No Problem! Welcome to GW's automotive help page!!
No! This is definitely NOT the way to wash your car!!
GW is an engineer, a teacher, and a self-taught auto mechanic certified by ASE in engine performance
and engine repair. He has built and rebuilt air-cooled VW’s several times over the past several decades.
He does his own routine maintenance and minor repairs on his family “fleet”. He also does alternative
fuel modifications.
He has learned how to “mothball” a car for years of successful storage, such that it can be made
operational again in under two days.
He has learned how to measure the drag of a car with nothing more sophisticated than a stopwatch
and a level piece of straight road. This technique is inexpensive and capable of telling windows-up
from windows-down in an ordinary sedan. He is working with techniques to measure power-at-the-wheels
with the same kinds of simple methods.
GW has successfully converted a Farmall-H tractor and a 1973 VW “beetle” to run on E-85 ethanol fuel, and
found that they run better on it than they did on gasoline. He runs all his 4-cycle gasoline lawnmowers
and similar equipment on an “E-20” gasohol blend, without any modifications at all. He is currently
investigating ethanol fuels and blends in his Ford F-150.
He has a lot of closely-related experience working with ethanol and ethanol blends in aircraft
piston engines. He knows a lot about materials compatibility when using ethanol in gasoline
equipment. The ethanol VW, the ethanol Farmall, and the gasohol lawn equipment have run this way for
well over a year without a single problem as of January 2008. The aircraft work required formal
compatibility testing and materials evaluations.
Working on jet engines in aircraft, he has experience with biodiesel blends, and knows how to blend them
for cold weather conditions. GW also knows how to make biodiesel.
With experience like that, he can help you learn how to take care of your vehicle. He can help racers
and others measure the drag of their vehicles very inexpensively. He can also advise experimenters
wishing to convert to alternative fuels.
Stuff that is “generally accepted” is on his educational services page, just follow the links.
Stuff that is “new” or “different” is with the information about the associated project.
Click on the links given below.
Want to learn how to take basic care of your car? Click here for:
Educational Services
Want to learn more about engine oil and how to choose it? Click here for:
Educational Services
Interested in information about the new “red” coolant and the risks it poses if not used correctly?
Click here: Red Coolant PDF
Interested in flex fuel or alternative fuel conversions? Click here: Ethanol Projects
Interested in GW’s “Rolling Wind Tunnel” on-the-road drag measurement? Click here to see the Rolling Wind Tunnel PDF
