The Cal-look Lounge

Just wondered if anyone has used any of the oxygenated race fuels.  I know that pump fuel in the UK can be upto 2.7% oxygenated.  Want to use the unleaded next year and if it is suitable for use with nitrous or do you need to add more fuel due to the oxygenation.

Good question andy.  I'm sure Mr Joyner will be interested as will a few of the other DKR guys.   ;)

Wow, this is a huge subject.  I would start reading VP Fuels web site for information, flame travel, timing, octane, etc.

We have dabbled with some oxygenated "Fuel Cocktails" over the years, lol.  The main thing is that you need to adjust the fuel mixture and the maximum timing to achieve maximum performance, without damage.  The more oxygen you have, the more fuel you need to keep it from going lean.  On our IDA motor, we would start with three full jet sizes richer when running Oxygenated VP fuels.  We also run a 3 to 4 degree MSD timing retard, when we are on NOS.  30 to 32 max, on the motor and 26 to 28 max when on NOS.  Too much timing and you will see the top MPH fall off.  We usually only run our NOS in one gear (third), because we race in an 11.60 index class.

We stopped running the VP oxygenated fuel several years ago because it smelled so BAD.  They put an aroma in the fuel to help identify it, and when we came home and parked the car in the garage it stunk so bad it would burn your eyes going into the garage after it was closed up for a while.  I don't think they still have the same strong aroma?  Your looking at maybe a tenth of a second improvement in a quarter mile, if tuned correctly.  It's not a huge performance difference, IMO.  

Make sure you do not store these high performance fuels in a plastic fuel can because the "good solvents" will per-menate the plastic cans and loose their performance.  Keep the fuel sealed until use, and inside the original steel can.  I've never been a fan of buying race gas out of a gas pump because you have no idea how fresh it is.  Because Propylene Oxide evaporates at room temperature, you need to keep it on ice.  It took up to much room in our "beer cooler", so it had to go!  Our performance fuel of choice these days has come down to Nitrous Oxide, and race gas.  You need to keep the bottle cool, and not in the sun light.  On some cold nights, we place the bottle along side the Honda generator to warm it up.  The nitrous needs to be weighted in the bottle with a fish scale to determine liquid volume available.  Do not believe what it says on the pressure gauge because they are not accurate.  An empty bottle will still show full if it's been sitting in the sun and heat.  You want liquid NOS at the jets, not in a heated gas form because it needs to work instantly when you using it "on/off" as we do.

Like I said this is a big subject.

Thanks John - not the answer I was hoping for - but glad I checked >:(  Want to keep things simple, have the jet sizes for non-oxygenated fuel so don't really want to add aother factor and have to change jets while using it.  Will use leaded non-oxy and perhaps mix with pump fuel to make it better value.  Will ensure that I wash the system with non leaded pump fuel to give more life to the lambda sensor.

Stretch - looks like the oxy fuel will add more complexity to the system for me, maybe if a turbo system is being mapped with it, could be used easily....

I use to go down to the local (small) airport and get 5/10 gal of the 100LL (low Lead) fuel that the private planes use and have had excellent results with it. I've used it up to 20# of boost with very good results. 

Premium pump gas here in SoCal (93 octane) has been floating around $3.75/gal -- the 100LL is about $4.75 -- race gas is $10/gal -- -- The added benefits of using lead as a knock suppressant is better the the stuff they are using in the unleaded gases.

Thanks - whole reason for looking at the unleaded was due to the leaded race fuel screwing up the sensor...