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All Forums >> Glow Engines, Gas Engines, Fuel & Mfg Support Forums >> RC Fuels >> cheap way to make fuel??
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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/8/2003 6:57:54 AM   
grant-RCU


 

Posts: 384
Joined: 1/11/2003
From: Plains, GA, USA
Status: offline 		Today We went to the race track. At my local track they sell methanol for $3 a gallon which is pretty cheap. Now i think this may work well. Has anyone thought of using cooking oil for the Lube in the fuel? I compared crisco brand and wesson brand cooking oils which are alittle thinner in consistancy than castor oil which i have also. I have olive oil also which is thicker than crisco. Penut oil is a thicker oil also similar to castor oil. OK crisco can be bought for about $5 a gallon and penut oil may be a tad more expensive as olive oil. Bottom line is that all these oils come from some sort of plant like castor oil so i cant see any reason it wouldnt work. so if you use 20% oil to a gallon thats about $1 of oil per gallon of methanol so $4 a gallon . Now the fuel wouldnt have nitro in it but i think alot of people use nonnitro fuel. I know the store bought kind has all these additives in it but shoot the bearings still rust after some time period especially if you dont use after run oil like me!
Now what do you guys think? Good or bad idea?
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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/8/2003 8:38:03 AM   
downunder-RCU



Posts: 1125
Joined: 12/27/2001
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Status: offline 		Cooking oil would be good for one thing...cooking your engine on the first run

There used to be a Castrol ad run on TV here where the catch phrase was "Oils ain't oils" and that's the case here. Just because an oil is a vegetable oil doesn't mean they're all the same, their chemical makeup differs. Other vegetable oils have been tried and some have worked to some extent but none have ever come remotely close to being as good as castor.

(in reply to grant-RCU)
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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/9/2003 2:04:25 AM   
goony


 

Posts: 120
Joined: 1/18/2003
From: peterborough, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline 		What about a good quality fully synthetic 2 stroke motorcycle oil? if and when you try this make sure you start the motor as if you were running in a new engine and make sure you let us know how you get on

regards goony

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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/9/2003 4:23:16 AM   
grant-RCU


 

Posts: 384
Joined: 1/11/2003
From: Plains, GA, USA
Status: offline 		I just ran across a site that said you could use mineral oil in place of castor oil. It also said you could use PB Blaster spary to improve the performance of the engine..

What do you guys think will this work?
I can get a gallon of mineral oil for $10 a gallon vs 25 a gallon for castor.

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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/9/2003 11:44:31 AM   
smitymax



Posts: 201
Joined: 9/25/2002
From: Grants Pass, OR, USA
Status: offline 		Its all in the "flash point" of the oil. Its the temperature that the oil will burn. You want an oil that has a relatively high flash point so that the oil doesn't burn but stays in the engine to lubricate. That's one reason not to run engines lean as they have to little oil to start with and the engine get hotter than normal burns the oil and has no lubrication at all and really fries the engine big time. So check the flash point of the oil you propose to use to make sure it will not burn at the normal operating temperature of the engine. There are also a lot of other characteristics of oil that are important also such as viscosity, solubility, etc.

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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/9/2003 6:30:47 PM   
Waco Driver



Posts: 157
Joined: 1/16/2003
From: Paris, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		I recall reading in a fuel article by George Aldrich in Model Airplane News, that K & B at one time used a cooking oil in one of their racing fuels with great sucess. They apparently had the oil manufacturer's name spraypainted over before delivery of the drums to their mixing site in order to maintain their oil secret. George also commented that the fuel was very popular with those using it because of it's delectable odour when burned.

After reading this I experimented with mixing some sample fuel using Mazola and Safflower cooking oils. In spite of them both being vegetable based, neither would mix with methanol. I believe you will find that this will apply to the mineral oil also.

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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/26/2003 2:23:56 AM   
ZB50



Posts: 469
Joined: 12/10/2001
From: Montgomery, AL, USA
Status: offline 		grant,

Where is this racetrack near you that sells methanol for $3.00 a gal?

ZB

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cheap way to make fuel?? - 6/26/2003 5:07:58 PM   
Sport_Pilot



Posts: 7451
Joined: 1/21/2002
From: Acworth, GA, USA
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by grant
I just ran across a site that said you could use mineral oil in place of castor oil. It also said you could use PB Blaster spary to improve the performance of the engine..

What do you guys think will this work?
I can get a gallon of mineral oil for $10 a gallon vs 25 a gallon for castor. [/QUOTE]

Carefull here. Castor will mix with both methanol and gas. Most motorcycle synthitic oils mix only with gas some both. So unless it is a racing oil made for methanol it may not mix.

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RE: cheap way to make fuel?? - 4/3/2004 9:27:57 PM   
bigchap


 

Posts: 1031
Joined: 3/9/2004
From: frimley,surrey., UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline 		about ten years ago a motorcycle magazine here in the u.k. ran an article on two-stroke oils,they tested a lot of oils back to back,they tested film strength,shear,plus loads of other stuff which i did not fully understand!anyhow they compiled a top ten and what was at number 3?thats right,vegetable oil for cooking!a friend did try it once in a very highly tuned two-stroke and reported no ill effects apart from the bike smelling like a deep fryer!

(in reply to Sport_Pilot)
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RE: cheap way to make fuel?? - 4/4/2004 4:38:23 AM   
FlyNBHappy


 

Posts: 274
Joined: 7/21/2002
From: Peanut Gallery, USA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: grant-RCU

Good or bad idea?



Bad Idea. Why? Because no cooking oil (canola, peanut, olive, safflower, corn, grapeseed, etc.) is miscible (stay mixed) with Methanol.

Here's my cheap fuel mix. Methanol at local fuel depot ($2.10 / gal). 4-stroke Coolpower oil ($18/gal). 4 gal of methanol ($8.40) + 1 gal of oil ($18) = $26.40 for 5 gal of fuel. Or about $5.30 / gal.

< Message edited by Addict2RC -- 4/4/2004 4:02:25 AM >

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