alky and altitude

[denn454]

for a while i was seriously looking at going for some kind of alky setup but then started talking to people. I talked to a neighbor who had it on his 94 trans am, 10sec. street driven and 10mpg, and lots and lots of money. anyways he was sayig he didnt' notice any difference at all, couldnt' feel a difference, and didn's see any diferences on the timeslip. then i talked to someone who had a very very clean gn who had a dual stage alky setup, he too said he didnt' notice any difference. i do know he bought the car with it.

so my question is: does alky not work good at hight altitude (5-6k feet) or are these people hoping to see an actual performance gain with it instead of reduction in knock, alowing more boost and gaining performance that way?

my car isn't liking the hot weather we've been having (good timing, wait till the end of summer to do something about it ) and i've been reluctant to put 110 in my tank $3.75 a gallon isn't in my shoestring budget, even if it is diluted down. xylene isnt' very easy to find, and i'd go through a ton of it anyways, most would be wasted driving around without any boost. I'm sure there is some benefit for me, i'm just wondering if its as much as what people see at lower altitudes. and if its even worth it for me, mainly to reduce knock.

 

[Red Regal T]

I don't know about the guy with the 10 second foreign car, but the guy with the GN must have forgot that you need to turn the boost up. Just installing alcohol and not turning the boost up is the only way you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

[denn454]

thats what i was kind of thinking. the other car is a pontiac trans am, nothing foreign.

 

[bigz]

I ran a 12.8 at pueblo last year on pump gas and alchy with 24 lbs of boost. My car has been getting alot of transitional knock lately so I need to find some time to tune it but I definitely think alcohol works at this altitude. I have the single nozzle smc kit which works great.


Mike

 

[bishir]

Remember the Alcohol will not give you a performance gain by itself. It will only allow the conditions to be right so you can increase compression to realize those performance gains.

 

[Razor]

Originally posted by bishir
Remember the Alcohol will not give you a performance gain by itself. It will only allow the conditions to be right so you can increase compression to realize those performance gains.

Ya what he said.. its not nitrous.. its alcohol

Lets see the math..GN on 93 octane..=16 PSI boost

GN on a lot of alcohol can run 25 PSI boost.. 9 extra PSI..wonder how much difference that is????

 

[1badTTA]

Well if the old addage holds true of 10hp per 1psi increase in boost on a nearly stock engine, 9 extra pounds of boost should net you about 90 horsepower.

I know there have been a couple people that tested their Alky on a dyno and got about 45 or 50 hp gains, but I don't think they ran an extra 9psi of boost like Julio does. I think he has taken Alky a little further with his progressive controller than most others are capable of at this time. 6psi increase would probably be feasible with a single stage and minimal transitional knock, with all other factors being the same.

 

[Lee_Burough]

Its managing the temperature inside the combustion chamber

Alchy lowers the temperature inside the chamber, counteracting the rise in air temperature during compression inside the turbo.

Your friend prolly doesn't have a supercharger of any kind, thats why he didn't notice a difference with alchy. No idea why your GN acquaintance saw no increase, UNLESS he has not driven the car without it (you noted that he bought the car with alchy, right?)

As Razor pointed out, alchy allows more boost....Because it lowers the temperature in the combustion chamber and reduces predetonation and Knock retard.

 

[denn454]

i know the ta does have a cyntrifical (spelling?) blower, i'm guessing he knew what it shoudl do, but maybe not. I know alky itsself wil not give much if any power gains by its self, possible these 2 people didn't know that but i wanted to heck to see if there was anyone else out there at higher altitude that had positive gains with it when used properly.

sounds like its time to start looking for the parts again.

 

[FromaBuick6]

Dollar for Dollar

I think it's been the best money I've spent yet, besides the Drag Radials. - T