Question? Big intercooler and 116. same as alky?

[Westside500]

Will I reap the same benfits from having a big intercooler and running 116 vs running pump gas a alcohol? I don't drive my car hardly at all. Will alky make more power than 116 in the tank?

 

[Razor]

Why would you need a big IC or use C16?

See the question you asked is hard to answer due to not having more specifics. Like what is your intake air temp, how fast are you trying to go, how much boost your trying to run, etc.

Based on your post, the only flag I see is not driving the car more often. Things fail from cars that sit a lot faster than those driven regularly.

Alky is a neat alternative to running on higher octane, but it adds one more thing to do on the car.

Plenty of cars have gone very fast on stock IC's.. for a drag race application.. remember your on the gas for a very limited time. If your racing a class that needs you to hot lap the car.. then the big FM comes into play. Not the case for a car that sits for an hour+ then is raced. Again having an intake air temp sensor will tell you what you need to know.

You may be faster with alcohol than on C16. Some cars like lower octane. Your knock sensor will tell you where your at detonation wise. Power.. that is an individual thing.

HTH

 

[PhilM]

Yea, kinda an unanswerable question. If you are looking for cooling, then you may wish to analyze different mixes. Water has the highest specific heat, which is why many people * although not typically experimented with here * mix the alkys with different ratios of water to balance out where their engines cooling and octane need to be. For example:

SH capacities of the common additives are:
Water 4.184
Methanol 2.55
Ethanol 2.48 (units J/g deg C)

Water takes the most energy (by far!) to raise its temp. The same 'lineup' is true for thermal conductivity as well. This is why it lowers combustion temps better than alcohol. Either way you slice it though, the mix or straight, it will lower comb temps, which helps prevent detonation.

The problem with running straight water, however, is that although by lowering the detonation via extreme cooling of the charge (which as stated is much better at doing than alkys), it doesn't have the direct 'octane-raising' properties and combustibility of the alkys as a fuel; therefore people see more power when using it over straight water.

Your C16/IC to alky proposition would depend on a large multitude of parameters, such as your engines octane requirements based on fueling, timing, C.R. current IATs, how big of an IC, turbo efficiency, on&on... Also, for street driving alky/water is the best, even if just from a practical standpoint. Last time I bought C16 it was over $11/gal. You can get meth a pump down and pay 3 bux and it will last as long as your foot lets it - race gas your tossing dollar bills out the window when you wait at a redlight. That alone sells it for many folks.

AND it smells good.

Phil

 

[Westside500]

Why would you need a big IC or use C16?

See the question you asked is hard to answer due to not having more specifics. Like what is your intake air temp, how fast are you trying to go, how much boost your trying to run, etc.

Based on your post, the only flag I see is not driving the car more often. Things fail from cars that sit a lot faster than those driven regularly.

Alky is a neat alternative to running on higher octane, but it adds one more thing to do on the car.

Plenty of cars have gone very fast on stock IC's.. for a drag race application.. remember your on the gas for a very limited time. If your racing a class that needs you to hot lap the car.. then the big FM comes into play. Not the case for a car that sits for an hour+ then is raced. Again having an intake air temp sensor will tell you what you need to know.

You may be faster with alcohol than on C16. Some cars like lower octane. Your knock sensor will tell you where your at detonation wise. Power.. that is an individual thing.

HTH

Not a front mount.. a custom built 23 row stock location intercooler. Thanks for the response... I like race gas.. just knowing I have plenty of octane in the tank is good for me. Its about $8.50/gallon here.

 

[Razor]

Not a front mount.. a custom built 23 row stock location intercooler. Thanks for the response... I like race gas.. just knowing I have plenty of octane in the tank is good for me. Its about $8.50/gallon here.

Back to that question..

No data to support anything. Dont take it the wrong way, but changes should be made based on data.

How fast is the car? What boost? What size turbo? How heavy?

If 8.50 race gas solved everything.. trust me i'd go out and buy 55 gallon drum tommorrow. You can and will detonate race gas.. depends on how your pushing your setup.

HTH