Methanol In Gas? - Performance Forum

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Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 7:52 AM
I can buy methanol at my work...How much (if any) can I mix with my gasoline. I assume it will give it more power seeing how explosive it is. and i assume i may need to run the highest octane possible.

would this work?

thanks,
Jeff


1993 Cavalier RS 3.1L
--yea beating honda is like saying you beat a retarded kid at a math test.

Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 8:31 AM
I don't know much about methanol but I don't think you can just dump it into a stock car and have it burn safely. Your car was designed to burn gasoline within a certain range, stick with that I think you will be better off until your cars fuel system is set up to run methanol.


<a href="http://www.liquidgeneration.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.liquidgeneration.com/quiz/images/villain_hannibal.jpg" border="0"></a>
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 8:48 AM
There is a shop in Cambridge Ontario who has developed a Methonal injection kit. It works off the throttle opening. so it won't be on all the time... only when you go full throttle. They have done it on a few cars and some J's.... apperently there haven't been any issues yet. Then kit last i spoke with them was around $1000 CDN. and the refills are like $2 lol (give or take) safer than nos... but not as much punch

wonder if its worth it?







Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 8:52 AM
Methanol isn't explosive.. its a higher octane than gas. Thats what we run in our sprint cars. It takes about 2x the amount of flow and you can run very high compression - we run 14.2:1 for most tracks, but we have a 15:1 motor for the big buck races.

Wanna go fast.. mix methanol with nitromethane





Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.


Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 12:13 PM
You cannot just put methanol in you tank. Methanol is very corrosive metals. You would have to probably redo you entire fuel system, and buy big enough injectors that are made to run on methanol.




275hp & 306tq - 1999 2.2 ohv
13.2 @ 108 mph
-1996 2.4 liter + Turbo + Built motor + Torco + More boost = Lots o' Power
-2000 Mustang GT + 2004 Cobra motor, Whipple 2.3 supercharger,
built rear-end,Dodge Viper spec T56 6 speed, bolt-ons = wheelies at the track!!!!!

Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 12:27 PM
Actually...methanol is mainly corrosive to the non-metal components of our present fuel systems - especially the rubber fuel lines. If you are going to run methanol, I wouldn't suggest it in a daily driven car - very very explosive and unsafe - especially if you have a leak from a corroded fuel line.

Plus, keep in mind that methanol is also highly toxic - a very small amount of methanol in your system can easily cause blindness and even death.

What you could do, is mix ethanol in your gas. It is not nearly as corrosive to our existing fuel system and is the next best thing to methanol, if you are leaning toward running alcohol. I wouldn't suggest running more than 10% ethanol by volume with the gas.

Good luck




Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 12:30 PM
Methanol is corroosive to metal. Do I need to show a pic of the inside of my charge pipe that has rust from methanol?




275hp & 306tq - 1999 2.2 ohv
13.2 @ 108 mph
-1996 2.4 liter + Turbo + Built motor + Torco + More boost = Lots o' Power
-2000 Mustang GT + 2004 Cobra motor, Whipple 2.3 supercharger,
built rear-end,Dodge Viper spec T56 6 speed, bolt-ons = wheelies at the track!!!!!

Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 12:45 PM
The reason why methanol "rusted" your charge pipe is because it is highly miscible with water. Gasoline is a complex mixture of many long carbon-chained molecules, making gas less miscible with water. If you add methanol, which is very miscible in water, you are essentially inviting more water to become dissolved within your fuel system because methanol will increase H20's solubility. So, the reason why you had "rusting" in your charge pipes was actually from water in your gas. Had you used some anti-rusting agents in your gas along with the methanol then you wouldn't have had a rusted charge pipe. Methanol doesn't rust metal, water does. Methanol is not an oxidizer.

All that said, ethanol would probably still be ok, but keep in mind how much you use will influence how much water can dissolve into the gas.




Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 12:48 PM
Also... I know you said charge pipes, but the same goes for with intake air+water when you add methanol




Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 1:32 PM
what about fuel for r/c cars i have 2 gallons lying around, do you think it will be a good additive? I dont think i would but, sounds like it would work, it is a mixture of several things though so some of them might not be compatible.

Mix of methenol, nitro, lubricants, s'mo stuff

any thoughts?



Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 4:06 PM
your fuel system is ment to run 14:1 on petrolium fuel. If change to a diferent fuel it may not run right at 14:1 so your computer will never beable to ajust fuel right. just buy good gas.




1979 Impala Sport Coupe Aeroback

Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 6:36 PM
i'm just wondering because i can get about 4L of methane for $10 (not methanol, thats alcohol/methane mix if im not mistaken) but i know like funny cars run methane so i'm just thinking i wonder if i mixed it how much power it would give. im only thinking a couple 100ml's every tank full, nothing too extreme. I just don't want to blow anything up trying.


1993 Cavalier RS 3.1L
--yea beating honda is like saying you beat a retarded kid at a math test.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 6:56 PM
after 20% you are asking for trouble, the lining of the gas tank is also subject to methane madness. 10% should raise the octane 3pts. i'd honestly look into propane injection--no it is not just for diesels.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 7:39 PM
You will cause damage to your fuel syst.not right away but soon enough if you run methanol.Where I work we have used it in hybrid diesel engines you have no idea how much has to be done to use methanol as fuel. stainless steel fuel tanks lines even the gaskets have to be rated to handle this stuff.If thats not enough if you did get a leak and it caught fire methanol burns clear in sun light so you could get burned badly.


Thats Him Officer The WICKED One.

Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 7:51 PM
i dont want to run straight methane....just mix it. I'm just thinking its a cheap 5HP or so


1993 Cavalier RS 3.1L
--yea beating honda is like saying you beat a retarded kid at a math test.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Friday, February 25, 2005 10:29 PM
unless you have high compression or need it to chill the a/f ratio on a turbo you will have (roughly) the same power or even lose a little. it burns slow--very slow.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Saturday, February 26, 2005 8:14 AM
Some people have put in moth balls, too. Most owners's manuals tell you to not use methanol. It is in some fuel system cleaners, but that would be very small amount when adding to a full tank.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Saturday, February 26, 2005 1:39 PM
Our gas already contains 10% ethanol around here. And E85 is available now. I might try that on one of my high compression carb cars to see how it runs..

http://www.e85fuel.com/faqs/e85.htm

other goodies..

http://www.goemerchant7.com/index.cgi?PageToView=catalog&Department=81051&Cartid=&Merchant=highfuelsn&ExpandedDepts=





Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.


Re: Methanol In Gas?
Saturday, February 26, 2005 1:58 PM
Hey 3point1rs,

Methane is a gas at room temperature, its formula is CH4

Methanol is a liquid at room temperature, its formula is CH3OH

They are separate chemicals, neither is a mix of the other, and there is a big difference between the two.

I've never heard of methane injection - but I have heard of propane injection. (Propane has a molecular formula of CH3CH2CH2OH) It would not be possible to mix methane with a liquid, as it would be like trying to mix air and water.

People use propane injection for safety and as a power-adder. Still, I would not mix methanol with gas, and I wouldn't try methane injection, as I've never heard of it being done before. Like I said earlier, you could mix ethanol (CH3CH2OH) with your gas, as it is already in some gas at pumps as RoboGeek said.

Oh, and the chemical in mothballs that would give power is called naphthalene.

My advice...stay away from methanol and methane, and I don't know what affect naphthalene would have on your fuel system. I would either stick to adding ethanol to your gas, trying propane injection (like injecting nitrous), or just stick to nitrous.




Re: Methanol In Gas?
Saturday, February 26, 2005 3:10 PM
ya i've heard of propane and kinda know a bit about it...i JUST sold a diesel golf so i was thinking about it for a while


1993 Cavalier RS 3.1L
--yea beating honda is like saying you beat a retarded kid at a math test.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Saturday, February 26, 2005 3:19 PM
Im going to laugh when one of the newbs reads this thread and blows themselves up trying to run propane injections in a gasoline car, or something like that.




Re: Methanol In Gas?
Sunday, February 27, 2005 4:35 AM
^^^ Actually propane works well in a FI gasoline engine, a few of the guys on clubgp run it on their GP's and it works great for them and it's a cheap setup. They can run a much smaller pulley on their supercharger without other supporting mods, it's like running 110 octane fuel all the time if it's setup properly. The same can be said for methanol, a few guys are running water injection setups and are using winter grade windsheild washer fluid as their sourse. We're actually discussing it right now on 3800tech.com water injection and there is some very good info there. For the most part this kind of a setup is only good for a FI engine.



Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore
raven@accesswave.ca
Raven Autosports
55 McQuade Lake Cres,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
(902) 850-3330
10.82@132
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Monday, February 28, 2005 7:00 AM
ever change the oil on one of those propane powered fleet cars, man that's clean stuff.
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Monday, February 28, 2005 7:23 AM
Thats the thing with them, it will scrub the insides of your engine everytime you use it. Carbon will never build up inside the engine.



Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore
raven@accesswave.ca
Raven Autosports
55 McQuade Lake Cres,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
(902) 850-3330
10.82@132
Re: Methanol In Gas?
Tuesday, March 01, 2005 1:38 PM
ok, i'm wrong, my work sells methanol not methane....thats better right? BUT, will it actually help. I found a megazine where they did windshield washer injection like was stated above. (just a coincidence i found the mag) and they got 91HP. windsheild washer fluid is used to cool down the intake temp if i'm not mistaken. it has methanol in it but thats not the reason they use it i dont think. what would be better windshield washer injection or methanol injection.

thanks,
Jeff


1993 Cavalier RS 3.1L
--yea beating honda is like saying you beat a retarded kid at a math test.
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