alcohol , nitrous and detonation reduction

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
now alot of guys know that detonation will quickly damage or destroy an engine
but not nearly as many guys know that a separate injected spray of ALCOHOL, or ALCOHOL MIXED WITH WATER can be used to raise the engines effective octane and cool the combustion chamber to reduce detonation tendency's.

alcohol is also far more tolerant of fuel air ratio changes than gasoline , which burns best in the narrow 12.5-13.5:1 range for maximum torque and at 14.7:1 for low emissions.
both methanol and ethanol have been used as engine fuel, but they tend to be corrosive in higher concentrations and your engine won,t run well in low temps until it warms up, alcohol absorbs moisture from the air so rust can be a big problem if precautions are not taken and its advisable to let the engine run on strait gas during starting and just before you let the engine turn off to prevent corrosion problems.
most of those problems are minimized if your running gas as fuel and only adding the alcohol under conditions that tend to induce detonation.
alcohol, or alcohol mixed with water acts as a combustion chamber coolant, that also boosts potential power. and it can add power in the form of more cylinder pressure generated without detonation, becoming a problem, that similar pressure levels with gas alone would never tolerate.
you can also spray alcohol mixed with nitrous, to further cool the incoming cylinder charge of fuel air mix.
the fact is NITROUS provides a great deal more oxygen too the fuel/air mix, but its injected as a liquid fog at extremely low temps, those low temps alone tend to help but its mostly counter acted due to the higher oxygen content of the nitrous increasing the burn temp if only gas is used, BUT,add a rich mix of alcohol and temps drop noticeably.
add alcohol with its far higher octane rating near 114 octane, combined with the cold nitrous and your chances of detonation drops off significantly.
but you certainly don,t want a constant use of alcohol in the engine under low load conditions because burning alcohol tends to leave moisture in the oil, exhaust and in the engine, moisture that tends to quickly cause corrosion issues if its allowed to remain, but if alcohol;s only used as a detonation preventative and power enhancer under high loads, it tends to
burn off if the engines run on gasoline alone under most low load conditions

http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/ ... _info.html

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=937&p=1922&hilit=+detonation#p1922

http://www.turbomagazine.com/features/0 ... index.html

http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/ ... ction.html

http://www.ethanol-gec.org/clean/cf05.htm

http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedi ... _fuel.html

http://www.rippmods.com/VP_Racing_fuel_ ... -m1-1g.htm

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_fuel

http://www.cdxetextbook.com/asearticles ... hanol.html


even locating a steady supply of e85 can be tricky at times

http://www.e85locator.net/

"Both methanol and ethanol burn at lower temperatures than gasoline, and both are less volatile, making engine starting in cold weather more difficult. Using methanol as a fuel in spark ignition engines can offer an increased thermal efficiency and increased power output (as compared to gasoline) due to its high octane rating (114[3]) and high heat of vaporization. However, its low energy content of 19.7 MJ/kg and stoichiometric air fuel ratio of 6.42:1 mean that fuel consumption (on volume or mass basis) will be higher than hydrocarbon fuels. The extra water produced also makes the charge rather wet (similar to hydrogen/oxygen combustion engines)and combined with the formation of acidic products during combustion, the wearing of valves, valve seats and cylinder might be higher than with hydrocarbon burning. Certain additives may be added to motor oil in order to neutralize these acids.

Methanol, just like ethanol, contains soluble and insoluble contaminants [4]. These soluble contaminants, halide ions such as chloride ions, have a large effect on the corrosive nature of alcohol fuels. Halide ions increase corrosion in two ways; they chemically attack passivating oxide films on several metals causing pitting corrosion, and they increase the conductivity of the fuel. Increased electrical conductivity promotes electric, galvanic, and ordinary corrosion in the fuel system. Soluble contaminants, such as aluminum hydroxide, itself a product of corrosion by halide ions, clog the fuel system over time.

Methanol is hygroscopic, meaning it will absorb water vapor directly from the atmosphere.[1] Because absorbed water dilutes the fuel value of the methanol (although, it suppresses engine knock), and may cause phase separation of methanol-gasoline blends, containers of methanol fuels must be kept tightly sealed."


btw if you want to run nitrous this would be a good idea

http://www.kb-silvolite.com/article.php ... ad&A_id=64
 
if your planing a nitrous power enhanced engine read these links

http://kb-silvolite.com/article.php?action=read&A_id=7

http://victorylibrary.com/mopar/nitrous-tech-c.htm

http://www.streetlegaltv.com/forum/nitr ... -3389.html

http://www.misterfixit.com/deton.htm

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a6244/e15-gasoline-damage-engine/

http://www.akamoto.co.uk/info/Nitrous-cam-shafts.htm

http://www.kennedysdynotune.com/Nitrous ... 20Tips.htm

http://www.nitrouskits.co.uk/Technical/cam-shafts.htm

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/nitrous-oxide.html

http://www.starracing.com/nitrous_oxide_general.htm

http://www.idavette.net/hib/nitrous.htm

http://www.nitrousexpress.com/Pages/carb_faq.htm

ETHANOL ALCOHOL CAN BE USED WITH NITROUS to reduce the tendency towards detonation,increase octane and cool the engines exhaust but of course the fuel and injectors or carb must be compatible and locating a nearby source of E85 may not be easy
http://www.e85locator.net/

as a general rule adding nitrous adds a much higher volume of exhaust flow and heat, so youll benefit from a low restriction exhaust and a cam designed for nitrous use,and a high flow fuel system and a larger cooling system and a high flow single plane intake design,and having an ignition that can be retarded easily from the drivers seat during nitrous use and returned to the original ignition advance, when not using nitrous


btw heres typical detonation damage, and in this case, resulting from a bit of nitrous, that boosted the pressure, but the results would be similar on a high compression engine subjected to crappy fuel and high loads at high rpms without nitrous, notice the sugary/frosted appearance and rounded edges of the melted areas
nitrouspiston.jpg

detonationdam.jpg

bustedring.jpg
 
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