What are the basic differences between gasoline, alcohol, nitromethane( used at the drag strip) and 20% or 30% nitromenthane (used in RC cars and trucks)?
What compression ratios do each "like"?
What characteristics do each have in terms of heat? For instance: I know alcohol typically runs cooler.
What power potential does each have in terms of volume? For instance: I know alcohol typically requires twice the amount to produce the same power as gas.
Dangers of each?

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67Cuda,FAST EZEFI,340cu,CR=10.25,RollerCam&Rocker (XR268HR,#20-810-9)(#1622-16)(EddyRPM#60779,#7576), (MSD6AL,#6425) A904, GearVendorsOD, 8 1/4,3.55:1, ClassicAir

Go hit Wikipedia — good articles on most of those fuels there.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Unless the track is running a nitro event, you will not be able to use the stuff.
Nitrous Oxide will a lot cheaper way to get more O2 into the engine, and you can use it pretty much anywhere.
We used to sell a nitro additive for two stroke motorcycles at the bike shop. This was thirty years ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on things. It was very expensive, and shortened a race engine's usefull life by a substantial amount.

CJ

Chad (Putzy?) .....ran Nitro in his street Volare back in the DOTCOM Daze Charlie or Dennis would remember . I seem to remember ring land failure......Florida.....

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Read this: http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel.html

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Joshua

Yeah, he was using the Price Fuels additive and not following the directions. Crushed the top land on 6 pistons.

Nitro itself is not legal to run in any class except Top Fuel, Fuel Coupe, and A/Dragster.

Lots of guys have been trying E-85 (ethanol) as a cheaper alternative to race gas. Results have been pretty good. Just like methanol you have to modify the carb for it.

Methanol makes a lot of torque, and will tend to make a well set up car very consistant. It does have some handling issues, but not nearly as many as some people let on. It is more corrosive than ethanol, but is not really a big deal.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I may have lead you to believe that I was planning something for the track and I was, but it was a different type of track. A garden tractor pulling track.
It seems that the same fuel principles would applie to most any internal combustion engine.
I am going to a farm show in a few weeks and though I might pickup a couple 7hp rebuildable engine to play with.
I read the entire link that was provided and correct me if I wrong. I should beable to run Nitromethane with a stock CR provided I can feed it enough fuel. The same with methanol except I would need to increase CR to really utilize its properties. Also advance timing quite a bit for either one. Yes?

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67Cuda,FAST EZEFI,340cu,CR=10.25,RollerCam&Rocker (XR268HR,#20-810-9)(#1622-16)(EddyRPM#60779,#7576), (MSD6AL,#6425) A904, GearVendorsOD, 8 1/4,3.55:1, ClassicAir

If you can get enough fuel in and get it lit, low compression will work. Nitro will be very hard to start with low squeeze though, you'll have to start on gasoline and switch over. It will take a good igniton to keep it lit. Nitro will put the plug out and then bad things happen.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

It's tough to run alky or nitro in most carbs as the internal passages simply aren't large enough to pass the volume of fuel needed. Your best bet is probably to up the compression and get an alcohol carb like they use for Jr Dragsters. If the compression isn't too high you could add a little nitro to the alky. Heck, I'd probably try an alky carb on a stock motor and use 25% nitro model engine fuel.

BTW, you need a billet flywheel. Cast iron flywheels can come apart and kill or maim you or bystanders. With just a small magnet in the flywheel and a pickup coil you can run HEI.

Check out this page for all kinds of ignition system info including HEI for single cylinder engines.

http://gardentractorpullingtips.com/ignition.htm

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Joshua

I figured I'd be running a different carb setup for this.
That link is great. Its also got very good pictures of wiring up the HEI and Mopar ignition modules. One that I not totally clear on is when using a HEI module the 2500 rpm (5000rpm with distributor) limit on some modules. Was that a govenor built in to some of the modules? Any one know of a stock module that will handle 18,000 rpm (9000 real)?
It would also seem very beneficail if I could find a multiple discharge system like the MSD to run with the nitro.

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67Cuda,FAST EZEFI,340cu,CR=10.25,RollerCam&Rocker (XR268HR,#20-810-9)(#1622-16)(EddyRPM#60779,#7576), (MSD6AL,#6425) A904, GearVendorsOD, 8 1/4,3.55:1, ClassicAir

You can easily substitute MSD for the HEI, Ford or Chrysler ignition module. The biggest chore is making up a good rigid mount for the pickup and putting the magnet or stud in the flywheel.

The RPM limit with an HEI module is bases on the number of times the coil has to be switched per second. If the practical RPM limit is 5000 RPM with a V8 then it would be 10k with a 4 cylinder and 40k with a single.

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Joshua

The MSD 6AL box I have advertises multiable spark for 20* of crack rotation. Even if I setup the box for a 4 cylinder (4,6,8) wouldn't I get 80* of multiable spark on a single cylinder? Hummm... some reason I was thinking I'd get so much multiable spark that it might still be give multiable sparks on into the beginning of the intake stroke, but just typing this now I see thats not likely.
If I wanted to use the rev limiter built in I have to use a 2500 rpm chip with the box set to 4 cylinder to get a 10,000 rpm limit......Or would it be a 5000 rpm chip?....because I'd be using a waste spark setup?
Waste spark plus 80*. You think thats still far enough away from the intake stroke? Intake valves generally start to open a little before BDC on the exhaust stroke, right?

edit:
"In a multi-cylinder, distributor-fired engine, like in the automotive L4, L6, V6 and V8 engines, the GM module only works half the time. It doesn't fire on the exhaust strokes of these engines. Therefore, an ordinary stock module will allow an automotive engine to rev up to just 5,000 rpm, and no higher. But when used for a single or twin cylinder small engine with the crank trigger ignition, the GM module will fire every revolution of the crankshaft, on the compression stroke and the exhaust stroke. This means it must perform "double duty," in which the tiny resistor inside a plain, stock module can't react quick enough at higher rpms. So the engine shuts down at 2,500 rpm."

Does this statement seemed flawed? V8's have to produce 4 times as many sparks as a single cylinder waste spark system would.

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67Cuda,FAST EZEFI,340cu,CR=10.25,RollerCam&Rocker (XR268HR,#20-810-9)(#1622-16)(EddyRPM#60779,#7576), (MSD6AL,#6425) A904, GearVendorsOD, 8 1/4,3.55:1, ClassicAir

Oops. I forgot about the waste spark so for a single cylinder cut the RPM limit in 1/2 to 20k RPM.

Read the MSD instructions. You cut a loop of wire to configure the analog boxes for different numbers of cylinders so the rev limiter chips work as printed. Otherwise cutting the number of cylinders in 1/2 would double the RPM listed on the chip. Also, that 20° of sparks is constant regardless of the number of cylinders, but only happens at low speeds with 8 cylinders so I would expect that the multiple sparks would work to a higher RPM on engines with fewer cylinders.

The HEI module doesn't work 1/2 the time, but a crank trigger having as many trigger points as cylinders the module is triggered twice as often per revolution as with a distributor. The limit isn't revolutions per minute, but spark per minute.

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Joshua