The reason that methanol is no good for low comp engines is the specific energy of the fuel it has a octane of 130+ it will run fine on comp's of 16- 17:1 that's where it is efficient , Pump fuel specific energy is lower but it is about getting the larger bang ,(explosion ) in the combustion chamber ,but to a point , the oxygen content in pump fuel is not as much as methanol , that is why you need more methanol to run through the engine .Pump fuel is around 91 for normal & 98 for higher octane it is designed for todays modern engines with comp's of 11.5:1 as in some cars & most road sports bikes , also modern turbo engines with compression ratios of 8.5:1 even up to 9.5:1 plus boost of almost 1 bar ( 14.7 psi ) in some cases raising the effective compression ratios , these fuels are good for what they are used for , For your race CA by all means run methanol & turbo with a static comp of around 10.0:1 plus around 35 psi and methanol will be fine , as previously stated it is used in Indy where the engines run up to 60 psi in Qualifying trim , the fuel system needs to be big as in volume , not the fuel tank in a drag car around 5- 10 litre will suffice per pass , as an example my CA I'm running 1000 cc injectors thatis their rating at 43.5 psi but I need 1447 cc of injector to run E85 effectively on my engine as it use's roughly 1.5 tiimes more fuel , so the engine will require running flat out 5.8 litre's of fuel per minute , now the interesting bit my pre pump a Carter Black flows 100 gph which is 378.5 litre/Hr or 6.3 Litres /min,one 044 pump is rated for 200 litre an hour at 5 bar or 73.5 psi , now divide that by 60 and you get 3.33 litres a minute , so really I need 2 044's that will give me 6.6 litres / min which is capable of running the engine flat out the surge tank is 2 litres , lets say the engine does it burnout and stage then flat out for 10 - 12 seconds it will have enough fuel in the surge to supply the engine for this peiod easy . Now this is why you generally have a engine bay mounted tank with methanol , as previously stated you use 2.5 - 3 times ,more , huge supply lines ie around #12 , large mechanical belt driven pumps , that and banks of large injectors ie 8 1600cc or the new 2200cc injectors with large base pressures to give flow as stated a normal car is around 35- 45 psi then if turbo they usuallly rise 1psi for 1 psi of boost giving them their 1:1 name some are 2:1 etc etc , running them rich od "fat " does hurt power a little but not much , but the real problem is the amount of fuel flowing is enough to Hydraulic some engines requiring fuel shut off's , so lets say your engine will require 8 1600cc injectors to run properly flat out that is 12.8 litres /min think about that one or approximately 2.5 litres per run , Methanol is cheap around $210 for a 205 litre drum depending on your supplier there are many grades of methanol as well the food industry grade is most common used for cleaning machines , The alcohol content in the fuel it has a lot of oxygen in it it evaorates fast , is very corrosive without proper cleaning of lines it gums up whilst left sitting and absorbs moisture very easily always check dates of drums ie how old the fuel is plenty of people offload cheap methanol as it is no good anymore it has sat around for too long absorbing moisture , C16 too expensive around $ 250 for a 20 litres drum
The new ethanol fuels are quite good E85 is now available at some servos now in sydney it is around 102-105 octane when blended with normal 91 so do the math if you blend with some 98 , and cheap too , I know I'll be using it I know of one ar in particular gaining 20 RWKW just by changing to E85 with a retune to suit his only problem was running out of fuel at higher boost , able to run more aggressive timing to help spooling , Heaven , Cheap race fuel from the pump , and doing our bit for the environment . Speak to Vince anyway he'll enlighten you as he has used a variety of fuels over the years in his race cars .
P.S. I was going to run methanol till I found out about E85 in sydney I knew about it's trials in Melbourne , & read plenty on it , it is widely used in sth america and Europe as well .
Nick
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