The Gun Counter

I was reading about the motor developed for Elio Motors and their three wheel car. ITA the designer of the motor states there is a market for the motor in third world countries for applications other than motor vehicles in the size the motor is. Apparently the large number of off the self components and the lowered cost of control chips make it a good choice for places where you can't get reliable electrical power. It is designed to run on "regular" gasoline.
So I'm wonder how available even crappy gas is in third world countries and countries where they tax gasoline heavily?
I see videos of Honda Super Cub scooters running everywhere so I guess they get gas for the things somewhere?
I figure you could filter for particulates and contaminates, rust and water mostly, but if you way out in the boonies can you get the gas to say run a water pump?

Jesse Pipeline

An old friend of mine was working in Lagos when this happened. The story then was they ruptured the pipeline, hundreds and hundreds of people swooped in to scavenge gasoline off the ground into containers, and then someone lit up a smoke.

It's apparently available, at least in some countries. Any kind of a scavenger safety program, however, seems not to be.

ETA- This appears to be a regular thing in Nigeria.

I have noticed in South America that infrastructure is a lynch pin for their supply chains . can be weeks in some areas with out things including fuel.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... stolen-oil

Diesel is much much more available.

In a pinch, diesel isn't too hard to make out of cooking oil/older mechanical diesels can be forced to work on filtered cooking oil

I remember back in ye ancient days a guy fixed up his car to run on casing head gas. This the light weight stuff that tend to float on top of the oil at a pump site. He set up a multiple filter system to get the particulates and water out of it (often salty water) If I remember correctly he had to de-tune it some to prevent detonation.

Back in the day tractors would start on gasoline, then switch over to run on well condensate or kerosene.

evan price wrote:Back in the day tractors would start on gasoline, then switch over to run on well condensate or kerosene.

I remember (faintly) my Grandfather's German-made 1930's tractor which was warmed up on gasoline then switched to kero, and "drip gas" from the gas wells on the property was blended into pump gas for the cars and pickups, road taxes be damned. Farm-use gas (no road taxes) was UNTOUCHABLE for road vehicles; the taxman kept a close eye on th fuel log.

Really, if you are talking about real third world, no resources motors, the diesel is the only way to go. No need for anything electric, will run on damn near anything flammable that can be poured in the tank, tolerant of poor quality lube oil and no maintenance.
Something like the Sabb model G marine motors, or the various agricultural motors in mini tractors and walk behinds. Hinomoto, Yanmar, Kubota, Mitsubishi, and their Chinese and Indian clones.

What evan price said. Something with an accessible flywheel (or other way to turn over the motor) and compression releases on the cylinders. George Buehler in Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding (fun book, good read) was all about those old marine diesels.