Methonal

[Dean Stillie]

Anyone using methenol in their race car?
Can you answer me a question?
How often do you have to change the engine oil when running this fuel, end of each race day? The fuel empty out after use, any other things ?

[altered7151]

We ran alcohol in our super-comp altered, we didn't empty the oil after every race, especially if we knew we would be racing again soon, We would pump all the fuel out of the lines though, which only took a couple minutes. But I also live in a very dry area so there is not as much moisture in the air here as there would be say back east. If it was going to be more then a few week for the next race, or winter storage, then you should drain the oil. We didn't seem to have too much problem with the fuel contaminating the oil, but the car was not a forced induction car either, which I'm told makes a big difference. I've worked on a couple blown fuel/alcohol cars and the oil was changed after every run, especially on the nitro car (nothing quite like the smell of hot oil contaminated with nitromethane!! ) Another thing we found that seemed to help is desicant packs that screwed into the sparkplug holes, you can get them from Eastwood, we always pulled the plugs after every race and put those in, and never had a problem with moisture/rust in the cylinders.

[turbometh]

I am thinking about running my CSX-T on methanol, I use methanol in my 360c.i. Sprint Car. I change the oil after every race night. I do not use a special oil, I have a sponser from the local parts store so I use their generic 20w-50. My machinist/engine builder use to use the green kendall. With that oil I could go two race nights before changing. They quite making that so he told me to just run any 20w-50 and change it every night.
At the end of the night we run the car, I shut off the fuel and when the engine dies we pull the plugs and push the car while in gear to clean out the cylinders, Back at the shop (2 or 3 day later) when we change the oil it is very saturated with alcohol and moisture.(it is white in color) The motor is mechanical injected. If I dont race for a couple of weeks I disconnect all fuel lines and spray them out and removed pump and clean it and also spray lube into the barrell valve. The injector nozzles get cleaned weekly.
I race an average of 20 nights a year. Turn the motor 8,400 rpm. It makes about 635 hp and when I freshen the motor every year the internal parts show NO wear. I could reuse all the bearings and rings if I wanted too.
also wanted to note that my a/f ratio is about 4.5:1

[Dean Stillie]

That is too cool.
I have alot of other things to do this winter maybe by the end of next season I'll switch over and try it out.
Here's another page for anyone interested in Methanol to read....
http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel2.html