What does it mean when a bike runs on alcahol

[07250ex]

Could someone please give me a basic understanding of what this means thankyou

[07250ex]

does anyone know?

[stocktires]

It's a different type of fuel, other than gas.
I'm the last person to know much about it, but i think its just alcohol mixed with gas?

[400eXr1d3rZ]

Originally posted by stocktires
It's a different type of fuel, other than gas.
I'm the last person to know much about it, but i think its just alcohol mixed with gas?

Pure alcohol.

[wilkin250r]

It's a different type of fuel. When somebody says "alcohol", they are usually referring to Methyl alcohol, (or methanol for short). Instead of burning gasoline, they burn methanol.

Believe it or not, methanol has less energy than gasoline, pound for pound. But the chemical configuration of it contains more oxygen, so it needs less oxygen from outside to burn. This means that you can burn a whole lot more methanol than gasoline inside your engine, like over twice as much. This alone will give you a 5-10% increase in power.

However, there is also an advantage in compression. An alcohol motor can exceed 15:1 compression without detonation, adding an additional 10% increase in power.

Because you end up burning so much more, you need to set up your carburetor specifically for alcohol. It's not just a matter of larger jets, you actually need to drill out various fuel passages in order to flow enough fuel.

[jonboy]

That is right! I had a LT250R That was set up for alky. Never had any cooloing issues. It is basicly like running your motor on moonshine. If you dont get the carb setup correctly you can pay hell on an exhaust. If I ran mine real hard it would have a light blue flame out the pipe. Looked really cool at night but desintigrated my pipe.

[Scott-300ex]

It burns a lot hotter and I've seen and had to do topends on people's motors because they ran alcohol when they didn't NEED to and it siezed up the piston to the rings to the wall.

[400eXr1d3rZ]

Originally posted by Scott-300ex
It burns a lot hotter and I've seen and had to do topends on people's motors because they ran alcohol when they didn't NEED to and it siezed up the piston to the rings to the wall.

When you run on alchohol I tihnk you need to double the size of your jets.

[wilkin250r]

Very often, even doubling your jets isn't enough. Alcohol is often run on really big-bore stroker motors for max displacement, and running high RPMs for max horsepower. You can't get enough fuel past the stock needle passage, regardless of how big your jet is.

Also, alcohol burns COOLER than gasoline, so it generally doesn't cause heating problems. The only time you end up with overheating issues is when your motor is built beyond your radiator's cooling capacity. At that point, it would be even WORSE with gasoline.

[JOEX]

What about the rubber and plastic parts of the fuel system?

[mfr422]

Running methanol, the engine must be "purged" after riding, this usually involves running the motor on gasoline for a few minutes at the end of the day. Not only will the rubber parts get hard and disintigrate, the aluminum in the engine will corrode when exposed to methanol..:eek2:

Some times you need to run no main jet. The rubber parts in the carb need to be replaced with other things and the gas line needs to be replaced.

Where can I pick some alcohol up? I was just wondering is it the same stuff we drink?

[mfr422]

Most dealers who sell race fuels also sell methanol, I wouldn't advise using it unless you know what your'e doing. It is VERY easy to seize a piston if the mixture is lean and the bike doesn't act the same as on gas. I run a special carb and fuel pump to get the right mix, regular carbs can't flow enough fuel even with the main jet out. I went through two pistons before getting it right and I did a lot of research beforehand. The benefits are good, but there's a lot of trial and error because not many people run methanol and it's hard to get good advise.

[jonboy]

Alcohol doesnt have the lubricating properties that Gas does. Gas is a highly refined petroleum product that is engineered to have lubrication traits. Methanol has a high amount of alcohol which is a type of solvent, which is why it dries out the lines and seals so easily. As for the temps the alcohol burns so much cooler than gas, hence the reason for so much enrichment. As for the Purging yes this has to be done after each ride almost but, you can use Metholine which is a mix of methanol and gasoline. It causes less hiccups on the motor than gas. If the carb is set up correctly you can actually run on it by adjusting your air/ fuel mix.

[jonboy]

No Nacs420 you cant drink Methanol. You can however drink good ol' moonshine which is where Methanol is derived from. Yes if you have an Alky setup you can run it on moonshine without any problems. As long as it is a bad batch of course. :D