Comes to find out that mixing 100% methanol with water to dilute the injection is a bad thing. Talking to Ron @ Axis Racing brought that to light. I told him when I need a retune for the new motor (when that day comes) I was gonna go 50/50 methanol/water instead of the 100% I use now. He told me that was the worst thing I can do in the long run. Sure there are tons of people out there and are just fine but there is not a single one with extensive mileage. He said there have been several blocks that have come into his shop with damage due to the water. Water cools the temps down and that is it. Meth raises the octane, cools the temps, and combusts. Water just will not combust and compress like fuel. It’ll simply turn to vapor and moisture. The amount is minuscule but water will slip past the rings in the right conditions and eventually cause havoc. Meth doesn’t hurt anything unless it sits in liquid form on metal with is impossible on a running engine (to a certain extend meaning you aren’t POURING it in). However with any form of water/alky injection you should lower your oil change intervals. But meth mixes with oil and it is virtually the same thing as gasoline. Water doesn't and floats and when that gets picked up by the oil pump....that milky substance it makes isn't good when it clogs and limits the oil flow. It makes perfect sense and even though others are running just fine…..I’m not taking the chance. I actually took the liberty to call Crawford Performance and they said the same thing……go 100% even though you can be just fine. That's why SS tries to recommend 100% methanol or at the least yellow bottle HEET which is 99% methanol. Boost on!:wiggle:
I had to mix my meth with water... my 100% meth was boiling in this south GA heat, had to put water in it to raise the boiling point. 100% meth + boiling = not spraying = BOOM a heck of a lot faster than water/meth mix Just my personal experience. Would loved to have kept it 100% meth, but seemed to be more of an option for winter time
Meth is no joke, I think the guy who bought my car said it didn't spray once and now he's building the motor since compression was low on 1 cylinder. If I got another STi, I can't say I'd do methanol again
Haha I'll stick with it. I just constantly watch for it. Milo maybe by Nopi I'll have a heat shield built for it. That'll keep a lot of heat out.
Yes it does but as Ron quoted...it's mostly as an engine gets older. Now if you detonate for whatever reason that can cause water to squeeze past the rings. A tired motor over time will allow more and more to slip past and you can imagine what can happen. Then again there are those that never have issues.....it's a take your chance thing I guess.
Beside my meth boiling off, I haven't had any issues. But Chris gave me a *great* tip that I have used since day 0 with Meth. Filter the meth! The filter has caught so much crap, I wonder if some of those bad pumps were using unfiltered meth...
Question: When you guys say your Methanol was boiling.....did you actually 'SEE' it boiling? I haven't really checked to see if mine was actually boiling but I have noticed that sometimes there is methanol leaking around the resevoir cap but I figured that it just wasn't sealing well and sloshing out. It only leaks when the tank is almost full so I just don't top it off. I guess I need to take a few romps with the car and then let it sit and idle and then romp a few more. Let it idle and go check for boilage.
Yes, actually saw it boiling Would not see the light turn on, pull over to inspect the issue, see it boiling...let it cool off, get back in the car and do another run and it would be fine. Just sometimes it got too hot. Thank goodness I never reeeeeeaaaaaaally got on it while it wasn't spraying. As soon as I noticed the boiling issue, I never got on the car again unless it was at night when it was cool out and it always worked fine then. Then I started adding water and didn't have the issue again.
With the advent of E85 becoming more popular would that be a viable substitute for injection? It'll raise octane and combust, but it wont cool the temps down. Plus with the way things are now it's pretty cheap.
You mean using it in place of Methanol? That's an interesting thought but I would say it wouldn't be as effective unless you DUMP it in there as it takes a lot more to make it as good as gasoline. Also like you said it doesn't cool the charge down which is the big PRO about methanol. Methanol raises the octane AND cools. It is the cooling that allows the redicoulous timing gains u get from methanol inj. more so than the octane increase.
E85 is 110 octane so I think it would be a pretty good jump as far as octane. But would that be safer?
Well you are mixing it with 93 octane (I hope) gasoline so the effective octane rating itself will probable around 98-100 I would think. It'll be better than staright up gasoline but not as good as methanol. Also I don't know the boiling point of E85 so would it really help that much? Sure it'll help in it's own but is it really worth it? Maybe SS will see this and chime in.
sorry to get offtopic but can you buy e85 right now? my truck is e85 ready and if its cheaper than 87 im all for it. from what i can tell from the stories, the pumps are failing due to the pure meth sitting stagnent in the pump when not spraying. when this happenes the seals in the pump start to shrivle and leak. the ruber they use isnt ment for 100% meth. ill see if i can get the info from genya but he was telling me he read about adding very small amounts of oil to keep the seals lubed properly when using 100% meth.
I searched this web site: http://www.e85refueling.com They said this is the closest station: PS Energy 340 Whitehall Street SW Atlanta, GA 30303 404-321-5711
Current i dont think you can buy any at pumps. But if you were willing to buy a huge drum of it, then it works out to a lil over 1.90 per gallon Hmmmi wonder how methanol injection would work on a n/a...
I saw E85 at a station in SC when I went to the autocross event at the BMW Greer plant. It was more than gas. -- Brian