Nitro methane/ methanol

[Stkid93]

Hey guys,

the other day I saw a video in which a silverado was being dynoed (it had a 5.3 v8) and they dynoed the difference between methanol and nitro methane fuel. (Keep in mind that except for huge fuel injectors this was a fully stock naturally aspirated pick up truck with an engine not at all made for performance).

With the methanol the motor made 280 horsepower with 300 ft lbs of torque. With the nitro methane the engine went all the way up to 460 horsepower and 500 ft lbs that’s an increase of basically 200 wheel horsepower and 200 wheel torque.

Now I understand a fist is very different because it’s direct injection and the amount of fuel needed with nitro methane is crazy. The stoch a/f is 1.1/1 compared 9.8/1 on e85. Even methanol is 6.5/1. So the amount of fuel needed wouldn’t really be possible without port injectors, and freaking huge injectors at that.

But, has anyone tried running a fist on pure methanol or nitro methane? Would it even be possible? (I know meth injection is a thing but I’m talking about methanol in the tank running completely on that). According to this video we could gain crazy amounts of power without even touching the boost.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Even methanol would require huge aux fuel injectors. Drag cars and funny cars use it all the time. The main issue is availability and toxicity. Water/Meth injection isn’t a big deal as the quantities used are small, but running as a primary fuel means toting around big flammable barrels and not being able to fill at the regular gas station. Nitromethane is even more toxic, expensive and hard to get ahold of/transport in large quantities

The main issue I think is that the advantages of methanol are only really valuable if you are approaching air volume limited values of boost on big turbo that can’t be solved more easily by ethanol, big intercoolers and big turbos. At that point you really need a heavily built motor to not pop the engine like a cork. As such it’s really only “practical” for 800hp+ drag cars where you’ve exhausted all the easier solutions for power