Josh went out of his way to say non-boosted a few times.
great read, thanks.
I see, makes sense then (Re read and he did mention it twice hehe)
This is how the Count explained Meth once when I was really looking into it for the B6/7 NA application as I didn’t really understand the full properties of it. I don’t know if it’s the info he was referencing, but I know he’s busy so thought this might help some get a better understanding as it certainly was insightful for me.
It’s good to have someone as smart as CV on your side when it comes to tinkering with motors ;D .
[b]We will refer to Methanol as MI and ethanol as E85
Ok so lets break this down and get some stuff out of the way[/b]
Methanol, an alcohol, is a fuel that your engine can burn. It takes more than twice as much methanol to make the same power as gasoline, which is directly related to it’s stoich point being about half that of gasoline. It literally takes half as much oxygen to burn an equal mass of methanol as it does gasoline, and that directly represents it’s energy potential.
Ethanol is an alcohol also (om nom nom), and has a similarly low stoich point, and similarly lower power output, which is why e85 folks have to run huge fuel systems compared to gasoline folks. The good thing about methanol is that it has an octane rating of around 120, and cools about THREE TIMES as well as gasoline when vaporized in a RITCH mixture… Notice rich
The stoich A/F of MI is 6.4:1. It melts/freezes at -98C and has an octane rating of around 120. It has a relatively low flash point
The A/F
Ok here is one of the tuning points to look at. The air fuel Ratio is where people can get tripped up. Max power for standard fuel on a N/A motor 13.2 lamda is 14.7. If the max power for N/A is 13.2 why is the max power for a turbo car 12.5…the answer HEAT. How do we get rid of the heat we add more fuel. The balance is to find the leanest mixture of fuel while still keeping the car safe. GT turbo cars have more efficient charge so the A/F can be leaner than say ko4.
How dose running richer cool the car down?
The rich mixture leaves unburned fuel and the unburned fuel is vaporized (evaporated) – it changes from a liquid to a gas. This change in matter state, from a liquid to a gas, takes heat with it. But leave too much fuel and there will be a loss in power.
The Answer for this is to run a fuel that can take away more heat. Not only take away more heat but you can run more of it ( Volume ) without running rich.
We don’t want to run massive amounts of MI so we just add it to the fuel. But here is the kicker. If you set the car up for 12.0 finding that the car runs best at that A/F and then add STRIGHT MI you will see a shift in the A/F. Well remember don’t shift the A/F back to 12.0 that was 12.0 with standard fuel. If you are adding a fuel that needs to see 6.1 for stoich you are going to have to add a SH!T load of MI to effect the proper A/F. The shift you are seeing is from added fuel but not an overabundance of fuel. You are just adding more fuel with less power potential. Look at is as a off set to that.
HERE is an example…if you were to run a 50/50 mix of standard fuel and MI
your optimal A/F would be 9.3 (roughly)
So when running MI it is best to set the car up for best performance (moderate boost) and don’t change the A/F when you add MI and more boost.Now if you run water in the mix.
Water removes TWICE as much heat as methanol, and OVER SIX TIMES the heat of gasoline. Water injected into the mixture does not burn. ALL of its heat removing goodness is left there to absorb heat, regardless of the air/fuel mixture you used.
So when you run a 50/50 mix you CAN run the car leaner. Remember you are running more fuel to keep the temps under control. Now you are able to keep the temps in check.
The kicker with water…
You don’t need a LARGE amount of water to get the job done and MI already is 3 times better at getting the heat out. But the rule is the more water you run (never over 50/50 ) the leaner you can run the car. Most all companies that sell MI kits say a 50/50 mix but why??? bottom line if you run 50/50 and there is a issue in the pump the MI is diluted enough to not catch fire in the pump system.Next up is timing…this will become a hole new subject where I will cut and paste the info below
Ignition Timing
The point at which the spark plug fires before top dead center on the compression stroke to ignite the air/fuel mixture. More ignition means you ignite the mixture sooner. The idea is to expose the power stroke (piston moving down) to as much of the force of combustion as possible while not detonating and not compressing an expanding mixture by starting the burn too soon. Ideally, you start the burn while still compressing the mixture because it takes some time to burn. If you have a high enough octane fuel, you can actually run too much ignition timing and compress an expanding mixture – this puts enormous stress on your rods and rod bearings and is akin to.
You CAN over-advance the motor with water/methanol. Don’t advance ignition timing without seeing if it adds more power. If it doesn’t add power, take it out, it’s just adding stress. Ideally, you should be just below peak power ignition for a long lasting boosted motor

Yeah, i’m all about some e85… too bad the closest station is over an hour away from me.
e85 + wmi = winning
I’m all about e85 as well… I have a few e85 pumps near my home and work…looking forward to counts server switch & e85 beta tune soon… hopefully we can squeeze more power out of it…
if anyone has questions about physical/chemical properties of the different fuels, and why one has more energy but less cooling capacity etc., feel free to ask.

judeisnotobscure:
Yeah, i’m all about some e85… too bad the closest station is over an hour away from me.
e85 + wmi = winningI’m all about e85 as well… I have a few e85 pumps near my home and work…looking forward to counts server switch & e85 beta tune soon… hopefully we can squeeze more power out of it…
interesting that the stock fuel system may have the head room for e85

if anyone has questions about physical/chemical properties of the different fuels, and why one has more energy but less cooling capacity etc., feel free to ask.
MaDDoG3xx8:
judeisnotobscure:
Yeah, i’m all about some e85… too bad the closest station is over an hour away from me.
e85 + wmi = winningI’m all about e85 as well… I have a few e85 pumps near my home and work…looking forward to counts server switch & e85 beta tune soon… hopefully we can squeeze more power out of it…
interesting that the stock fuel system may have the head room for e85
knowing the stock injectors are pretty much maxed with headers im sure bigger injectors will be needed to push out the extra fuel its going to need… loving the fact of a server to switch back and forth between e85 and pump

knowing the stock injectors are pretty much maxed with headers
are they? has anyone ever looked at injector duty cycles with headers?