how much of my gas is actually being used to power the car?

Question

i know that when u burn pure alcahol, it does not let out smoke, because its all being burnt. cars let out smoke so that means that not all of the gas is being utilized. how much isn't?

Answer 1

Pure alcohol does not burn completely in internal combustion engines either. You will all ways have some left over fuel, it is an inherent design of internal combustion engines. This is because exact control of the correct amount of fuel supplied to the engine is impossible. Generally internal combustion engines, particularly reciprocating internal combustion engines, produce moderately high pollution levels, due to incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fuel, leading to carbon monoxide and some soot along with oxides of nitrogen & sulfur and some unburnt hydrocarbons depending on the operating conditions and the fuel/air ratio. The primary causes of this are the need to operate near the stoichiometric ratio for petrol engines in order to achieve combustion (the fuel would burn more completely in excess air) and the "quench" of the flame by the relatively cool cylinder walls.

Answer 2

all of the gas gets used but when gas burns the fire produces carbon di oxide and that is released in the form of a black gas like small parts of carbon in the air that means carbon di oxide coz its carbon and oxygen im sure ur getting what im saying... ya cant see the small particles with the eye and thats why the smoke seems a little black sometime...coz of these small bits of carbon that are produced by the burning process not by the gas...you can even burn paper it will leave a small brown piece of stuff there that is ash and carbon its not all produced by the paper but the fire makes the carbon and the ash is the burnt paper...but gas(petrol,diesel,and other gas) these are in the form of liquid and gas so they dont produce any kind of ashes or anything so that black stuff in the smoke is produced by the burning process its self...but the better the fuel the less carbon is produced coz the better the fuel the esier it burns and the lesser the burning process is used and it burns quicker....

i hope u liked my answer but its very simple anyone can figure that out if they think a little....


1 more thing:
if ur cars giving a lot of smoke then that could mean that ur car needs an oil change and may be needs servicing...if ur a little worried about it why dont u let a professional machanic take a look...tc and good luck

Answer 3

Internal combustion engines have pretty much reached their maximum design. They are not all that effective for what they burn. But they burn almost all of the fuel added to the combustion chamber. As someone else said if you have SMOKE coming out the exhaust pipe you have problems.

The only thing you should really see coming out the exhaust is vapor or steam from the hot exhaust coming in contact with the cooler, moist air and condensing the moisture into steam.

Constant short drives will cause an exhaust to rust out much faster then someone who drives longer distances. Inside the exhaust moisture condenses, then you park and it just sits in there causing rust. Someone who drives longer distances the pipe gets hot enough to burn off that moisture.
Ever see a car pull off from a stop and water pour out of the exhaust pipe? I have actually seen a car that wouldn't start because the muffler was almost filled with water, then it froze and blocked off the exhaust. Let the car sit in the shop overnight and got almost 7 liters of water out of the muffler.

Answer 4

It seems to me that almost all the refined gasoline must burn as vehicle in good condition do not smoke. They produce exhaust gases, but this is not the same as unburned fuel. I am not certain that all the gas burns, but pretty certain that's what you'll find. I do know that as the engine gets older, starting with the first mile, more and more of the power it produces is aimed at simply making the engine run , and less goes to the power-train/drive wheels. Naturally, this adversely affects mileage. I use Engine Sentry in my filter to avoid as much of this as possible.

Answer 5

Somewhere around 97 to 99 percent gets burned, from what I hear. Usually, the "smoke" you see is steam, from water condensing in the tailpipe. If it's soot or oil smoke, the engine has got problems.

Answer 6

It is all being utilized. Most cars do not smoke. If your car is smoking, you have bad rings or something that is not allowing full compression.

Answer 7

Carbon dioxide more power to the engine

Answer 8

Might depend on how many beans you ate !! lol