How explosive is rubbing alcohol?

[FyreDaug]

Yet another one of my crazy ideas, would rubbing alcohol be decent to spray into an intake track? Or is it less combustable than gasoline

[AccordEpicenter]

They say that isopropyl is not that great for alcohol injection... but methanol seems to be very good, as it is a higher octane than pump gas. The kit i have cost nearly $300 so unless youre boosted i really dont think its gonna be of much benefit because typically its used in boosted applications to keep cylinder temps down and prevent knocking/pinging, i mean... you might gain a couple hp na? Im not really sure but i dont think the gain would be worth the expense of the kit if youre not turbo... youd probably be better off with a better intake mani/throttle body for the cost of alky injection

[FyreDaug]

Im not boosted, but isopropyl would be misted in the intake just before the carb (on my intake Ive got a capped off 3/8" plug on it) and the kit would cost aboput 20 bucks to make and whatever the prioce of a 4l isopropyl costs. Trying something cheap you know

[Ludi Mali]

i think its less explosive than gasoline, hence the higher octane rating

[A20A1]

Doesn't it say "not for internal use" :lol:

[FyreDaug]

Ok, so its less explosive, but if you add regular explosion + something with slightly less explosion that that combined, you should still come up with more power right?

[AccordEpicenter]

isopropyl is usually like 30 percent water anyway... if you wanna get somthing rather cheap use denatured alky. To even think about making this work you gotta have the alky atomized at at least 60+ psi or the atomization wont be fine enough and youll kill power like crazy

[HondaBoy]

just get some good old moon shine. ever watch the dukes of hazard back in the day? lol.

[AccordEpicenter]

thats better than isopropyl. Oh yeah, and alcohols are extremely corrosive so you can use an old fuel pump to inject this stuff

[snoopyloopy]

Ok, so its less explosive, but if you add regular explosion + something with slightly less explosion that that combined, you should still come up with more power right?
no, not really. if you have 100g of substance a that burns at one rate and then 100g of substance b that burns at a lower rate, you would use all substance a for your project. now say you mixed 60g of substance a with 40g of substance b, you lower the rate of substance a, not raise it. now if you add that 40g in addition to the original 100 of substance a, then yes, you will make more power. but then, you might as well just use substance a again as it burns better to begin with.
but you don't necessarily want something extremely explosive in your fuel tank. you want something that burns at a steady even controlled rates. that's what the octane rating is partly referring to. the higher the rating, the more stable it is for combustion.

[FyreDaug]

Oh, maybe I didnt say this right.

Normal air/fuel delivery through my short ram + stock carb. On my intake (off of a fuel injected sunfire) I modified it to fit on the carb, and where the little breather hole is for what used to be for PCV on the sunfire is now plugged. So have a 3/8" hole plugged off right now.

It would be sprayed as a mist through that hole.

(a little offtopic, but when my car was running rough (and lean apparently) I was spraying carb cleaner in my carb while it was idling crappy and it raised the idle, as if it were running lean and this added to the fuel mixture, I then found the vacuum leak)

So However I would rig this up it would have its own "pump" to spray the substance in, it wont be all the time, just by pressing a button itll spray a little in, I dont know what Im expecting out of this, I just need another cheap project.

[FyreDaug]

And yes, using that 100g idea, say 100g of fuel is normally used and 1400g of air (or whatever) for normal combustion. I would add that 30-40g EXTRA on top of what is already being sucked into the motor. If its raising octane, maybe I could advance timing even more? I know I start to knock if I go anymore than I am (already at full advance with both vacuum advance ports getting vacuum)

[Vanilla Sky]

why not try water injection?

http://www.aquamist.co.uk/

http://www.coolingmist.com/categories.aspx?action=set&res=1152

both of those are high-end computer controlled systems.

http://www.mazda626.net/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=18625&hl=water+injection&

that guy used a lot of inexpensive parts for his system. i'm not sure if you have to join the forum to read his experience or not. certainly is worth the read.

[FyreDaug]

Hmm yeah read through it, but im not too convinced of such idea. It clearly had done something, but even though its a by product of combustion, if it hasnt already combusted yet, your just adding moisture to the combustion chamber.... ill do some more research.

[mykwikcoupe]

2 word snow performance. they make actual alky kits. good resluts but like the other guy said i wouldnt try it if your not boosted. Not enough gain. basically its not about the rate of burn or the combustability but the air temp charge and the heat dissapated by the combimed fluids to introduce more oxygen into the chamber thus creating more pwer