What is gasoline?

[John Finch]

I aggreeeee with BOB. I think BOB stands for Bring your Own Bottle.

 

[impba3548]

Ozark fuel, doesnt stink,starts easier,doesnt swell the can beyond recognition on a hot day, performance about the same. I have burned over 20 gallons of it the past couple of years with no Ill effects, getting kind of expensive though over 5.50 per gallon the last I bought.

mike sr

 

[P THOMAS]

Hey Mike

OZARK FUEL? Is that a brand there in Stlouis or can you get it anywhere?

You cant race all day and then drink the leftovers can you?

OH Thats good ole mountian dew Im thinking of :lol:

 

[Mike G]

Camp stove fuel (coleman, Ozark) is NAPTHA, not gasoline at all. VPRacing Fuel is just that Race fuel, go to their website and they don't even call it Gasoline! Pump Gasoline leaves it open to interpretation but some people have taken it well beyond cheating. If they don't want to run Gasoline why have a gas class at all???? Put them in F or X and everybody would have more racing.

We have run "controlled fuel" in Aus and it makes it difficult for the host club to police, switched to a Cart tester and it is much easier.

 

[Ron Olson]

Ozark campstove fuel is a brand name found at Wal-Mart. Be forewarned that the cashiers at Wally-World may have someone watching you when buying it at it's supposed to be one of the ingredients for making Meth. Larry, a.k.a. Fast Rat found this out when he bought some of it and also some other household supplies like table salt.

 

[Eric Bourlet]

As I understand it the higher the octane the slower the fuel burns. I know a few guys report they see higher RPM running 105 octane in a Zenoah. I don't believe that we run high enough compression ratios in our G1 motors to need to slow the burn rate down (am I wrong here?). What I think is happening by observing tuned pipe temperatures on both regular 87 octane vs. the 105 octane is that in the higher octane fuel is not all burning in the motor and unburned fuel enters the pipe where it burns. When this happens it raises the temperatures (as I have measured) in the pipe and so the pipe looks shorter to the motor and this makes the motor run at a higher RPM. I think you could do the same thing by just shortening the pipe with lower octane fuels. Of course this all goes out the window for non Zenoah GX motors that run a high enough compression ratio and displacement to where pre ignition becomes an issue. I’m sorry if this post is off topic but just wanted to get others thoughts on this other than jokes about gas vs. nitro. Heck I run them all.

 

[Mike G]

Eric, I think you summed it up perfectly.

I read on the net (so it must be true) campstove fuel was around 65 octane.

 

[10/Tenths]

Octane is not the only thing to look at in gasoline. There are a lot of racing gasolines available with oxygenators that do produce extra power. I don't know how it will improve a rc boats performance as I run nitro, but I do know from experience in race cars that it can make 2 - 5% gains. There are tests for these if club racing comes down to that. I say limit the engine displacement and after that anything goes.

 

[Mike Hemric]

Hey who cares how much octane everybody is running .It all comes from a pump and by the way we don't ask you Nitro boys what you added to your fuel.

 

[John Knight]

Hey who cares how much octane everybody is running .It all comes from a pump and by the way we don't ask you Nitro boys what you added to your fuel.

Just 2 weeks ago you were one of those nitro boys too with your 20 tunnel!

As for me, nitro, methanol and oil only. No additives, like prop oxide. I have had enough skin cancer issues and not through with them yet.

 

[Ron Olson]

I still don't know why camp stove fuel isn't legal and why not. If it's safer to transport, cleaner burning and doesn't enhance performance I don't see any reason why not to be able to use it. Five bucks a gallon? Big deal, look at what we pay for nitro!

 

[Eric Bourlet]

Ron, I think the reason that the 100 Octane max rule was put in place was to keep guys from running $80+ a gallon special race gas , and not to keep them from running Naphtha(Coleman fuel) I bet it would be an easy change to get through in NAMBA if you wanted to propose a rule to allow Naphtha in addition to the up to 100 octane Gasoline . Some of the new GX gas motors can benefit from the high dollar specialty stuff . The problem is with a rule like this is it trust all the guys to have some honor and not cheat by using big dollar specialty mail order fuels to set records with or win races. Heck I know guys that have run or do run 105 octane Trick that you can buy at some local gas stations right out of the pump. How are you going to tell? It sure smells different but I think you need a better test than "I don't think that smells right". It looks to me like we either need to legalize anything you want to run or come up with some way to test. Anyone know if you can test for octane rating after the oil is added? NAMBA also states it must be Gasoline is there an affordable way after the oil is added to test for other additives or make sure it is "Gasoline"? I guess a better answer to the question that started the thread can be found here This is the definition of Gasoline.

 

[lohring]

In Zenoahs I have no test results that show particular advantages from the normal range of "pump gasolines" because there are limits on raising Zenoah compression ratios. I do know that detonation will

slow a Quickdraw powered rigger several mph after the first laps if you don't run VP U-2 fuel or similar. I know that rod big end bearings can take higher rpm on alcohol, again in Quickdraws. We run U-2 in all our dyno tests on straight line engines to guarantee that there is no detonation. I have run ignition engines on standard, 15% nitro, boat fuel successfully. Fifty percent burns off the plug electrodes and they are hard on the piston when they go out the exhaust. Commercial glow plugs blow the seals in high compression 26cc engines.

I haven't seen obvious cases where fuel cheating has helped win races. However, adding nitro to gasoline should help even Zenoahs. Head button engines should benefit from higher compression and the high octane fuel to support them. Other racing organizations that have fuel restrictions either furnish the fuel or test the winners. Take a look at http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~hideseng/index.htm for the equipment needed for testing.

Henry Velasco knows how this evolved in the NHRA. I would listen to what he has to say. I think furnishing the fuel is the least expensive way to go, but there are issues with oil brands and higher octane fuel would be needed for some GX engines. When model airplane racing limited the fuel to either methanol or 10% nitro, organizers furnished fuel. Either testing or contest provided fuel could be considered for the big gas races or records. Otherwise we just have another unlimited fuel class with bigger engines.

Lohring Miller