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A tool was developed by Illinois Tool Works (ITW) called the “AutoEKG®FSA” (AutoEKG Fuel System Analyzer) which evaluates combustion quality in an engine by measuring the exhaust pulses of the engine. While many factors are known to influence combustion quality and the wave pattern produced by the instrument, the primary factor in this study was the presence of an asphalt-like material in the air intake system. By examining the waveforms measured by the AutoEKGFSA system before and after carbon cleaning, it has been observed that the engines studied not only run better after the removal of carbon in the system, but the improvements may be measured using this system.

This paper addresses some of the practical problems encountered in attempts to use the simple alcohols as alternate fuels in compression ignition (CI) engines for transportation. It is comprised of six sections: 1) the motivations for pursuit of the alcohols for transportation, 2) a brief review of several municipal buses trials in North American cities, 3) relevant literature which is cited to support a hypothesis, 4) the presentation of a hypothesis and solution, 5) some engine performance data to address an issue attendant to the proposed solution, and 6) conclusion. The solution proposes auto ignition of the fuel via intake air heating as a means to overcome the part load engine efficiency problems. However, in implementing this strategy for a direct injection engine, elevated noise has been observed for alcohol operation. This was concluded to be due to a very rapid pressure rise on ignition attendant to air preheating and the high compression ratio of this engine.