Thread: Where to start
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Old 02-05-2007, 11:05 AM
hotrod hotrod is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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I had not been in the motorcycle forum for a while and did not realize it was dead -- probably right but you will get more views here for sure.

That page does not really counterdict other recommendations as much as give a more balanced view on the choice of alcohols.

In high injection levels methanol can lead to pre-ignition, that is one of the reasons most people standardized on a 50/50 mix of water and methanol 50 years ago.

For all practical purposes in WI applications Methanol and Ethanol are interchangable from the point of the engine. In WWII fighters and bombers they found that the two alcohols could be substituted for each other with no changes in tuning. At that time they were staying away from ethanol to avoid problems with human consumption for one thing. It (ethaol) was used in U.S. Navy torpedos as a fuel and keeping it out of the sailors was a problem. Also back then they were not as concerned with its toxic issues as we are today. There is a problem with using ethanol in some water injection system simply because of the choice of seals used in the pumps etc. That is the case with Aquamist, the race pump was developed with Methanol in mind, and at that time fuel ethanol was not widely available.

I use methanol in my home built system simply because I can buy fuel grade methanol for significantly less money and hassle than I can fuel grade ethanol. The only place I can buy fuel grade ethanol is a considerable drive but it costs not much more than the methanol that I can buy on the way to fuel the car at a local race shop.

Isopropyl alcohol works fine if the system is tuned for it but it needs a different tune than either Methanol or Ethanol so is not as interchangable. On the other hand it is very easily availble almost anywhere in the drug stores and grocery stores for 50 cents a bottle. That makes it very desirable for some folks and the Buick GN crowd seems to favor it for that reason.


As you say, engines are engines and in terms of basic applications there should be no difference. I was assuming that some of the motorcycle folks could give you a leg up on combinations and injection rates that are already proven to work in the small displacement and high reving engines.

Larry
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