Playing with Methanol...

Gold TX Sleeper · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Posts: 509

I just got given 4 litres of methanol from the fuel delivery guy at work for free (i work in a servo). He told me to put it to good use, but couldn't tell me if it was o.k to mix it with premium as he wasn't clued up on this type of fuel. Has anyone here mixed it before ? I was under the impression that it was a reasonably harsh fuel on the engines (and carbys) internals, and required a rinse after use to flush it from the fuel sytem. I'm a novice when it comes to this type of fuel, and no one at work can advise me on what to do/expect. I was thinking of running about 15-20 litres of premium mixed with a litre of the methanol in the tank. And advancing my dizzy about 5 degrees, to see if anything happened. But want to avoid hand grenading my engine before i do anything. Can anyone help me out or fill me in on the right way to go about mixing it, and if advancing the timing is beneficial (i assume so). Pro's & con's - that sort of thing...
Cheers,
Jasyn...
P.S sorry about all the query's but my engines life could be on the chopping block if i dont know any of this stuff.

Mooch · backyard mechanic Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 573

you'll need to double the size of your carby jets. You'll burn twice as much methanol as you would standard fuels. our motor will run extremely cold, to the extent that in the morning you make have ice form on your manifold. When you back of the throttle you'll see flames from your exhaust.

Dont know about mixing but i wouldnt try.

Thats all i know hope its some help.....

Mooch

bill · rice boy Joined: 13 May 2002 Posts: 44

Jasyn I found a little bit on the web that I pasted below. it seems like a 10% mix (by volume i guess) would be about right but it should be premixed. It looks like it might be most effective when you're running high compression to make use of the extra 'octane rating' it adds (and because of that you shouldn't have to worry about hand grenading your engine thru detonation.) I think you could advance the timing by 'suck it and see' to find what is optimum. Methanol is a fairly inert solvent in terms of what it will encounter in an engine(not corrosive, won't dissolve or harden seals etc), but it will come with a % of water (from 5-20% that isn't removed in the distillation process). Probably best to drive with a tank of straight petrol afterwards. If someone drinks it, it will send them blind so it's always good to know the cure for it - drink a couple of glasses of their fav spirit and get em to a hospital!
Sorry for the long post.
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The use of Methanol enables a power increase to be obtained by the simple act of using a higher compression ratio and in fact with 10 percent the ratio can be increased by 1.5.

That is to say an engine running on 10 to 1 on petrol can now, by the use of 10 percent Methanol, run on a ratio of 11.5 to 1 provided, and we stress this point, steps are taken to enable the fuel rate of flow to be increased by a figure of 1.125 minimum, or put another way, the jet diameter increased by that amount on the diameter.

In each case, that is either Nitromethane or Methanol used as an additive, the mixture should be premixed and not just supplied to the tank relying on mixing taking place by accident as it were.

Sparrow · tinkerer Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 171

wanna donate some this way Smile

TXcoupe · petrol head Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 1675

hmm i heard it does dissolve alloy's but seeing them run it in T/D i would recommend running in a gemini. i remeber reading somewhere that they ran a datto 1200 ute on various fuel and they picked up 30hp by running str8 methanol. and nearly 80hp by using nitro

Gold TX Sleeper · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Posts: 509

Thanks mate, you're a champy champ. U too Mooch, thanx for your input...
Looks like i'm gonna have to wait until i get the fuel system sorted before i can start to play with this stuff. Pity, i was looking forward to it. I've got a customer that claims he can get 20 litre drums of Avgas for me for approx. $20-$25. I might have to look into getting hold of that instead, as the meth seems a little wild for my current set-up at the moment.
Cheers again,
Jasyn...

redgem · tinkerer Joined: 17 Apr 2002 Posts: 368

if u want to just try and see how ur gem goes on methanol just try it, i'd say use 1L metho to 10 L premium, if u want to mix it, and then u can save the left over 3 litres for another day...my mate has a turbo 6 skyline, he went and bought 20L of methanol the first day he got his car and put it all in his tank... and turbo's are low compression, and he didn't change the jets or anything and his car went hard, it beat a brand new 200sx and many other cars on the first night draggin in the city... i would say if you only got 4 L....just try it and see
remember higher octane is better for ur engine(u should already know that seems u work at a servo) so running on methonal only 4 times....and mixing it into premium should be fine

redgem · tinkerer Joined: 17 Apr 2002 Posts: 368

if u want to just try and see how ur gem goes on methanol just try it, i'd say use 1L metho to 10 L premium, if u want to mix it, and then u can save the left over 3 litres for another day...my mate has a turbo 6 skyline, he went and bought 20L of methanol the first day he got his car and put it all in his tank... and turbo's are low compression, and he didn't change the jets or anything and his car went hard, it beat a brand new 200sx and many other cars on the first night draggin in the city... i would say if you only got 4 L....just try it and see
remember higher octane is better for ur engine(u should already know that seems u work at a servo) so running on methonal only 4 times....and mixing it into premium should be fine

spud · petrol head Joined: 05 Apr 2002 Posts: 1106

i wouldnt be so quick to use the stuff. it doesnt work the same way as regular fuels. the avgas isnt a problem cause it works the same way as regular.also i find it hard to belive someone ran straigt meth fuel in a standard engine.
spud

IDAREU2 · tinkerer Joined: 07 Oct 2001 Posts: 423

SPUDGUN

your right you cant just wack methonal into a car and have it run someone is talking shit you need special methonal carbys to run the stuff and as far as a injected motor well i spose you would have to up the injectors to allow it to spray with methonal fuels.. your engine just will not over heat because of the volosity of the fuel it runs so cold and it needs 13 to 1 and higher to use it.. and if left in the fuel lines when not using the car for a week or more turns to a jelly cosistancy and is a pain in the arse to clean..

cheers