which methanol

[boostm3]

I splurged, and bought up about 20 qts of 91% isopropyl. But everybody here says Methanol is the way to go..I have an Aquamist system, and as such, I firmly believe in a water predominant mixture for my supercharged application on my bmw M3. The aquamist pump and nozzles are among the very best, but the pump is NOT meant for an all alky mix...Therefore, I use anywhere between 25% alky up to about 45% alky.

Do you guys think there is a benefit to my switching from my Isopropyl/water mix to a Methanol/water blend? If so, how do you all feel about using the blue Windsheild washer mix? I believe the mix is in keeping with the content Im interested in using, so I could use it right out of the bottle, and I dont see why this wouldnt be a decent way to get into Methanol use. Thanks.

Paul

 

[cool 84]

Me and my dad have experimented with methanol and rubbing alky from 91/9 to 50/50 and found the 70/30 the best but it was really hard to tell a difference between any of them. If there is a difference with Methanol it was too small to measure. This was on a car with an intercooler BTW. I'm not sure if it would be different on a hotair or not.

 

[boostm3]

found the 70/30 the best

That's 70 isopropyl/30 water? The aquamist pump wont tolerate alcohol in quantity greater than about 50%, as the viton seals will swell. They highly recommend a mixture closer to about 20 or 30% alcohol....They claim pure water provides greater cooling due to its better specific heat content and the alcohols chief advantage is to prevent freezing, but I know the subject has been discussed to death here already, and there still seems to be little concensus. What difference did you find between 50/50 and 70 alc/30 water? Have you tried 100% water?

The fact that you found little difference between methanol and isopropyl pleases me...Now I wont have to dump my 25 qts of isopropyl I got from CVS drug stores down the drain

Paul E
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'99 White M3; < 45K miles; Dinan stage II SC kit with 6" RMS crank pulley: 11 psi; AA Water Injection; Fikse FM-10s; X-Brace; Dinan Koni Suspension; Stygar SS and Clutch Stop; Sound by Polk, Excelon, JLAudio

 

[cool 84]

We tried pure water and it makes a nice difference over nothing but there's a noticable diffence with a little alky mixed in. For some reason with 70% alky and 30% water we could get it near 23psi where with the methanol and other alky mixtures it would knock at 21-22psi. I don't think you'll be losing much at all by going with the 50/50.

The way I understand it (and I could be wrong) is the alky evaporates when it hits the air, cooling it. It also has a higher octane than gasoline. Some of the water evaporates but most does it's magic by cooling the combustion process. With the charge air guage in the car we saw temps go from 120 degrees on a 22psi pass down to 70 degrees when the alky kicked in. We also tried different locations for the nozzle and found the best was about a foot before the TB. There's an alky forum on this board that could probably help more than I could.

 

[cool 84]

BTW, there's a local guy with a supercharged M3. Very nice and it retains the factory warranty. He's waiting until the warranty is up and then the smaller pulley is going on. I absolutely love the handling of those cars.

 

[boostm3]

Yea, thats what I have...a '99 M3 which I slapped a Dinan Vortech blower kit on, making 8 psi out of the box, on a 10.5 static compression engine. Then when I got the water/alcohol injection, I increased teh crank pulley from 5" to 6" which upped my boost to 11.5 psi, and 350 HP at the wheels! Its a very powerful machine, and it handles like nobodies business. Really love this car. Now Im running about 25% Iso, and I may try going a little more, although I think the best combustion effect comes from teh way the water absolutely suppress any knock. I thihk your right about the alky in the intake track...I think together, the alky cools the intake charge more, and the water suppress the knock in the chamber better....A truely symbiotic relationship!