alcohol fueled

[Norman]

I'm bored and thinking today I'll try to run the bike on methanol fuel just for grins. I'll mainly be drilling out the main jet and if I need to adjusting the needle I'm going to use a syn/Castor oil mix at 32 to 1. I don't expect to be able to go any faster but I do know I'll be burning more fuel the big draw back is the alcohol with attack the aluminum parts and probably attack the seals so after playing with the alcohol I'll need to drain the alcohol and run gas through it with the main jet drilled to alcohol it will run pretty sorry on gas if at all so I may just drain the float bowl and inject it with some wd-40 and pull the plug and pedal it around to clear it of the alcohol. Well I got to call Ilikeabikea so he can join in the festivities.
I don't recommend anyone doing this to their bikes as the alcohol fuel will eat up your engine. After I find the right size mainjet dia. I could run the $15.00 to $20.00 a gallon model fuel with nitro and burn it right to heck up.

 

[Norman]

Here is what I've found so far with the methanol fuel.
I've drilled the main jet to 0.067
needle clip on the richest setting
engine still runs lean.
I think to make this work properly I'd have to enlarge the float seats port as I don't seem to be getting enough fuel into the carb all the time.
The engine sounds a little differant and will accelerate a little quicker at least I think it will.
Bottom line for me I'm going to go back to gas too much to change that I don't have replacement parts for. Needle needs differant taper, floats needle seat would need to be bigger and the main jet could even go to 0.062 dia. now that main jet size will tell you its going to be a fuel hog. as stock is only 0.026 so there it is.
Norman

 

[wildemere]

Did you raise compression for the tests?

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

A fuel hog that uses very expensive fuel.....

 

[jasonh]

You should try out E-85 Norman. Maybe there's just enough gas in there to not be so finicky.

And I agree, higher compression would probably help pick up some of the good points of running a very high octane fuel.

 

[Norman]

I'm playing with a mix of 3 to 1 alcohol mix 3 gas to 1 alcohol and it will run good on a jet of 0.026 which for this engine is stock.

 

[jasonh]

is the 25% alcohol helping performance any do you think?

I think the main benefit to running an alcohol blend would be the ability to raise the compression with little worry of detonation...granted, on those HT motors, who knows what'd happen if you raised it to that point...

 

[Norman]

I do have the compresson bumped up a little by thinner head gasket but probably not enough to change things too much. about 0.040 thinner if I remember right.
I think a guy could shave the top of the cylinder and the head and still not detonate the engine running alcohol but you will have to be very careful not to let the piston slap the head and I ran into just that problem when I was upping the compression by head gasket changes.
I did find that the lean running was caused by a air leak on the intake manifold with a 0.067 mainjet but I still went back to the 0.026 and the 3 to 1 mix anyway just to get rid of the alcohol mix. I think maybe some increase in performance but is it worth the headache of mixing fuels?
No is my answer cause you have to have an alcohol compatable oil if you make a premix for an engine using alcohol now if you go 3 gas and 1 alcohol I don't know what the oil will do as I'm using a syn that has castor oil in it and will mix with gas or alcohol. Regular premix oils will bead up in methanol alcohol and not mix.

 

[jasonh]

and uh...don't light yourself on fire with pure methanol...the flames are invisible.

Anyway, that's all I got to add

 

[Norman]

I haven't seen the e85 in my area but the 3 to 1 mix seems to work ok and I'm just getting rid of some racing fuel.
As for drinking NO way the $hit is poison and I don't want to even test it to find out I'll take their word for it I don't care for straight grain ethanol either
thats nasty too. Makes things move on ya and makes you want to beat the yell out of your engines with a big hammer.
Skyliner
How much beer would a guy have to drink to counteract say a 1/2 cup on methanol spilled on my hand? I'd better head for the liquor store.
Norman

 

[ran49]

"If for some reason you ingest a small amount of methanol or spill some on a large surface area of your skin, get DRUNK ASAP"
Just to err on the safe side and be prepared I prefer to stay in a constant state of inoculation.Ron

 

[Skyliner70cc]

"If for some reason you ingest a small amount of methanol or spill some on a large surface area of your skin, get DRUNK ASAP"
Just to err on the safe side and be prepared I prefer to stay in a constant state of inoculation.Ron

Ron, as they say safety first!

Norm, can't answer your question since skin absorption is tied to many variables such as quality/tone of skin (are your hands baby soft or calloused), exposure time (did you rinse it off immediately or just wipe your hands off), are you one of those girly men who uses hand lotion (hand lotion would decrease skin absorption), any open cuts?, did you put on an occlusive such as gloves after absorption without rinsing or washing off first?

I'd say a six pack would be appropriate in your situation. Seriously, ethanol IV is one of the traditional treatments for methanol poisoning. There is another option (fomepizole/antizolbut it is very expensive and not as fun.

The doses I gave were for lethal doses, blindness can occur as much lower doses of exposure.

I got a whole mouthful of methanol once (I was priming a glow engine blowing into fuel lin and the fuel pressurized and shot back at me). I drank 3 beers and since I was already volume overloaded, I followed them up with 4 shots of hard liquor over an hour. I'm not blind and still alive and my only remaining adverse effect is I give forum moderators a hard time.

 

[Norman]

Skyliner 70cc
You need a shot of methanol with either 25% nitro or 50 % nitro with pure castor oil in the mix for jacking with moderators.
Then you will be running on fuel
I used to follow Rans49 advice maybe thats why I wasn't affected by the methanol

 

[TigerToothBikes.com]

This is a video of my home project. Methanol and peanut oil mix. works. The main observation is the engine works best with choke ON. I drain the tank after each use and will continue to monitor for any deterioration and wear.
The BioBike

 

[jak stoll]

hey I just wanted to speak on the compression bit
I bumped mine way up on gasoline.... shaved the head at least .025 the stock headgastets thickness & then put in a thinner gasket too
the thing runs better for sure with no evidence of pre ignition on the plug at all
the stock compression is only 6:1
on methanol you should be able to bump it way up no problem
take care
JAK

 

[Sky High]

What about 100 octane aviation fuel ? ( Don`t you have a homebuilt aircraft Norman ? ) Any body ever try blue AV-Gas ?

 

[Norman]

Yes I have an airplane but I use auto fuel regular in the plane.
You should be able to bump the compression all the way up to 14 to 1 I think with methanol the problem with methanol is your engine will be a fuel hog and the alcohol is rough on the aluminum parts, alcohol will draw water out of the air, will cause rust on the iron parts in the engine if left for any length of time and not ran.
I'm not sure just what a guy would want to do on getting the compression way up there I'm very happy with using regular gas and not mess with the higher octane stuff its more expensive.
I haven't got wild with the compression either just a few thousands taken out to raise the comp. not more than 0.050 so far.I can't decide what I want to mess with next I've been having fun making the pipes and might get a little more involved but still not sure the pipes are a lot of work to make.

Milegajo
What size main jet did you try I went up to a 0.080 I think and still seems a little lean you must be pretty lean if you have to use the choke to make it run, I messed with a mix of 2parts reg gas with 1part methanol and I used castor oil at a 32to 1 ratio in the mix castor will mix with gas or alcohol. I didn't like the results all that well and quit messing with blends wish I still had access to some nitro as I like to play with it makes engines go real fast before they melt down.

 

[Sky High]

Try AV-gas > I mixed 1/2 gal. of the blue 100 octane aviation gas ( @ $5.17 per gal. ) with 1/2 gal. of Amoco 92 octane auto gas & Pennzoil 2-cycle synthetic oil. ( 26:1 fuel/oil ratio ) My stock 70 cc runs like a scalded dog now ! Next batch I mix up I`m trying the Golden Spectro Motorcycle Synthetic/Petroleum Blend 2-cycle oil.