Motor car / Fuel

[BigDogsWang]

If an average 4 cylinder family car were left to idle with a full tank of petrol, how long would it be before it ran out?

[naz_nomad]

Same length as a piece of string.

what c.c. engine?
what r.p.m.?
what temperature?
what altitute?


what's 'average'?

[TeeGee]

If the garage doors were shut, long enough !!!

[BigDogsWang]

say a 1.6 ford focus idling at 9000 on a warm day

[heathfield]

9000 rpm? That's way off the clock for most vehicles!

[whowhatwhy]

...must have meant an RX-7...

[kwicky]

The average idle revs is about 1000 rpm. If the cc of your engine is 1600 then for each minute the fuel used would be 1.6Kx1.0K xF where F is the amount of fuel injected during each rev.
If you divide this figure into the total capacity of your fuel tank it will give the number of minutes it will run for.

[kwicky]

You could use a more practical solution.
First empty the fuel tank. Then put in exactly 1 litre of petrol. Run the engine until it is all used up. Take the time it takes to run to empty. From your specifications regarding fuel tank capacity, say 60 litres, multiply this figure by the time taken to use up 1 litre and you get the result you require in minutes.
nb make sure the engine is at its operating temperature.