Methanol Vs E85

[Super_Dude]

I've been thinking about fuel for my rb30. I was going to go e85 but we can't get it at the pumps where I'm at. I was going to ship it by the barrel, fill up for races(time attack, drag, HPDE, etc), and use pump gas for the street.

BUT! If I'm going to be shipping fuel and making an alcohol safe fuel system, why not use methanol? According to my math, even at 75/25 meth-to-pump it should make more power than E85. It should also run cooler, be easier to find (lots of drag cars here,) and be cheaper.

Anybody gone done this road before?

Interesting fact- in china, where corn is expensive, flex fuel vehicles run M85!

[Super_Dude]

Nobody has any experience? I keep looking around and all I'm finding is a lot of bs about methanol being dangerous and toxic. It's actually less dangerous and toxic than gasoline.

I think the only reason it isn't used is because Injectors large enough to use methanol and still idle and run normal only recently became available. (id2000)

Unless someone has a good reason not to do it I'm gonna give it a shot.

[Stock e-Tune]

I can add that buying E85 at the pump will only give many inconsistent results.

Preferred race fuel is C16 or Aviation fuels as they prove to be more stable throughout the year.

As for Power, Methanol makes a bigger bang but more costly to obtain. You will require some form of license in most developed countries.

[Super_Dude]

No liscence needed here and it's much cheaper than race gas. it's about 1$/l compared to 1.50$ for e85, 4$+ for race gas.

[rob82]

I've been thinking about fuel for my rb30. I was going to go e85 but we can't get it at the pumps where I'm at. I was going to ship it by the barrel, fill up for races(time attack, drag, HPDE, etc), and use pump gas for the street.

BUT! If I'm going to be shipping fuel and making an alcohol safe fuel system, why not use methanol? According to my math, even at 75/25 meth-to-pump it should make more power than E85. It should also run cooler, be easier to find (lots of drag cars here,) and be cheaper.

Anybody gone done this road before?

Interesting fact- in china, where corn is expensive, flex fuel vehicles run M85!

What is the engine built for? Compression, expected boost, is it intercooled, what is the injector location?

Edited January 18, 2011 by rob82

[STATUS]

I can add that buying E85 at the pump will only give many inconsistent results.

Preferred race fuel is C16 or Aviation fuels as they prove to be more stable throughout the year.

As for Power, Methanol makes a bigger bang but more costly to obtain. You will require some form of license in most developed countries.

Pump e85 is fine provided you tune for the variations. We can match c16 but @ $1 a litre....

[Super_Dude]

It's an rb30 with 8.7 compression, intercooled, factory location injectors, and as much boost as a EFR8374 can safely throw at it.

[tridentt150v]

If you are talking about E85 vs meth, why not go WMI? You get pretty much the same power boost as you would when tuning for E85 and the methanol cooler running = the best of both worlds. And you won't use much unless you are boosting, don't need huge injectors, can run on pump fuel everywhere, don't need to upgrade any fuel lines or systems and there are some great packages out there for it. Plus you can vary the amount of meth by juggling with nozzle sizes and multiple nozzles. It is on tap just waiting for you to boost it!

As an example I used probably 100-150ml in 400km of highway driving and I have a 3.5 litre reservoir. I know that when you race with it it is used heaps more, but you can top up between laps etc.

And mixed 50/50 WM in a container is pretty much inert.

[Rolls]

One bad thing I've seen with methanol is it burns with almost invisible flames, though E85 could be the same.

All those burnout cars that run it seem to set their tyres and half the track alight though. I also saw an evo with big cams shooting 1m flames on the overrun after it supposedly had been tuned, whether this was the car or the fuel I do not know.

Anyone know more ?

Edited January 20, 2011 by Rolls

[SimonR32]

One bad thing I've seen with methanol is it burns with almost invisible flames, though E85 could be the same.

All those burnout cars that run it seem to set their tyres and half the track alight though. I also saw an evo with big cams shooting 1m flames on the overrun after it supposedly had been tuned, whether this was the car or the fuel I do not know.

Anyone know more ?

The 15% fuel in the methanol would cause the flame to be visible

[GTRNUR]

BoostedR's build data from the -5 vs GTRS thread

I have built a RB31/26DETT 824hp -engine hp

264 9.8 HKS

Tomei Dumps

3" x 2 (no mufflers)

530ft lb @ 2800rpm

22psi max

Garrett -10's

Ported std manifolds

BP98 with 10% methanol

Motec

That result proves you can lean on the engine a lot more with just 10% methanol. A water/meth injection setup would produce a similar result.

[Super_Dude]

I have an aquamist hfs-6 on the car right now. It works good but won't give the same performance as mixing meth. It's also something else to break at the track.

The 15% gasoline is supposed to add color to the flame also. I might try a 50/50 mix and move up from there.