I expect fuel prices to go crazy. We need to reconfigure what we have for right now. The engine is a heat pump. The quick and dirty way to get more horse power is increase the displacement. More fuel air mixture more BTUs, more horse power. What if you want to make a 1 liter engine with 100 HP. It can be done rather easily disregarding the emission crap. 1 Hp per 10ccs is normal for racing motorcycles. In this case we need an engine that is detuned enough to be reliable. One way to get more horse power is to use more cylinders. This creates power overlap. That's when more than one piston is in the power stroke at one time. A one liter V16 would be awesome and small and light. Concept cars are mostly hybrids and they are fudging numbers. There are some that are great though. I remember reading a man took a small engine and four car batteries and ran a Triumph chassis with a 48 volt aircraft starter. The car gave great mileage and a job he was hoping to get from the manufacturers didn't materialize. When he asked why they told him they had already done it. Under full load an alternator can require up to 7 HP. The requirements to deliver full capacity was 28 HP to drive 4 alternators to charge four batteries. His configuration would have worked well with a 300CC V12. I don't like the loses in the mechanical/electrical conversion though. So we need 100 HP, that's enough power for my wife and I to haul a half ton load over the foot hills and plateau of Pennsylvania at 60 miles an hour. I have a 97HP truck and I know this is a fact. Check the speed record held by Harley Davidson for 2 cubic inches. 100HP will take you above most speed limits in the world. Look what VW did with 40HP. The very first thing we have to do is reduce the size of the heat pump.

I had a 1968 Buick sport wagon, it was a heavy car. The fuel filter was so plugged it would sometimes die going up hill. I had to get under the front and pull the fuel line off and blow back through it to get it to go again. That car gave me 33 to 35 miles to the gallon until I finally had to replace the filter. It ran very good. The carburetor was adjusted so far off it would not start with the new filter. We pulled the new filter back out and dried it with carburetor cleaner and painted about 90% of the surface with a fiberglass resin. Once hardened we reinstalled it and it was great I no longer had problems with stalling uphill. I would never have gotten rid of the engine, then fate took over. My father-in-law had a body shop and a salvage yard. I was helping on car crushing day and when we weren't looking half the cars we told them they couldn't crush got crushed and my car got crushed too. All those old convertibles gone and my personal car. Bottom line was they thought they got away with the car grab. When they found out they crushed a car that was being used and not even part of the inventory. Well I got a fairly new car that I learned to hate and my father-in-law got book value for every car they illegally grabbed. I wish I had that engine right now. 350CID Buick engine with nothing speacial, 2 barrel carb probable about 200HP.

Time will tell on the rotory engine. There have been some that weren't a scam that disappeared. I'm not a ford fan unless it's a modelT pickup. Well there was a guy working with Ford V8s that was getting outstanding mileage. The work was reportedly going to be moved into new luxury cars and then it disappeared. This guy didn't con car manufacturers and suddenly the whole thing just vanished. This guy either had 300 mpg or 1500 mile range on his stock tank, can't remember the figures but they were awesome. Now all I can bring up is 300 CID ford engine mileage stats.

VW has a concept car out that is around 260 MPG. The problems with it is no space. I'm hoping the exploitation of power overlap in a multi-cylinder engine would give you enough HP to allow you to have a chassis that provides you a little space. Enough to get your groceries home anyway.

Look a got a little 4 banger. It does pretty good. With higher compression and a few tweeks it could do better. Actually the Model T set along side my truck is proof that we have made absolutely no progress in automobiles since there conception. The mileage is about the same between my truck and the Model T. I could also point out the model T was a much heavier auto.

So does anyone else think overlap can be exploited and the displacement can be lowered to save fuel?

Be careful with the Acetone. I tried this with my PT-Cruiser. It has a high-output turbo engine and normally gets crappy mileage. I am lucky if I achieve 19 miles/gallon on the highway. (Why do I drive it? I love the 220 -hp output of the engine on that small car. It throws me back in my seat and gets me merged on the 70 mph highway is seconds. It's great at stoplights and surprises laughing potential victims. I love it too much to give it up right now.)

Back to my point. I added acetone to the recommended 90+ octane fuel I normally fill it with. (The turbo needs the high-octane or it starts to ping) A short time later, the engine had burned up a valve. It was very, very expensive to get it fixed.

Do this with caution. For me -- Never, Ever, Ever, EVER again!

My brother in law inherited the wrecking yard. He has a small light body laid back of me to play with. That is a very good tip not to use your ride for experiments. I just hope I hit something successful to stick into my ride. Unfortunately the yard is quite far from my home and I don't get enough time into the project.

If I try to make a small wet sleeve here at home I may be putting a foot in the right direction. I have friends in the area that work in machine shops and have machines in their basements. I think I can get some help with this idea. I can't afford the machines myself, it's the only way I could tackle it.

I just posted about hardening the electrical system in half baked. Keeping your ride up has to be a priority.

No, before you ask, I can't just have him throw it on a tiltbed and drop it off here. They have what they call city towing and if it's sitting and not inspected, registered and insured, they tow it away on you. I live in town and that's a pain in the backside. I have to live close to the hospitals. No choice.