I usually do all my own auto-repairs, but lately just don’t have the time, and my truck had to go in for service. I had to cough up roughly 1/5th the worth of the vehicle to replace a bunch of stuff in the front end. So now I’m thinking “economy” and wondering what I can do to make it cheaper to drive.
My first research was into supplementing hydrogen, and electrolysis of water using PV cells, etc… After wading through a lot of snake oil it just doesn’t seem worth while. What complicates the matter is that I’ve added a custom supercharger, so I’m already at a higher compression ratio, so making my air/fuel mixture more volatile is a BAD idea. Making my own ethanol is way too time prohibitive for me, and from what I’ve read it’s difficult to remove all of the water to make it a high enough concentration to use as fuel.
So my latest thought is that I can try to eliminate the alternator, freeing up some horsepower and improving my gas mileage. It may only be a few percent, but I get terrible MPG so any bit will help. Now I need to know:
1. How many amps does my truck draw when running under different conditions (radio on/off, headlights, windshield wipers, etc)
2. How many amps can I realistically generate by unconventional means (PV cells, Seebeck/Reverse Peltier junctions, steam powered generator running off the engine coolant..??)
3. How to automate the switching from alternator-supplied current to my alternate source (or network of alternate sources)
And finally I’ll need to determine whether it was even worth it in the first place. Ideally I would mount a large Seebeck generator around the exhaust behind the catalytic converter (the cat needs high temperature in order to work or i’d place it closer to the engine) – but I haven’t been able to find much information on them, and they’re probably way too cost-prohibitive or else someone would be doing this retail.
Thoughts?