Thread: when should one run Alcohol ?

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What are the pros and cons of using alcohol? Can you use it with Nitrous?

Pro:
You can wash your hands in it before you make a sandwich.
Motor runs cooler due to higher latent heat of evaporation over gas.
Will support high compression without detonation.

Con:
Very corrosive to fuel delivery system. Will eat rubber and some other materials, must use stainless for problem-free installation.
Methanol is used at about 6:1 air/fuel ratio, so it takes about twice as much to make the same BTU's as gasoline at 12:1.
Ethanol is used at about 9:1.
In the daylight, you can't see alcohol flames. So if you're on fire, you don't know it until it starts hurting.
Car will be harder to start without some other highly-combustible substance being introduced into the the injector/carb/manifold at initial startups.

Yes, you can use nitrous with alcohol.

That will get us started, others will have more info......

its cheaper, there was a guy here using it to just run 10's and 11's for fun. and them alkie carbs sure are weird. 4 floats and needle and seats ! motor cooling is never an issue, go touch the hat of a blown car after a pass cold as ice and has a nice layer of frost on top of it. 1st time i ever saw that i was completely blown away. most guys use stainless braided line. the guy who runs 10's with it had a holley blue but it never worked for him, so he switched to a cam driven enderle/hillborn style pump.

We run on E-90--our own brew from pump E-85 and a supply of E100 from a "benafactor" at an ethanol plant. Same issues as running methanol with the seals and all but it has 114 octane and is a whole lot cheaper then race gas. We can run higher compression and have no heating issues. It does take a bit more fuel as Tech said. All in all we're real pleased with it and will be sticking with it again this year.

Personally I think it should only be used in social situations where warranted. Drinking alone, especially to excess, means you should find your local AA chapter. Having to use nitrous in addition to alcohol probably means that you're hanging around with severely unfunny people.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Personally I think it should only be used in social situations where warranted. Drinking alone, especially to excess, means you should find your local AA chapter. Having to use nitrous in addition to alcohol probably means that you're hanging around with severely unfunny people.

Well by golly I think I'm qualified then!!!!!! Think I'll go check out some Nitrous systems for the 'maro, heck we have an IHRA track now too!!!!!

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Personally I think it should only be used in social situations where warranted. Drinking alone, especially to excess, means you should find your local AA chapter. Having to use nitrous in addition to alcohol probably means that you're hanging around with severely unfunny people.

One small dissagreement with Bob's post. Mix N02 and alcohol at a party and the people partaking in it....well, they are funny as hell.....especially when the stupid stuff starts happening....just don't forget to call 911.....