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  #1  
Old 05-03-2004, 03:30 PM
Philip Philip is offline
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Default Pure Water?

Hi all,
finally got the blower running on my engine, still tuning, waiting for some reasonable weather. Anyhow, when I come to use the water injection is there any reason to put in Methanol? Carn't it just be run on distilled water? The reason i ask is I am vertually unable to find any supplier locally for Methanol, I dont want to have to get it mail order or to travel too far. Ive tried Model shops, chemical suppliers, etc, no joy,
Phil
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  #2  
Old 05-03-2004, 07:00 PM
hotrod hotrod is offline
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Default water will work

Water will work, the alcohol improves charge cooling some as it evaporates quicker in the intake tract, provides a bit of energy as a fuel, and prevents freezing.

If you have no issue with freezing you should get by just fine on straight water. Some of the Buick Grand National folks here in the U.S. use drug store rubbing alcohol either straight or mixed with water.

As long as you stick with mixtures that are compatible with your pump, and such you can use most any alcohol.

Not sure about in the UK, but here in the U.S. one of the cheapest sources is a dealer that supplies race gas. If you have any race series over there that runs alcohol fuels, try talking to the guys that run in that series, they will know where to find it.

I did a quick search on drag racing in the UK and methanol and found these links that might give you a starting point.

http://www.turnerracing.com/
http://www.automotive-links.com/mot/dra/drg.htm
Methanol is also used by electronics manufactures to clean soldering resin off PC boards ( or at least they used to) so you might also touch base with any electronics supply outlet and see if they sell it.

Larry
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Old 05-03-2004, 07:07 PM
TargeT TargeT is offline
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windshield whiper fluid(the blue kind) is a good solution for you, its a water/alch mix and is commonly avalible(the lower temp it is rated for, the higher the alcohol content), dont get stuck just looking for Methanol, there are many many substitues (rubbing alch is one example)
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Old 05-03-2004, 08:42 PM
Philip Philip is offline
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Thanks for that, I never use the car in the winter, no roof! Whats Rubbing Alch? Never heard of that! I did read that someone was using Methalated Spirits but I don't know if its compatible with Vitron seals. I will have a look at the websites, thanks, and have a look for some windscreen fluid
Phil
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  #5  
Old 06-03-2004, 01:11 AM
hotrod hotrod is offline
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Default alcohols

Methalated spirits is what we in the U.S. call denatured alcohol. Its ethanol the same alcohol you find in beer, and other spirits, but is made not fit for human consumption by adding some methanol or some other "denaturant".

Rubbing alcohol is usually isopropyl alcohol, and is the alcohol you find in the store or at the druggist in the first aid / medical supplies. It is the alchohol usually used to disinfect or is sometimes used to treat a severe fever by adding it to the water used to help cool the patient. It has the charactistic "medical smell" you find in a doctors office, as it is usually the alcohol used to swab a patients arm just before giving them an injection.

Viton is good with ethanol, and isopropal alcohols, so would be fine with methalated spirits or rubbing alcohol. Its marginal with methanol, and not recommended with acetone.

Larry
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Old 06-03-2004, 02:16 PM
Philip Philip is offline
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Thanks Larry,
Ive heard of Isopropy Alcohol, that should be easy enough to get hold of I would have thought, as should Methelated spirits,
Phil
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Old 06-03-2004, 06:14 PM
Charged Performance Charged Performance is offline
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Just watch out for all the components in these ethanol/methanol mixed solutions and make sure they are compatible with your system components.

On the windshield fluid solutions. Be careful of gumming by the detergents. At the jet tip as water and methanol evaporate from the tip the detergent is left behind and can gum and clog the jet. Smaller jets are affected more easily by this than larger ones - of course smaller jets will block more easily from all causes than larger ones. Blocked jet detection is truly a requirement if you are going to use these as injectables as well as frequent maintenance and cleaning of the jets.

For any system a pressure gauge before the jet and after the valve is the best way to test for blocked jets. If you see a pressure rise above normal while water injection is engaged you have a blocked jet.

Aquamist has the added benefit of an available flow meter - if your flow is below a range there is a blockage and the flow meter will provide a digital output to warn or cause other electronics to respond.
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Old 23-03-2004, 12:53 AM
Warren_from_PINZ Warren_from_PINZ is offline
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Just a quick note which might help. When cleaning audio tape heads (I used to be a studio engineer) we were told that methanol would dry out the capstan pinch roller (rubber) so we used isopropyl instead. So methanol might give problems with rubber components over time.
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