Tips to Save Gas...What do you think?

[Chris Padilla]

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/gastips.asp

[Kyle Kraft]

Here is my take on it, but I'm just a knuckle dragging machine repairman.

1. The ground temperature is a constant approx. 50 degrees F. so if the tank is installed below the frost line (probably code) then the soil temp will be the same 24-7.

2. Sounds valid, but most stations have a spin-on filter in line before the dispensing nozzle.

3. Hmmmm, the vapor recovery system on the vehicle should negate this as there is a purge valve to suck the recovered vapors back into the engine to burn them.

4. The question is how many thousands of gallons of gas would you have to pump to vaporize enough to amount to any appreciable dollar value?

Chime in, all you diploma holders:)

[Greg Cole]

I've heard some info about the volume of fuel versus temperature issue. There was a stink on alot of news media outlets about this around the beginning of winter. I think the Canadians have a different fuel metering system to account for the volume & temperature issue.... least I think so, but slept a couple nights since seeing it on the tube.
I always have been a fill up and 1/2 tank no matter what, no reason just what Dad thumped into my skull years ago..... same logic applies here as with not filling up while the gas station tanks are being filled. Leave the crud at the bottom of the tank right where it is.... but that's what filters are for. Assuming the filling station has a better filter than most cars?
The vapor path-agitiation has be trying to see inside-visualize the fuel hose delivery hose..... again it makes some sense.
I'd like to see someone do a real study on a certain size tank under different temp's, humidity, fill rate etc etc etc....

Greg
PS- Chris, I'm making a quick strike (in Sat morning and out Sunday mid-day) to the Bay Area this weekend to see a game in the Shark Tank. Too short a trip for any side excursions though... so no Creeker visits unless ya know where Greens Sports Bar is. :rolleyes:

[Greg Heppeard]

Chris,

IMHO, it would take a couple of years for an individual to save just a gallon of gas using these methods. I do know that keeping at least a half a tank in your vehicle in the winter time helps to prevent water from freezing in your fuel lines. I believe it has something to do with the amount of water that is suspended in the fuel...the more fuel, the more water can be suspended. The water starts to settle when the vehicle is not moving, but then the small pool of water is broken up when the vehicle is shaken by normal driving, thereby getting sucked up by the fuel pump and eventually pumped through the engine, getting rid of it. That's one of the reasons you see water dripping from the tail pipe on a cold morning...granted most of this is condensation in the exhaust system. Just my thoughts. I don't really have any scientific proof of all this rambling.

[Lee Schierer]

Some appear to be a myth.
Ground temperature varies only a degree or two year round. Any fuel in a tank in the ground is likely to have the same temerature winter or summer, unless the tank was just filled.

Most modern fuel pumps have filters in the pumps to catch dirt. A tank generating enough dirt in the gas to result in a gas saving would seem to be prone to creating other problems as well.

Keeping your tank more than half full will reduce the chance of condensation, but doesn't the charcoal canister in your car takes care of the fumes in your tank. Air only holds so much gasoline vapor. Once saturated it won't hold any more. Half a tank or a whole tank the density of the vapor is going to be about the same I would think so over the long run you would still be "losing" the same amount of fuel as a vapor. Filling up twice as often would seem to be less efficient use of your time.

[Greg Peterson]

I've got a sure fire way to save gas.

synchronizing street lights so that you don't have to keep stopping and going. I don't know about the rest of the country, but out here there are few streets were traveling at the posted speed limit will allow you to pass through controlled intersections.

You either have to travel well below the limit or way above the limit. Seems rather odd with todays technology that these signals can not be coordinated so that traffic moves smoothly.

[Chris Padilla]

I bike to work but the wife drives so at least I cut our gasoline bill in half...but then I spend lottsa money on my bike!! haha

[Chris Padilla]

I've got a sure fire way to save gas.

synchronizing street lights so that you don't have to keep stopping and going. I don't know about the rest of the country, but out here there are few streets were traveling at the posted speed limit will allow you to pass through controlled intersections.

You either have to travel well below the limit or way above the limit. Seems rather odd with todays technology that these signals can not be coordinated so that traffic moves smoothly.

I think eventually that traffic lights will all be on the internet so that traffic engineers can do just that.

[Jim Becker]

Hmm....most days I walk to work. Front stairs or back has been the biggest decision. With my new office, it will be about, oh...25 linear feet of walking from my side of the bed to my desk and no steps. But no additional gas savings, I'm afraid.... :D But the latté machine will remain in the kitchen, so I can still choose my routes and get that extra exercise in the process of preparing myself for the day!

I do agree with the coordinated traffic signals thing. Of course, if you hit them "just right" you can get a red on every single one of them, too! LOL

[Glenn Clabo]

Hmm....most days I walk to work. Front stairs or back has been the biggest decision. With my new office, it will be about, oh...25 linear feet of walking from my side of the bed to my desk and no steps.

Aahhh Jim...Did you miss a few steps there? Not that I want to really know...but me thinks you are working a full tank...if you know what I mean...and working at that computer in PJ's...or even worse!!!:eek::eek::eek:;)

[Jim Becker]

Aahhh Jim...Did you miss a few steps there? Not that I want to really know...but me thinks you are working a full tank...if you know what I mean...and working at that computer in PJ's...or even worse!!!

PJs???? What's that?:p

But good point...especially at my age. :o

[Jason Roehl]

Okay, here's my take on 'em:

1. Like others said, unless the tank has just been filled, the underground temperature remains pretty constant throughout the year, let alone throughout the day.

2. Stirred, shaken or settled, gas is drawn off the bottom of the tank anyway, so if the dirt is all settled there, guess what is being sucked into the pump? (Same thing goes for your vehicle). I've changed plenty of fuel filters on vehicles, and I've NEVER poured anything but clean gas out of the intake side of the filter. Short of a major problem (rusty vehicle fuel tank, leak into the underground tank at the station), gas these days is pretty darn clean and high quality to meet the emissions standards and to not kill today's high-tech engines.

3. If you feel more comfortable filling up at half full, go ahead--you'll just waste more gas stopping at the gas station more often. Today's gas tanks are a sealed system, to the point that since 1996, all OBD-II vehicles should activate the Check Engine/Service Engine/Malfunction Indicator Lamp if your gas cap is not tight. I am on my second dual-tank truck, and I always run one tank dry, then switch to the other. I have never burned up a fuel pump doing this. ONE time I had trouble on a cold day with water in the fuel that condensed and froze during my workday as a snowstorm moved through. I sputtered to a gas station, filled up and was on my way.

4. I can't imagine how much it would cost me to fill up at the slow speed. It takes long enough at the highest speed. For the slow to be worthwhile, that supposed vapor-recovery system the stations have in the hoses would have to be hooked to a jet engine. Think about it: gases are about 1000 times less dense than liquids--it would take an awful lot of vapors for them to recover any significant volume of liquid gasoline. Oh, and gas hoses around here aren't corrugated, but if they were, I'm pretty sure it would be so that they would be more flexible without collapsing and easier to use.

I'm surprised snopes.com is still researching this one.

Oh, and Jim, I bet video-conference calls would ruin your routine.:D

[Bryan Berguson]

I've got a sure fire way to save gas.

synchronizing street lights so that you don't have to keep stopping and going. I don't know about the rest of the country, but out here there are few streets were traveling at the posted speed limit will allow you to pass through controlled intersections.

You either have to travel well below the limit or way above the limit. Seems rather odd with todays technology that these signals can not be coordinated so that traffic moves smoothly.


Out in the country, 4 way stop signs should go! If there is good visability, they should at least be yield signs.

Get rid of the "No turn on Red" signs where they aren't needed. One in particular really ticks me off. It's at a Wal-Mart intersection that was put in just for the stinkin WalMart. So you sit there waiting to turn right at the red light with NOTHING coming and have to wait because the stinking light is red. :mad: I guess what makes me so mad is I un-secretly believe that Wal-Mart wants it there so more people see other people at their store. :mad::mad::mad:

Bryan

[Chris Padilla]

I usually blast through a few T-junction lights on my bike. :D I also turn RIGHT on red at a couple intersections because the "vehicle detector" doesn't dectect me on my bike although sometimes I have to wait for a car to show up behind me to trip the light for me.

[Lee Schierer]

Out in the country, 4 way stop signs should go! If there is good visability, they should at least be yield signs. I have 4 stop signs and a traffic light on my way to work. One of them I *usually* stop because there is traffic coming, the others, almost never. How much gas is wasted (not to mention brakes) at these worthless stop signs with millions of stops across the country daily? I

Do what the younger drivers around here do. If they don't see a car they blow right through the stops signs at speed. At night they look to see if there are headlights coming from the cross road. Some even turn off their lights so they can see if there are other lights coming to the intersection........so far we've had at least 2 deaths related to this practice in our county and several others where a driver was used to not stopping at a stop sign becuase "there was never any one coming".......

[Randy Denby]

Do what the younger drivers around here do. If they don't see a car they blow right through the stops signs at speed. At night they look to see if there are headlights coming from the cross road. Some even turn off their lights so they can see if there are other lights coming to the intersection........so far we've had at least 2 deaths related to this practice in our county and several others where a driver was used to not stopping at a stop sign becuase "there was never any one coming".......

Being a motorcyclist, this just makes my skin crawl......How many are "looking" or even thinking that hey, there might be a motorcycle coming?

[Jon Lanier]

Slower the better? Hmmmm, I guess NASCAR and INDY are going to have the eco folks after them. They pump that gas... how fast at a pits stop?

[Bryan Berguson]

Do what the younger drivers around here do. If they don't see a car they blow right through the stops signs at speed. At night they look to see if there are headlights coming from the cross road. Some even turn off their lights so they can see if there are other lights coming to the intersection........so far we've had at least 2 deaths related to this practice in our county and several others where a driver was used to not stopping at a stop sign becuase "there was never any one coming".......


No, I won't do what young drivers in your area do nor am I advocating that. I would hazard a guess and say that alcohol was probably responsible in some of those accidents you are referring to.

Bryan

[Jim Becker]

Bryan, do remember that we have quite a few minors as registered SMC members and they are reading threads like this... ;)

[Don Abele]

That's one of the reasons you see water dripping from the tail pipe on a cold morning...granted most of this is condensation in the exhaust system.

Greg, the water dripping from the tail pipe is primarily from the catalytic converter. Carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide and water. It's the same type of system we use on submarines to clean our atmosphere.

Be well,

Doc

[Greg Heppeard]

Being a motorcyclist, this just makes my skin crawl......How many are "looking" or even thinking that hey, there might be a motorcycle coming?


me too. I've had the crap scared out of me so many times I can't count.

[Greg Funk]

Greg, the water dripping from the tail pipe is primarily from the catalytic converter. Carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide and water.
Unless I've forgotten my high school chemistry you can't get water from Carbon monoxide without adding hydrogen. The water from your tailpipe is just a normal product of combustion and will occur whether or not you have a catalytic converter. Once everything is warm there is lot of water vapour coming out of your tailpipe. In the morning when it is cold some of the water condenses on the pipes until they get hot.

Greg

[Jason Roehl]

Yeah, he just forgot all the hydrogen that gets freed up from the hydrocarbons. There are quite a few chemical reactions going on between the intake and the tailpipe--nitrogen is another major player, too, but there are all kinds of different chemicals in the fuel and the air that get together and have a party.

[Don Abele]

Greg, the hydrogen comes from the gas - it's a hydrocarbon, so there's free hydrogen released during the combustion. There's also a bunch of bad nitrogen oxides released from combustion which gets converted to straight nitrogen as well.

So you essentially wind up with carbon monoxide (it doesn't completely convert but is substantially reduced), carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen (and there's a couple more smaller ones I can't remember). Of course, I could be absolutely remembering all of this wrong from my inorganic chemistry days which were more than just a couple years ago :o

Oh, and on submarines, the hydrogen is a by-product of the creation of oxygen by splitting water molecules using thousands of amps.

Be well,

Doc

[Rick Gooden]

How do you coordinate lights on a 2-way street?

[Bryan Berguson]

Bryan, do remember that we have quite a few minors as registered SMC members and they are reading threads like this... ;)


Good point. I will edit my previous posts. Sorry to offend anyone or give them bad ideas.

Bryan

[Bryan Berguson]

me too. I've had the crap scared out of me so many times I can't count.

I rode motorcycle for five years as I didn't have a car. Was 30 seconds behind a car/motorcycle accident where an old lady pulled out in front of a biker and he caught the bumber with his leg as he tried to get around her. He lost his leg just below the knee. I can still vividly picture that guy (the father of a good friend of mine) sitting in the road holding his leg at the knee with the rest of his leg hanging by some skin. I didn't ride long after that. The lady had come to a complete stop btw.

As a motorcyclist, you have to fend for yourself every minute you're on the highway. Whether it's other cars, animals, gravel, guard rails, rumble strips, steel bridges, you name it, there are a lot of dangers to bikers on the roads. Too dangerous for me anymore. :( I used to love to ride...

Sorry for hijacking this thread...

I'll get back on topic. I listened to someone talking about oil and he claimed that only 5% of the gas burned in a car is used for the passengers. He was advocating lighter materials to build cars. If I can find the link to the video I'll post it.

Bryan