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Originally Posted by Adam
Thanks for your help Jim and Trube. Very informative stuff! One more quick question, I live out here in cornville where some of gas stations put in 10% ethanal in the 93 oct gas. Aside from being more environmently friendly, is there any reason to choose or not choose this gas over the standard stuff? I think Jim said alcohol has less engergy than gas(but I couldn't find it). That had me thinking about alcohol powered dragsters lol. Those things rip pretty good and run on about 100% alcohol right? Also, would ethal alcohol work as a solvent as well to clean out the system?....I know it cleans me out when I drink it. Thanks again for the help guys.
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Hi,
Dragsters use Methanol it because it has a Very High Octane Rating, about 120 Octane. This allows them to use a Very High Compression Ratio in their Engines - greater than 15:1, without Detonating. This allows these Monsters to make the 1,000's of HP that they do. But, they also get about 0.0625 MPG.
The same is True of Ethanol. Higher Octane, less Energy. Ethanol is a HydroCarbon like Gasoline, but it has less Energy (read Work) than Gasoline by about 10%. Your MPG would suffer a similar drop.
Aside from this, there are other considerations such as it's volatility - Much easier to ignite - could be an issue in a Collision or even a Fill-Up. And, it's Flame is nearly Colorless, making it especially Dangerous.
During the Turbo Days in F1, they used Fuel which was 85% Tolulene (Octane Rating - 114). This allowed them to use Turbo Boosts in the 5 BAR (73.5PSI) Range without Detonating. These 1.5 Liter Engines produced as much as 1,250 bhp. The Rules restricted Fuel Octane to 102, so to comply, Teams laced their Toluene with either Regular Pump Gas, or n-heptane (Octane Rating - 0) to lower the Fuel Rating to meet the Spec.
To sumarize, you can run a Higher Compression Ratio, making more Power, using a High Octane Fuels such as Methanol/Ethanol, but you burns lots more Fuel doing it. Hope this helps...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99