Toluene and methanol?

[obanion]

Been doing some reading of the "turbo bible" or sorts, Maximum Boost. There was a short spot on how great toluene is, being very high octane and acting as a effective burn rate accelerant. Mentioned it's use in the turbo F1 era.

Now can you say blend 25% tolune, 75% methanol, and that will kick up the total burn rate? Methanol burns slow compared to gasoline, and the high boost ranges (45-55psi) I plan to go to make the burn even slower.

Any idea how much faster the relative burn rate will be? Anybody know how to calculate such a thing?

Having tolune as part of the mix richens it up significantly, so I won't need as much pump and injector as pure methanol.

I'll have intercooling (either by water injection or liquid-air intercoolers), so I don't need all of the temp drop a pure methanol charge will provide (calculated to ~370F air temp drop with a rich mix of methanol once fully vaporized).

The same place I buy methanol from carries toluene. I'll be mixing my fuel anyway. And I plan to buy a mask for those times.

 

[obanion]

Odd, now I stumbled across a article claiming that methanol burns 26% faster than gasoline (scroll to table at bottom):

http://www.ukcar.com/features/tech/Engine/fuel.htm

.43 m/s for methanol
.34 m/s for gasoline

I thought it was the other way around.....

 

[willeng]

obanion:

Somebody correct me if i'm wrong,but i don't think methanol will mix with toluene.

One is alcohol & polar & the other is hydrocarbon & non-polar.

Toluene is a good additive for petrol, mix up to 20%.

 

[patprimmer]

I'm with Willeng on the missability issue. a reasonable %age of acetone might help.

Also, it seems to obvious to have not been tried before.

Burn rate depends on a number of factors, so when comparing figures, you need to know the source and the test conditions.

Regards
pat

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[willeng]

obanion:

Pats suggestion of Acetone is good, we have used up to 5% mixed with methanol.

You would be better to start with say, 2% & slowly work up by 1% increases, you may find you can use more than 5% but watch your tune & temperature carefully as you go.