Was wandering if EMP's would be an issue?if so, older non electronic system BOV's would make more since, but what about a super beetle with suspencion mod and roof rack.

Just read up on EMP's on the NDLSE forum and it might not be that much of a concern, but still what about the bug.

I'm not sure about it mechanically or anything, but I'd give you props for using a super beetle as a BOV, it'd be cool!

In all seriousness, yeah, EMPs don't seem like that much of a threat, you can also look into diesel. My father ran a diesel suburban for a couple hours w/o an alternator, batteries died, it wouldn't shift out of first or second (25mph, automatic, go standard!) but it got him where he was going.

Okay, I hope this won't cost me my guy card (it's already been reduced to probationary!), but how can a diesel run without an alternator or battery? How does it ignite the fuel?

The fuel is compressed by the piston in the engine cylinder at the top of the stroke and this ignites the fuel due to the temperature rise of the compression stroke. But you still need a battery to initially turn the engine over to get the diesel cycle to start unless of course your vehicle has hand cranking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_cycle

My uncle (RAF) used to have a VW Beetle and used to refer to it as the 'Nazi Hairdryer on Wheels'.

Huh! I did not know that. Mucho danke!

Right, so on the previously mentioned trip, my father started out with a working alternator, it failed, then he depleted the significant reserve of battery he had (the truck has two car batteries in it) and eventually was running with little or no electricity (I say little because maybe the alternator was running at some diminished capacity, but I do not know). Frankly, despite the fact that diesels don't in theory need glow plugs runnings, etc, I figured it wouldn't run w/o the computer system operating and I thought the truck had electric fuel injectors, but I guess I was wrong about both. Don't misunderstand, it ran terribly, but it ran. He was actually towing a boat, so it ran well enough to tow a boat to his destination at an extremely reduced speed.

I'd say perhaps the best BOV solution if you're THAT worried about EMP would be an old small diesel w/mechanical fuel injections and a standard transmission. You could, in theory, pop start this, but due to the higher compression in a diesel it'll be harder than w/a gas automobile.

So I'd never thought about that story very hard before, but unless I'm misunderstanding something my father must have had enough current to run the DS4 Electric Injection pump fitted on the '97 6.5 liter diesel. If you found an early 90s (90, 91, and 92, I think) 6.5 liter it should have a mechanical injection pump.

I don't know much about cars, so, please someone who does, please feel free to correct anything I've said about them!

Compu - You may find this interesting as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieseling

Thanks!

At this rate, I may get that "probationary" taken off my guy card!