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Back in `64 for a run out Route 66 my mechanic friend hooked up a water line. with a tap, to the Carb. It was supposed to give better mileage. Any comments?
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
Gary, I think that the fuel mileage claim went right along with the screen wire plates that went under the carb, the snake oil that was sold to pour in the gas tanks, the magic adapters that went on your spark plugs, etc.Dick Whittington -
Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
Been seeing comments on water injection, and using water to clean the combustion chamber while running the engine. It is my understanding that you have to be careful injecting water into an engine while it is running because it can greatly increase cylinder head presure and lead to a blown head gasket. I forget all the chemisty associated with it but water that converts to steam undergoes an incredible rate of expansion. Water injection was used in some jet engines for the same reason because it helped generate a big increase in thrust during take-off. I think I would be careful experimenting with it. I am sure someone else might know more about this. TerryComment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
As I recollect, the in-line IC engine that powered the P-51 had the capability for water injection for bursts of power.
Ol' GeezerComment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
Key word "Bursts" of power. Probably when you were trying to out run the German's flying over Berlin. I talked to a man in the hospital that flew a P-51 fitted with cameras over Berlin. He used to start crying when he told me his stories. I believe he had the ability to over run the governor when he needed extra speed (just going by his description of things). I believe he said the plane had two engines (one on each wing and a center cockpit). A couple of times he had one engine nearly completely blown off and he still made it home. He said they shot at him and chased him all the time. He never expected to survive the war. That was around 1992. I learned a lot from him.
TerryComment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
Terry, P-51s were single engine fighters...EXCEPT for one strange configuration I have only seen in pictures. It was a "Twin Mustang" consisting of two identical P-51 fuselages with two cockpits covered with the D style plexiglass canopies. I assume the two fuselages were connected by a constant chord wing section long enough to allow propellor disc clearance, with a similar treatment of the rear elevator surfaces.
I always thought those Twin Mustangs were only a product of post-war brainstorming and development like the B37? flying wing, and were never operational in combat theatres. (They found the flying wing configuration impossible for humans to control until electronic microprocessors and fly-by-wire made the stealthy B2 possible.)Comment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
I believe you will find the twin engine w/center cockpit was a P-38. It would fly on one engine. The P-51's as seen in combat had the Rolls/Merlin engine in it.Comment
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Twin Mustang
Yeah, here's a picture. This link says it wasn't produced until 1946. Maybe your friend had forgotten what he was flying if it was a twin...P-38, B-25, B-26? Says it was used in Korea as the F-82B, and shot down two North Korean planes...The victims must have been Russian Yak biplanes; that Twin Mustang is probably about as agile as the Queen Mary.
Twin MustangComment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
Chuck, the Twin Mustang, otherwise known as the P-82, was a reality and saw service in the Korean war. I believe the airplane the gentleman in the previous post was talking about was the P-38 which was used extensively as a photo-recon airplane. With drop tanks it had the range and the extra engine gave it the reliability to get home. Thoughts from the old gray matter.
GaryComment
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Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?
The twin engine fighter used by Allied forces in WW II was the Lockheed P-38 Lightening. The F-82 "Twin Mustang" was not developed until after WW II and saw action in Korea. I believe it was developed as a long range bomber escort, and some versions may have been configured with radar to function as night interceptors.
See my post in the following thread for an explanation of how water/alcohol injection works in the big aircraft recips.
Injecting water into a naturally aspirated automotive engine will not increase fuel economy. It might reduce NOx formation.
DukeComment
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Re: Twin Mustang
When I posted my original message, I almost changed P-51 to P-38. As memory goes, I tend to confuse what little I know about war planes and the original conversation I had with that man. P-38 sounds right now.
He flew alone and at a high altitude. He would nose dive and start taking pictures when he got to low altitude. He would then climb as high as he could and run for home. They would chase him with Meshirschmits (spelling?). A lot of amunition was fired at that man. He wasn't bragging when he told me his stories. He always had tears in his eyes. I can't immagine what he had lived through. I seem to recall the gas tanks that somebody mentioned and how they would fall off when empty. I haven't met a person like him since. TerryComment
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Re: Twin Mustang
Reconnaissance versions were stripped of guns and all other "unneccasary" equipment in order to lighten and load them with as much fuel as possible. Many also had special engine versions to enable high altitude operation - as much as 40,000 feet, which was above the altitude capablity of most fighters. Recon was a very hazardous occupation - you're all along and the only thing you have working for you is surprise and speed. I have no doubt that the gentleman had to push the throttle through the wire stop to engage war emergency power and water alcohol injection to escape on many occasions.
The P-38 could be equipped with a jetisonable belly tank of something on the order of 300 gallons capacity. The single engine fighters could carry two jettisonable wing tanks of smaller capacity. They were referred to as "drop tanks". They could be jettisoned at any time and their fuel was the first consumed at the start of the mission. They were dropped when empty or prior to entering combat.
The P-38 belly tanks were popular with hot rodders in the post war era as the basis for "lakester" cars that ran on the dry lakes and Bonneville. An aquaintence of mine developed a fiberglass replica of the P-38 belly tank about ten years ago, and several new "lakesters" have been build using he replica being as how the supply of surplus aluminum P-38 belly tanks were sold or scrapped long ago.
DukeComment
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Interesting! *NM*
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Re: Twin Mustang
Yeah, there were huge numbers of trained pilots after WWII.
There was no civilian air transport like there is now, so most returned to take on jobs that were mundane compared to what they had been doing. At one small chemical unit I worked in early in my career, there were several men (3-5) that had flown combat missions over Europe in P-51s...one was operations manager, one was a metals inspector, one was a maintenance manager, etc. They wouldn't talk about it...they would admit that they had indeed flown P-51s, but quickly changed the subject to football, friends or plant business.
Most had come from barely subsisting in late depression years to training to fly the most advanced and powerful machines of the age. Some had college educations, but mostly they were high school educated farm boys and city boys that were ready for an adventure. They were given good clothing and three squares a day, and asked to do things that no rational person would willingly do. They did what they were asked, often enduring stark terror in the process, and helped change the course of mankind. They are passing away now, and we their priviledged children, owe them dearly.Comment
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the P-38s were called "lightnings" *NM*
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