with the price of gas rising faster than the hindenburg,  most guys know can barely afford to drive to work,  and my truck gets about 8mpg,  

sooo...

i was thinking,  it wouldnt be that hard to make my own fuel,  ethanol,  more populary known as "moonshine" or corn alchahol

i know, i know, that illegal,  but how hard would it be to run a carberated, chevy 350 on ethanol or an ethanol/gas mix,  as far as i know the main problem is the corrosive effect of ethanol on rubber,  like gaskets and fuel lines,  but im my opinion,  ethanol is the fuel of the future,  and my engine and fuel system has no rubber components, so couldnt i just start using ethanol with no modifications, save for a few adjustments to the carberator air/fuel mix?

if properly made, ethanol is approximately 110-130 octane,  it burn cooler than gas,  it also produces much less carbon emmissions than gas,  and it keeps indefinately,  plus,  any type of vegatable or fruit that is high in sugars and/or starches can be used as a source.  

and just as a point,  ive read that it costs about $1.10 US dollars to make a single gallon of 87 octane  thats pumping oil, refine it and shiping it.  so somebody, somewhere is gettin rich fast.

let me hear your opinions and thoughs
the price of gas and fuel will continue to rise unless something is done...
its time to stop making the oil compainies rich on our hard earned cash!!!  

Not sure were you are getting your logic or pricing. First there is 42 gallons in a barrel of oil so $110 a barrel divided by 42 equals $2.61 for oil used and that is before you add refining and transportation costs and taxes. On grain alcohol, it takes energy to make (grow and process it) and one gallon fo it has only about 55% of the heat energy of a gallon a gas so you have to burn a lot more of it and net carbon given off it about the same or a bit more. If you get 8 MPG now, with grain alcohol figure on about 5MPG or so.  

sorry about that,  of corse that price to make a gallon of gas is old,  my bad...

but anyway im talking about making my own fuel for personal use,  i live on a farm,  and we usually get about 5-6 tons of corn and silage each year,  so a few hundred pounds wont be missed,  

im not entirely shure, but i think in kentucky its legal to run a "still" as long as the end product is
used for fuel.

so even if it saves me just a few hundred dollars,  it will be time well spent.  

plus,  youve got to think about the fact that several years ago a barrel of oil used to cost about $50

its not the actual oil that expensive,  its demand,  world politics,  foreing relations,  blah, blah, blah...  

As I recall, one bushel of corn makes about 2.2 gallons of alcohol and corn is selling for 5.47/bushel today on stock exchange. To make a tank of fuel (20 gallons) it would about 9 bushels of corn or about 520 lbs. (a tank a week would require about 27,000 lbs of corn a year) Then there is the cost of processing/making it so figure on about 65 bucks to make a tank of fuel (grain alone is worth 49 bucks to sell it) Lets look at it another way, your 49 bucks of corn will yield about 1.3 million BTU of heat energy in fuel and heat in it from burning drives engine. If you buy 49 bucks of gas for 3.20/gal you get 1.9 million BTU's of heat energy. Using grain fuel is one of those things that looks good politically but when you do the math it does not pay out. I would sell the corn for 5.47 and by the gas. The answer in biofuels lies in Butanol not Ethanol. Butanol has a much higher energy content than ethanol and can be used in any car made in last 25 years without mods. (Last year they took a 80 something car and drove it cross country on it) The problem is they need to lower the cost of enzymes to make it. It hold more promise long term because it yields a fuel with a much higher energy content than ethanol from same bio matter.  

pinto beeenns forever,dont know what the btu count is on methane,but i figgur that the worse it brings tears to the eyes the more potent it bee!,all kidding aside the city here was contemplating putting a methane collection system round a land fill theyer ready to close,and run some public transportation off of it.ive seen a few places in dogpatch using a collection system to syphon off some for use in an itty bitty power plant in west tx.back to the fearsome,Is methane a viable source for an auto fuel?  

Methane is a viable fuel. Natural gas is about 97% methane. Methane itself is odorless but in the case of being a by product of decay, the odor comes for the process, not natively from the gas itself. The problem with methane as a motor fuel is that it is hard to store it in quantity for range. It is stored as a compressed gas in big heavy tanks. In this regard, propane is a far better motor fuel because it stores in a liquid state at relatively low pressures which makes longer range quite viable.  

true,  the shocking part is the local landfill has burners about every 100 feet that burn off the methane gas that builds up,  too bad they arent using it for fuel...

i havent heard much about Butanol,  is it something simmilar to butane?

anyone even seen that thing on discovery channel where that guy made cars run on compressed air?  interesting idea, but not very practical,  especially for long range driving.  

Butane is a gas at normal temps. Butanol is a alcohol and also called Butyl Alcohol. Butanol has a complex carbon and hydrogen structure which holds more energy (C4,H10,O) vs ethanol (C2,H5,OH).  

yea snoman,i got to play with butyl alcohol,veerry stinky,and worse.poisonous,had to wear full PPE when i hauled it,but the weird part is, its an antidote for phenol poisoning,go figure,got my first chemical pneumonia from methanol.it tastes just like rubbing alcohol smells.peeyou, no fun i tell ya!Phenol is in your oatmeal,chap stic and other daily stuff,no dont go eat a lip balm all you gonna do is ***  

Strange because it is considered to have low toxicity and is even used in some face makeup (Butyl Alcohol). Methyl alcohol is the one to watch out for. It can be quite toxic.  

on another note,  too bad i dont have a diesel truck,  

ever heard of guys running diesels on used cooking oil,  apparently all you need to do is filter the stuff good,  install a secondary tank and seperate fuel line,  because cooking oil is thicker than diesel,  the engine must be warmed on diesel fuel, then switched over to oil,  and to clear the fuel system of oil the engine is switched back to diesel before the engine is shut off,
apparently this prevents cooking oil from gelling inside the fuel lines.

and, i live in a small community with lots of gas stations and small family owned resturants,  i guess if i asked around i could get the stuff for free...

guess its another reason to save up for my dream truck

a dodge 3500 dually with a cummins turbodiesel!!!  

I would be VERY leary about using it in a new hitech diesel with high pressure injection and very fine spray patterns. Not sure you could filter it enough cheaply  

on mythbusters they power a diesel mercedes on used cooking oil with no mods, only difference was a 3mpg drop from 33mpg with diesel to 30 with coooking oil.  

I would be more tempted to try it with a old low tech diesel than a new one. One tank of fuel does not tell you what it will do after 50 or 100 tanks and a few years.