thinking about changing to alky ....

bbf-falcon wrote:Jon,When you say the pumps don't last long,do you mean because of the alky being so corrosive or because you need a pump that is setup for alky

I had a Magnafuel prostar 500, its alky compatable............the seal leaks after a while, dries out the bearing and the pump locks up. After MF rebuilt it I sold it to a local kid, in less than a year the same thing happened, just so has it I had a bearing and we fixed it. The alky dries and shrinks the seals.

I ran the Mallory 250 pumps for years with no issues.............A guy can make the elect pumps work, but a beltpump is foolproof and will last damn near forever.

If one has an electric pump already you can get by with it, if your buying new just get a belt pump and be done with it.

I got a 1150 quick fuel carb , hilborn belt drive pump and bypass $ 1000 for all of it .

KY JELLY wrote:I got a 1150 quick fuel carb , hilborn belt drive pump and bypass $ 1000 for all of it .

Man, that's a good price! The Quick Fuel alky carb is more than that by itself. Let alone the Hilborn pump, belt drive and bypass.

Charlie

I already sent him a pm on the stuff..

KY JELLY wrote:I got a 1150 quick fuel carb , hilborn belt drive pump and bypass $ 1000 for all of it .

I believe we have a winner.

UM how come you erased the original ?
edit I found it on the other site. Would be nice for new people that have same question to know what question is.


Mustang93
Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 431


Thinking about changing to alky..

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My car just dont like to stay cool.. It runs very well but I just cant get it to stay cool very long and Id like to pick up a little by changing to alky.. What are my advantages and disadvantages of going from gas to alky? Thanks guys..

Methanol can have some advantages over gasoline fuels as well as some disadvantages:

Methanol tends to be a torque builder that really seems to help and work best in a moderate rpm large engine with a cylinder head that tends to limit the maximum rpm to about 6500 or so. It can be worth 50lbs/ft through the rpm area between about 3500 and 5500rpm in a typical engine, maybe more, maybe less depending on the engine's size. By about 6500rpm typically this advantage tends to diminish to the point of breaking even with gasoline and above about 6500rpm generally it tends to produce less power than gasoline in the same engine.

Timing requirements when running methanol vs gas should be very close to identical. If it needs 33 degrees to run it's best on gas it'll need that amount of timing on methanol if your carburetor or injector is close to being correctly tuned.

Methanol will not suffer any drive-ability issues when compared to gasoline, it will idle and drive around at part throttle equally well when compared to gasoline.

Methanol is consumed at a rate that's about double that of gasoline so you'll use about twice as much fuel. It has a different latent heat than gasoline and it absorbs about 2 times the amount of heat per pound when it's evaporated into the engine. This causes it to remove 4X the amount of heat from the engine than when it was burning gasoline. This produces a good cooling effect to carburetor, intake and engine. Remember, there is a cooling system AND a fuel system, they are not the same thing. Over fueling the engine to make it run cooler is NOT the correct thing to do when running methanol and it can cause problems with excess fuel in the oil, quicker cylinder wall and ring wear etc.

Methanol is very corrosive if left in the system for a long time without use. This is mostly because of the fuel's hygroscopic characteristics where it absorbs moisture from the air. This will make it eat on everything. If the car is used often, it's not a serious problem, only when it sits. Using the correct fittings and other equipment in the fuel system is important to avoid problems.

The tuning window is very much wider with methanol than with gasoline. The tuneup will change less when the weather changes than with gasoline. This fact has allowed some very crude methanol carburetion packages to be used with results that were not too bad. The fuel is so forgiving that even if it's 15% rich power is virtually unaffected. That's not to say that engine life isn't effected so it's a good idea to spend money on a very good methanol carburetor if you're going this route. There are some good ones out there but a lot of REALLY bad ones too.

Great Post, Dave....Thanks


Gordon

yeah THANKS MAN!

I just switched to Alky a couple weeks ago. I used the Quick Fuel conversion kit for Dominators. Real easy to convert. I bought a used Dominator from a buddy so I didn't have to gut my gas carb. I'm running a black pump, -8 braided cell to carb(cell in trunk), aeromotive regulator deadhead. So far I've liked it a lot. Picked the car up about a tenth and a half in the heat, and eliminated any engine cooling issues. The jets in the kit (188) were way rich it seemed to me and I am currently running 150 square. I am fully aware this set-up is not optimal, but has provided pretty good results so far in my opinion. Car has been very consistent on alky as well.

If you can afford Randy's pump and carb set-up, that is a smoking deal and the way to go if you want to convert.

TJ

I have always wondered why there is a top fuel and top alcohol class , but no Top gasoline class

KY JELLY wrote:I have always wondered why there is a top fuel and top alcohol class , but no Top gasoline class

What about Top Diesel?

What about top propane?

KY JELLY wrote:I have always wondered why there is a top fuel and top alcohol class , but no Top gasoline class

They call it ProStock.

thats a mandated 2 x 4 carb you rater class

KY JELLY wrote:thats a mandated 2 x 4 carb you rater class

Not everyone can afford a blower......just some of the Pixie Slammers

Who jerked your string freeloader

If I had an A headed engine slow as yurz I would put a shitolet license plate on the back too JUST TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM ASKIN QUESTIONS

300 6 1/8" x 2 5/8 " pictures of Ben Franklin with a green and white back ground will take care of that

Lander........Ky told me that your "girls" next door said he was the MAN.