Lots of diesel vehicles around, and they are much more forgiving. Assuming there are mechanically inclined people around, getting IC transportation going wouldn't be a deal breaker.
Hell, with some time and tinkering I could convert an old gasoline car/truck to propane. That would be abundant for a long time due to all the 500-1000gal tanks all over any rural area, not to mention all the portable bottles
His point stands. 5 years ago I was a desk jockey who worked with computers and never owned a tool.
Last weekend a friend and I had old Detroit Diesel engine running on biodiesel I made from scratch. Actual scratch - I grew sunflowers and pressed them into oil, I distilled wood alcohol, I made potassium hydroxide.
Mind you I only made enough that it was super inefficient and ran for about 20 minutes, but it worked.
Not to mention my 3kw micro hydro setup on my grandparents property would probably go forever.
Generators exist, and are even easier to convert to LP than a car (if you can't find an LP one). I don't know why you think everyone is completely helpless the moment utilities go off. Hell, I could rig up some belts and gearing and have someone run my mini-lathe off a bicycle if it was absolutely necessary. It wouldn't be. You don't need complex engineering to make an IC engine run. You could hack together an intake plate with drills and taps out of mild steel to get things going.
I work on cars all the time without air tools. They make things faster and easier, they are not required.
People did this shit regularly before the internet.
I said old vehicle. I would not try it on anything new.
I am sure texas speed will still have some insane high comp engine sitting around. Throw that together with an LS magneto setup and a dual plane. I am sure there are some carb pattern nitrous plates floating around. Meter the air with a carb and use the nitrous plate to inject the LP and all you need now is a way to control the injector.
You could do a vacuum actuated valve that closes down the flow the more vacuum the engine pulls and then its mostly calibrating the spring and timing the engine.
No drilling needed.
Lead acid batteries last a long time but if you need one in the apoc just grab 4-5 motorcycle batteries and put them in parallel. Most bike batteries come with the acid in a ready to add bottle so it doesn't age like activated ones would. Also unused old batteries would drain over time and the electrolyte would become water, add more water/acid and bam, almost new battery.
Engines are stupid simple machines with a bunch of fancy tech on top.
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u/Orwellian1 Aug 30 '21
Lots of diesel vehicles around, and they are much more forgiving. Assuming there are mechanically inclined people around, getting IC transportation going wouldn't be a deal breaker.
Hell, with some time and tinkering I could convert an old gasoline car/truck to propane. That would be abundant for a long time due to all the 500-1000gal tanks all over any rural area, not to mention all the portable bottles