Now that 114 is around $26 a gallon out here, I'm wondering what alky is selling for? I understand you use approximately twice as much alcohol as gas so it would have to be well under half the price of gas to justify a carb change.
Or it may hasten my transition into EFI...I already have a big enough set of injectors in hand..

Just wondering.....

Love to see you run a EFI unit on your car however you’d need permission from little man

quote:

Originally posted by imakehp:
Now that 114 is around $26 a gallon out here, I'm wondering what alky is selling for? I understand you use approximately twice as much alcohol as gas so it would have to be well under half the price of gas to justify a carb change.
Or it may hasten my transition into EFI...I already have a big enough set of injectors in hand..

Just wondering.....

I bought barrel of methanol (Fuse Fuels brand) on 10-10-22 and was $199 including 5% sales tax. EFI is easy on fuel consumption.

I wouldn't pay $26 a gallon for anything, period!

Before I did that I'd yank the 15:1 pistons out of the engine, drop the CR to 8:1 and not give a hoot about how much slower it ran.

Bob

We just paid $115 for a 5 gallon pail of Q

I just paid $210 a drum of alcohol with top lube delivered to my house.

Hi Bob, that is certainly one way to approach the problem lol....

I hadn't thought of that, but now that you've brought it up, I would consider it as a last resort...
I don't think this engine combo would be very happy with losing 7 or 8 points of compression. I'd have to order new pistons that weighed the same so as not to upset the engine balance and I'm certain a different camshaft would be in order.

BUT, I have the complete EFI system , except the throttle body of course on the engine and in the car. Just have never turned the ECU on and actually used it. I'd have to take the gas injectors out and put in the alcohol ones.

Even simpler would be to just put an alky carb on. Maybe timing and plug changes .......


BTW Bob. you've had a PM in your box for a while now.......

For a normal bracket deal, there is several benefits to running alcohol over race gas, but saving money on fuel isn't one of them. You will burn 2-3 times as much fuel then you will with race gas and you will need to carry lots of jugs and or a 55 gal drum with you.
Don't take this wrong, I run alcohol and have for the past 12 years, but don't do it to save money, you will be disappointed

quote:

Originally posted by Al Alguire:
We just paid $115 for a 5 gallon pail of Q

Al, I have a approximately 40 gallons left of a 50 gallon barrel of Q-16 that is almost 2yrs old if you can use it. It's been sealed tight in the original barrel and stored in the garage. Free if you want it....

I just couldn't get used to the smell of it lol.

Consider E85/welfare fuel, ran both the pump & VP X85. A nice in between for fuel cost & works excellent!

quote:

Originally posted by Big Steve:
For a normal bracket deal, there is several benefits to running alcohol over race gas, but saving money on fuel isn't one of them. You will burn 2-3 times as much fuel then you will with race gas and you will need to carry lots of jugs and or a 55 gal drum with you.
Don't take this wrong, I run alcohol and have for the past 12 years, but don't do it to save money, you will be disappointed

Steve, I don’t think a person can compare your usage to someone that is NA though.

Curtis, I am not. I bracket raced with alcohol long before I raced TD.

toss in some block heaters and alky.

I use about 2.5 times as much alky as I did race gas, and total overall cost was still less than half....alky all the way for me...

quote:

Originally posted by Big Steve:
Curtis, I am not. I bracket raced with alcohol long before I raced TD.

Gotcha.

I switched to alcohol in 1998 and at that time I did not do it so much to save money but to save cool down time in Texas heat. Also makes it easier because I do not have to pull in fire up generator and drag charger over there and run pump and fans. I Pull in fill out my time slip and weather information, top off alcohol and ready to go again. Also run an alternator for same reason.

I believe you can save a lot of money running alcohol if that is your goal. Most carb builders and racers run alcohol way fatter than it needs to be. Most of fuel wasted is driving up to staging lanes and return road. So if you are trying to save fuel lean out your idle circuits some. Just be aware when air gets good you better fatten it up some or it will spit and stumble destroying ET. Also your oil will not milk up nearly as much if your idle mixture is leaner and car will warm up quicker.

I've run gas and alcohol

The most I ever paid for gas was $100 for a 5 gal can

Was using Sunoco Maximal and VP X-16 when I could get it. Buying by the drum was the best price but not easy to do.

Pump price at Maple Grove was $60 something for 5 gals.

A VP dealer and series sponsor sold VP at good prices and I bought fuel from him

The most cost effective way to run was on alcohol and with a primer plus system.....ran that with a Ron's Terminator for a while and it was fine.

I do recall using every drop of alcohol at an NHRA race weekend running S/C and needing to get some from my buddy to finish a race that I won....

I went thru the 24 gallons I usually brought !

That was on a car I did not have the primer plus, just a Terminator and a gas primer....

Alky all the way. Last fall, i made it deep in a 400+ car count race. I was doubled and carried 2 to 7 and 1 to 4. I made 19 passes and burned 25 gallons of alky at Bowling green. That is going 4.50s on injection.

I paid $73 (California sales tax included) for a 5 gallon pale of F&L fuel for my 15:1 582 last (2022) year. The car ran exactly the same MPH and ET as it did with VP C15 at $104.

I'll eat a pound of dirt before I pay $26 for a gallon of race fuel.

Sorry Dave, never got the message.

Bob

all this talk about race fuel cost per gallon by the OP who by his own admission has admitted to not having raced in 3 years and even if this is the year, he's lucky if he makes 25 passes all season because he lives in Cali, he's a wannabe go fast guy and he don't bracket race.

That said, it is what it is and no one is forcing you to buy it. Further, no one here with a bracket car or throttle stop car needs Q16. We ran 6.91 and as fast as 195MPH with a 16:1 engine and won over $75,000 this past season on Sunoco Supreme aka Blue which is 112 and currently $17.30/gal for a 5 gallon pail, $12.58/gal for a 54 gallon drum, online and it's the fuel in the tanks of both of my cars.

Oh and Big Steve...KNOWS!