Fuel Methanol Composition Effects on Cold Starting

This paper documents the effects of primer composition and concentration on cold starting of 3.1L variable fuel vehicle (VFV) engines with fuel methanol. Primers were restricted to two commercially viable types: full boiling range gasolines and light isocrackate (LIC). Results show that cold starting performance improved with increasing pentane:butane ratio in fuels of equivalent RVP, and improved with increasing primer content. Cold starting performance showed an excellent correlation with vapor-air equivalence ratio (Ф_fv) and with initial liquid mass fraction of butanes and pentanes; the correlation between cold starting performance and fuel RVP was p.