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-   -   ALCOHOL ADVANTGE'S (https://www.racingjunk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24342)

JEFF69Z28 05-22-2009 04:59 AM

ALCOHOL ADVANTGE'S
 
WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE TO RUNNING ALCOHOL VERSE'S GASOLINE.
WHAT WOULD ONE NEED TO SWITCH OVER?

fast01 05-25-2009 02:37 AM

Well, for our purposes, alcohol has a high octane rating. Using the (RON+MON)/2 method (the number you see at the pump) alcohol comes up at 99.5 for ethanol and 99 for methanol. This allows us to run higher compression than you normally would with a gasoline engine and compression is power! As an added bonus, alcohol burns much cooler than gasoline further aiding in detonation resistance. In fact some drag only cars that run alcohol will completely fill the water jackets with Hard Block and don't run a cooling system at all! On the green side of things, alcohol burns very clean thus reducing tailpipe emissions. Of course with the good comes a price. Alcohol is extremely corrosive, so care must be taken when selecting fuel delivery components. A standard Holley carburetor requires a good deal of modification to run alcohol. Alcohol only contains about 63% of the energy that gasoline does, so we have to run almost double the amount of fuel. Alcohol will not ignite with a spark from the ignition system, so cars running 100% alcohol must be primed with a more volatile substance in order to start, hence E85, 85% alcohol, 15% gasoline. Well that's all I can think of for now, but I hope it helps!

hammertime 05-25-2009 05:45 AM

more upside to alky then gas for me have ran both and back on alky for the last 6 years.

runs cooler, more consistant and changes less in big weather swings for drag racing. Most the time its also faster *how much depends on how good your gas is*
lots of topics under carbs on this subject

Tod74 05-25-2009 06:20 AM

The first two answers to this post reminds me of "Sanford and Son"
where the white COP would tell Fred and Lamont something . then the black COP would translate. :)

MEMRACING62 05-25-2009 06:23 AM

:lol: :lol:

LuckyDawgRacing 05-25-2009 10:24 AM

not to steal the thread but my car does change alot thru the rds. on alky and I do run it lean. Question-is it because its run lean that it speeds up so much thru the rds. or am I missing something? Maybe by running it a little fatter it will be more consistant?

dparker 05-25-2009 10:33 AM


Originally Posted by LuckyDawgRacing
not to steal the thread but my car does change alot thru the rds. on alky and I do run it lean. Question-is it because its run lean that it speeds up so much thru the rds. or am I missing something? Maybe by running it a little fatter it will be more consistant?

Racing fuel you run lean to stay consistant and alcohol you run fat to stay consistant.
The reason alcohol stays consistant as the air gets better is because most of the time as the air gets better the humidity goes up at the same time. Alcohol doesn't like humidity, so eventhough the air is better, the humidity is up, makes it a wash. Therefore ET stays the same.

LuckyDawgRacing 05-25-2009 11:35 AM

that was an excellent explanation. how about if yu run the mix a little fatter, does that slow the et or does that depend on the air?

dparker 05-25-2009 01:14 PM

Running a fatter doesn't slow you down much with alcohol, but your just gona start milking your oil. Kinda like antifreeze anything over a 50/50 mix doesn't help much.

oldandtired 05-26-2009 06:19 AM

Note that alcohol has a shorter "shelf life" in your fuel system. Maintenance is manditory.
Dave


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