Mother's Alcohol Preheater

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Once that's done, heat the 5" pipe with a torch, brush some paste flux onto both copper surfaces, and sweat the coils to the pipe with 50/50 general purpose plumbing solder. Of course, every loop doesn't have to be completely fastened to the conduit, but it would be a good idea to attach at least the extreme end coils with a continuous bead. (The solder not only holds the copper coils fast, but also assists the heat transfer between the tubing and the pipe.)

From that point it's just a matter of installing the unit in your vehicle. Locate a 3-1/2" length of rubber radiator hose that fits snugly around the large pipe, then clamp the conduit to this flexible coupling, remove your existing upper radiator hose at the engine, and fasten the new assembly to the thermostat housing. Complete the junction by reclamping the radiator hose to the preheater's free end.

Your fuel line can be hooked into the system in the same manner. It your auto already has a flexible neoprene hose, simply cut it and fasten the ends to the coil's inlet and outlet fittings. However, if your car's fuel lines are steel, you'll have to remove a small section of the metal "hose" and use two short lengths of neoprene tubing—and four small clamps—to attach the existing line to the warming loops.

TRY IT OUT

As the ethanol fuel passes through the coils, it will naturally gain heat ... but—even if the coolant within the engine approaches the boiling point—the warmth will never completely transfer into the moving fluid. Ideally, the alcohol's temperature should not be allowed to rise over the boiling point of that liquid—which is about 173°F—since this would cause a vapor lock condition within the fuel lines and carburetor ... but warming the ethanol to well above the ambient temperature is fine. (Actually, with six coils incorporated into the preheater, the temperature of the fuel will rise only to about half the temperature of the engine coolant.)

As MOTHER's truck is equipped now, the preheating device improves fuel economy by up to 11% ... raising the average alcohol miles-per-gallon from 10.1 to as high as 11.4 at 55 miles per hour. Now, a total of 11.4 MPG might not sound like big news, but for a truck—and especially one that gets an absolute maximum of 13 MPG (unloaded) using gasoline—this figure is somewhat impressive.

There's a chance that your vehicle's alcohol mileage might be increased further by adding to the number of coils in the preheater ... but—after a certain point—such additions become ineffective and could result in engine hesitation and power loss when the accelerator is depressed. And, of course, you may have to experiment to get the best balance of engine economy and performance. However, we're sure you'll find that—even if you're not looking for high mileage exclusively—MOTHER's preheating device will help your alcohol-powered vehicle operate better during the winter season.

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