i have a question about the plug-in block heater..would it be possible to drive with that plugged in? like for example..if you were to get a power inverter, and a plug extension..could you theoretically drive with it plugged in the entire time so that it continues to warm the block? also..maybe i have this idea all wrong..but what does warming the block do? would it warm up the fuel so that it would enter the engine as lean vapor? i was reading this article and thought it would be cool to implement something like this in our cars
The engine block heater warms the engine coolant, once you start the car the coolant warms up quickly, so the EBH never needs to be on once the car has been on about 5 minutes, even if you could leave it plugged in. The EBH should never change the temp of the fuel.
ooh..okay. thanks for the clarification. do you think it would be possible to maybe create something that would warm up the fuel so that it comes into the engine as lean vapor?
I value my life too much to be near a home brew device to heat gasoline, so I am not able to speculate.
Before you actually *do* anything, please make sure your last will & testament etc. is in order... (also referring to your other post about "constantly plugged-in plug-in") I would hate to see the headline on the Sunday Seattle Times: "Kirkland Prius owner opens black hole in time/space continuum." Makes me wonder what would happen if you drove a Prius in the Large Hadron Collider... backwards? Back to the Future should have used a Prius instead of a DeLorean. If time travel was possible, they could have... Seriously though, I'm sure there are ways to getter even more remarkable mileage in your Prius than what Toyota engineers could figure out with a sticker price of $23K, but my guess is it's a game of diminishing returns and increasing costs. As for me I'm happy to get about twice the MPG I could get in most other cars. And looking forward to doubling that with the plug-in Prius.
"Then they drove the car on a closed course at a steady 30 mph" Didn't the mpg record holders for the prius get over 100mpg by driving it that slow? In my opinion, most of the gains was gained through reduction of weight and speed (less drag). If you stripped down a prius, and then drove it that slow, I'd bet you'd come pretty close.
