ALCOHOL ADVANTGE'S
#2
Junior Member
SHOW GUEST
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 1
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!
#3
Senior Member
RACING JUNKIE
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Coldwater, MI
Posts: 2,998
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
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
#6
Member
CRAFTSMAN
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 53
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?
#7
Senior Member
RACING JUNKIE
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Hobbs, NM
Posts: 842
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?
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.