alcohol vs gas

[jden89]

Im about to buy a new carb for my mod im running a 406 all forged alluminum heads and im trying to decide on running alcohol vs race fuel. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joey

[charcoal01]

Alcohol- makes more power than gas, somewhat quicker out of the hole, can run more compression, runs cooler, maintanence is a major pain.

Gas- less fuel burn off so more consistent handling, power comes on smoother so theoretically easier to drive in the slick, no major maintenance concerns, runs hotter and the price just keeps going up

I run gas for what it's worth. Hope that helps

[dirtrace09]

What cam do you have in your engine? or are you needing to get one also? There is a big difference in what an alky motor likes compared to a gas motor in terms of cam selection.
Also; you need to consider your cooling system, fuel pump, bypass or regulator, etc... If you already have any or all of these parts then that can influence also.
Alky is also very corrosive so care needs to be taken to keep the carb, fuel pump, etc... working correctly in the long term.

[dirttrackrocker]

The "maintenance pain" is a myth. I run alcohol. I don't do anything different week to week than I did with gas. At the end of the year I empty the cell and float bowls and run gas through it for a minute or so and thats it.
The only problem you may have is you sometimes you have to squirt a little gas in the carb to get it started if it is cold out.

[jden89]

Im not sure what cam is in it. Im picking up the motor Sunday it is one a guy had as a spare. He did say he was going to run an ally carb though

[JustAddDirt]

I would stick with alky myslef. it is cheaper, i don't care about the argument "you burn double the alky to gas"
you can buy almost 4 drums of alky to 1 drum of gas.
If you are not racing big shows every week, and are a saturday night racer...go with alky
if you are racing 50 lap features or more every weekend for $5k....gas

I agree with above poster on maintence. I did nothing special in maintence on fuel system when I ran alky for 15 years.
( If you take a couple weekends off durning the summer from racing drain the carb, put a little 2 stroke oil in it, or marvel mystery oil in the bowls.)
do the same thing at the end of the year. drain everything down and out, and put something in the carb bowls, and fuel pump to keep all gaskets plyable.

I currently run gas, but might be going back to alky for when I race a regular saturday night shows. much cheaper to run.

Just remember all posts are a matter of opinion.
If motor was built to run alky, I would stick with alky.

[sj valley dave]

You make more torque with alky for sure, hardly any more peak HP...More compression?? LOL How do you figure that? What do you run for compression 17:1?? You definitely run cooler with alcohol...Still way cheaper, but on the West Coast you are not going to buy 4 barrels to 1 barrel..Not even close..

[charcoal01]

Guess I should have clarified, you can run gas at 15:1 and higher, but you're going to be paying 10+ dollars a gallon for gas so the motor doesn't detonate and blow up. Alcohol is usually fine at 15:1.

[jden89]

I run 2 tracks one friday and one Saturday we use track fuel and the ally is right at half cost of the gas. Has anyone had any experience with the Willy slick track carb?

[chapa9]

I run alky and do nothing really extra with maintenance on the fuel system. I try to buy fuel from a local supplier.

[1Mower]

Gas is the way to go...

[Mosidebite]

I would stick with alky myslef. it is cheaper, i don't care about the argument "you burn double the alky to gas"
you can buy almost 4 drums of alky to 1 drum of gas.
If you are not racing big shows every week, and are a saturday night racer...go with alky
if you are racing 50 lap features or more every weekend for $5k....gas

I agree with above poster on maintence. I did nothing special in maintence on fuel system when I ran alky for 15 years.
( If you take a couple weekends off durning the summer from racing drain the carb, put a little 2 stroke oil in it, or marvel mystery oil in the bowls.)
do the same thing at the end of the year. drain everything down and out, and put something in the carb bowls, and fuel pump to keep all gaskets plyable.

I currently run gas, but might be going back to alky for when I race a regular saturday night shows. much cheaper to run.

Just remember all posts are a matter of opinion.
If motor was built to run alky, I would stick with alky.

100% on the money....in my opinion. By the way, I can buy a drum of alky for $135.00, what does gas go for these days?

[sj valley dave]

here in the West, alky is about $220 a barrel and our race gas is $590 a barrel...We run gas at 15:1

[charcoal01]

I'm guessing your talking about c12 or something of the like for 500+ a barrel, I'm on vp110 and I get a drum for right around 380. Compression is 13.2:1, which the objective of the build was to be able to run 110, so compression was kept lower. You can run cheap alcohol for much less than race gas, but if you're running quality alky, I think it all come out about the same in the end.

[sj valley dave]

I'm talking about Dirt Late Model Plus...114 octane, used in a 15:1 engine...Alky used to be tons cheaper, but not quite the bargain it used to be...ugh

[powerslide]

my understanding is the alky you get for $130 a barrell is reclaimed. The stuff that is $220 a barrell is fresh unused(thats what the supplier of the more expensive VP alky is claiming). Can my car tell the difference? not that i know of so i used the cheap stuff. As long as you have a good top lube it should be ok. But on that note i am looking for a gas carb right now. I have had issues with the white build up and am tired of fighting it. I only race 5-10 times per year.

[Egoracing]

T some track the re-claimed alcohol cost some cars their engines during a big event last year. After the event the rumor came out and was verified that the track bought a bunch of alcohol for $110 per 55 gallons if they bought all the guy had, and they did. Final total was 5 engines two were by one team. After they figured out what happened they tested the fuel and it had all kinds of stuff in it including a large amount of water.

[charcoal01]

That alcohol you can buy that cheap is called plug fuel. They stick it in the gas pipelines as a buffer when they're switching from pumping gas, to diesel, or oil, or whatever. So your alcohol could have any number of trace products that isn't gonna make your engine run very crisp or as ego said, blow it up.

[JustAddDirt]

my understanding is the alky you get for $130 a barrell is reclaimed. The stuff that is $220 a barrell is fresh unused(thats what the supplier of the more expensive VP alky is claiming). Can my car tell the difference? not that i know of so i used the cheap stuff. As long as you have a good top lube it should be ok. But on that note i am looking for a gas carb right now. I have had issues with the white build up and am tired of fighting it. I only race 5-10 times per year.

Did you drain the carb, and fuel pump and put anything type of lube in them?

[powerslide]

Did you drain the carb, and fuel pump and put anything type of lube in them?

old enough to know better still too young to care. Hence the reason i am going to gas i am a one man show most of the time so any maintence i can cut out will be more time to devote to tires.

20laps you lose alot of rear weight on alky especially with all the yahoos banking off each other and wrecking every two laps at my track. i bet we do 40 caution laps for a 20lap feature. i typically go out with 22gal and come back with 5gal