methanol 55 gallon drum

[sdteb]

if i buy a 55 gallon drum of methanol...can it go stale sitting in the garage if not used quickly? one of my customers gives me great deals on this by the drum...

 

[Evaddave 87gn]

I'll let you know tommarrow

I'm in college chemistry, i'll ask my Proff in the morning. However, if i was to make an educated guess, I'd say no. The only risk you run is having it evaporate. But I will ask to be sure.

DAve :wink:

 

[sdteb]

thx

great...thnks...

 

[broke1]

Ive got a 55 gal drum I bought over a year ago stored outside.Meth is still good but some has evaporated.And im basing that its good on the fact that its still clear.

 

[Turbo T/A 1543]

The local car washes around here purchase their chemicals in these nice 15 gallon plastic containers that they give away as they use them. They work great. I just fill them to the top and screw the cap back in and haven't noticed any evaporation.

 

[Alky V6]

I have heard of people having it sit around for years with no problems. The only thing is, you must seal the drum completely. Methanol is hygroscopic, attracting moisture from the air. Much the same way brake fluid does. When it is saturated enough with water, it becomes useless as a fuel. If you're running methanol to fuel your engine and notice the engine running badly or hard starting, just changing to a new batch of methanol will do wonders.

Remember to keep the lid on tight if you're worried about methanols fuel quality.

Measuring the specific gravity of the fuel can give you a clue as to how much water may be present. The color remains clear even when saturated with water.

 

[Dewey]

I can liberate 99% isopropanol from work. Will it work just as well as meth?

 

[Evaddave 87gn]

What will Happen? Answer, As per Chem Prof.

I had forgton to post a reply to your question, so here goes.

The first thing to occur will be evaporation, and while it is hydroscopic, it does so a a much slower rate than brake fluid. It could take quite a bit of time to absorb enough to render the methonal saturated with water. Best bet is to keep it in a tightly sealed container, in such a way to keep the amount of air trapped inside w/methnoal at a minimum.

Hope that helps.
DAve

 

[Zoliaster]

Is it OK to keep meth in a plastic container? For some reason I thought it should be metal?

 

[vacuum 6]

Also keep the drum off the ground...put it on blocks helps keep H2O out.

 

[vacuum 6]

Is it OK to keep meth in a plastic container? For some reason I thought it should be metal?

As long as the plastic is meth compatible.
http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/chemcomp.asp

 

[Pablo]

I can liberate 99% isopropanol from work. Will it work just as well as meth?

I too can and have done this

You'll have to decide for yourself if it will work just as well

isopropyl has a slightly higher octane than methanol (i think its 1 or 2 points)
but it has much lower latency of heat, I dont remember actual numbers.. iirc about half as much
it also has a much leaner stoichiometric AF ratio.

So youll have to remove more fuel from your chip if you wish to use the same volume as you do with methanol. Im talking about a pretty substantial difference... when I switched to meth I had to add a ton of fuel back into the chip just to get back to where I was before with the alky maxxed out.

Isopropyl has a higher BTU content


You would have to sit down and do some math to determine which would make you faster considering equal amounts of consumption and that would get pretty complex...
for example, if you inject an equal amount, you get more energy from the iso but with the meth you must run more gas and you get more energy from more gas
and then you have to consider just the volume of space taken up by the alcohol that isnt oxygen which would be more space taken up by the meth setup
then consider the latency of heat which the meth has a definite advantage maybe allowing you to run more boost

in any event I think they are pretty close, running both ive run 7.5's in the 8th mile, I dont have a very good back to back comparison because between them I swapped trannies to a lockup setup with a tighter stall and no slippage between shifts. I ran 92 mph with the iso and the old tranny and 94 mph with the meth and the new tranny.

So I think they are pretty close

 

[Zoliaster]

Cool link, thanks!

 

[Alky V6]

Is it OK to keep meth in a plastic container? For some reason I thought it should be metal?

I keep my meth in dark colored plastic jugs. Avoid white or transparent jugs. Someone once told me that sunlight ruins the fuel (meth). Could be a false myth. I just decided not to take a chance.

 

[howracer]

thanks vacuum6 for the excellent link as to meth compatibility.

my compliments to all on this board. i have reviewed all 60 pages and find it to be the single best Alternate Injection site i have found on the web.

i will be running one of Razor's setups shortly.

howard coleman