seconded by Vic and passed by a majority vote.
Athol stated that all outstanding membership fees need to be paid and that all outstanding library videos had to be returned ASAP.
The Business meeting closed at 8.30pm and was handed over to the General Meeting

Ken… gave a brief report on the last Technical Meeting and stated that the next one would be held on the 22nd of March.
Vic…spoke of a planet called Nibiru. It is 4 times as large as Earth and 23 times as dense and is the 10th planet in our Solar System. It apparently is well recorded in ancient history and has a 3,654 year orbit. It is due to pass between earth and the Sun around the 15th to 30th May 2003, with the effect of stopping the rotation of Earth for three days and then flipping the magnetic poles. NASA (calling it "Planet X") has apparently been watching it come for the last six years, but has kept quiet so as not to alarm the population. For more information see http://www.educate-yourself.org/catindex.html .
Peter…spoke on a book called "FALLOUT"" Headley Marsden and the British Bomb Tests in Australia" by Rodger Cross ISBN 1 86254 523 5. The book gave a detailed scientific account of the appallingly large amount of radioactive fallout that deposited around Australia (especially Adelaide) after the Atomic bomb blasts., and the deceitful scientific, political and media cover-up. Peter said that anyone that was worried about nuclear waste dumps in South Australia should read the book. He said that the dumps were insignificant compared to the nuclear waste that was dropped from the 12 bomb blasts. He also said that all school children were compulsorily required to drink radioactive contaminated milk over and after the test period. He added that, as reported recently in the Advertiser, over 6,000 bodies of young children (who had died of various causes) were flown to America to have the radioactive uptake into their bones analysed.
Peter also mentioned an article on transparent concrete and aluminium from http://slashdot.org/science/
Devashoen…related a science show on SBS that he had seen on renewable energy. It went for an hour and covered a lot of good ideas. It also covered hydrogen fuel cells and a Damlier / Benz hydrogen car due to be released in 2004.
Ken…spoke on geo-thermal energy use in New Zealand as a very practical and efficient form of alternative energy.
Robert…mentioned an article called "OVERDOSE The case against the drug companies". He also commented (with disgust) at the prize of a digital camera given to a school that had the greatest number of student vaccinated.
Andrew S…spoke on the need for humans to eat green leafy vegetables with iron in it. He also related an animal experiment where the animals refused to eat anything with SOY in it.
Mathew…said that he had seen an article on the spray "WD 40" saying that it had some thing in it that cured arthritis.

GUEST SPEAKER
Matt Benjamin

Matt holds a degree of Bachelor of Science in Biodiversity and Conservation from Flinders University. He has had experience travelling around Australia, particularly in remote places, and has acquired knowledge about bush foods, techniques of weaving fibres and dies, eco botany. He has a number of years horticulture experience, and has set up a number of permaculture gardens. Matt is currently setting up his own 80 acre property using much of what he has learned, including wind and solar power generation.
Matt gave a very detailed account of his house and alternative energy usage. He utilizes 4 * 80 Watt solar panels, supplemented by a 1940 wind generator. With a little care, he and his family live with most modern conveniences, without the burden of a power bill. He said that it was reasonably expensive to initially set up, but it was still cheaper than having grid power installed.
He has a diesel generator as a backup, but he has not needed it in the 2 1/2 years that he has been there. He has a gas fridge. There were many interesting questions.

Robert thanked our guest speaker and invited everyone to supper.

Until Next Time
PeterP

DISCLAIMER:  All information given in this newsletter is for educational purposes only.  No claims are made on or for the validity or correctness of the material provided.  ASTRO S.A. Incorporated accepts no responsibility for any mishaps or accidents incurred by any persons utilising this information.