DesertHucker

Try using Home Brew Buddy it will calculate the mix to your own specs and temprature variation. and is simple to use on scales place your container and zero the scales then add oil and zero add nitro and zero add methanol and zero or it will give the quantaties to mix by volume metric or imperial. 1.2mb in size contact me for a copy. i will try to find the web link and post it.

DesertHucker

download the gif file then change the file extention to exe so hbbuddy.gif = hbbuddy.exe

wldcwbypilot

Check your calculator it would 0.0000025. that is twenty five part per million. Mighty miniscue if you ask me.

will

speedster 1919

My Feedback: (3)

I live close to Indianapolis In. racing capital of the world. Finding the ingrediants here are easy if you can buy large amounts. Like 4 drums of nitro at a time. Mixing my own fuel is just plain fun. If you fly alot it is worth it. Dragsters use 11 gallons of fuel in 1/4 mile ,that is 44 gallons to a mile. Engines have to be rebuilt every 1/4 mile. The simple fact is nitro kills engines and eats internal metal. The less you use the longer your engine will last. Nitro is expensive and should't make up for and under powered plane. Get a bigger motor. If you gather all the recommended engine manufactures fuel list it would bring you to conclude this. 20% oil of a blend like 20 /80 and 5 to 10% nitro. I still am not convinced 100% synthetic is good , so humor your engine and warranty with alittle castor oil..

blw

My Feedback: (3)

speedster,

It isn't exactly the nitro that kills top fuel engines. It could also be that they are putting out 7000+ hp to the wheels for 7 seconds flat out!

Some manufacturers recommend 15%, so that's what I'm using. I have seen enough engines that run on 15% and last something like 10 or 15 years.

Sport_Pilot

Model speed engines use 70% nitro without blowing up like a AA dragster, but then they are not blown, and do not have an ignition system that will ignite super rich mixtures. They seem to last well and the nitro doesn't seem to eat them up at least not to the degree that speedster would imply.

Eagle Flyer

My Feedback: (84)

I just did the math with current local prices.
Methanol, 1.7 cents an ounce
Nitro 35 cents an ounce
Klotz lube 30 cents an ounce
So 15% nitro with 18% lube will cost me $15.09 to make.
I can buy it tax included for $13.76

I did get a gallon of 15% nitro 18% lube to mix with 2 more gallons of methanol to make 5% nitro and 6% lube for my ST 3000 with a needle bearing converted rod, both ends. Comes out to $6.05 a gallon. It would cost me $6.50 to make.
Guess I'm a buyer and not a brewer.

3d-aholic

My Feedback: (7)

You don't make your own fuel because its that much cheaper. I can buy 20/20 for about $20 a gallon. I can make it for about $13.00 a gallon. A small savings but the savings would not be sufficient to convince me to make fuel. Its convenience. I need a gallon of fuel to fly this weekend, I go into my garage and make up a gallon in about 10 minutes. The nearest LHS is 35-45 mins and may not even have the fuel when I get there.

Also, I cannot buy any fuel for $13.76 tax included...not even 5% Nitro. If your have 2 LHS's with 15mins, I would say buy.

jfitter

Here is the Home Brew Buddy link. [link]ftp://ftp.eagleairaust.com.au/HBBuddy.exe[/link] This is a self extracting archive.

Enjoy

xrboss

The Home Brew buddy is a great free program. http://www.taa.org.au/html/home_brew.html TAA have a screen shot. Just don't tell the wife what your doing with the kitchen scales. If you don't have a set of digital scales it would make an ideal mothers day gift! HeHe

John@FLYRC

I read a lot (certainly not all) of this thread. I make my own fuel. I am interested in the low nitro mixes and will give then a try

RE: Where to buy Nitro. I have used Price Chemical (www.pricechemical.com). Their prices are reasonable but the Hazmat surcharge is expensive. I try to get nitro from the local auto speed shops when I can. Price offers decent volume discounts.

RC-Captain

You are simply the man ! nice program.

I'm gonna have ME some fun....... [:-]

xrboss

Home brew buddy was written by John Fitter from Eagle Air Australia. It has enabled me to mix with high precision exact amounts of oil and nitro so that from one batch to the next my engines do not require retuning. In short it has enabled me to have exactly repeatable results every time, just what is required for pattern.

RC-Captain

Nice to know, and thanks again. So far All I have is a 4 oz bottle of CASTOR OIL, I'm on the hunt for the methanol next. I figure with these two ingredients I can start experimenting.

davidsai

Is there a replacement for nitromethane?

Cant get any here in Colombia.

regards
david
www.cybul.com/rcguide.html

MassiveMods

whats the adavantage of mixing fuel by weight as opposed to by volume ?

DesertHucker

Fuel like other solids or liquids expands and contracts at different rates with temperature changes. Using a program like home brew buddy compensates for this.
and it is easier to mix on scales use your favorite container on the scale hit tare add oil hit tare add nitro hit tare add meth and shake less tha 5 minutes 1 gallon mixed.

MassiveMods

but to use the home brew program , can you re program perameters or unit weight for another brand of oil, on the program it only specifies one brand ...

DesertHucker

Yes you can change the specific gravity and it includes klots and castor as well as coolpower under utilities

xrboss

Read the help file, it will show you how to determine the specific gravity of an unknown liquid. Basicly use water. Put a container on the digital scales, hit tare, fill till you have 1000 grams. That is 1liter exactly, mark on your container where it comes to. Empty the water, dry the container. Put the container on the scales, hit tare, add the oil to the marked point. eg 1liter of oil weighs 1200grams then the sg is 1000 / 1200 = 1.2 Working in metric makes this real easy.

xrboss

Mixing accurate by volume requires very accurate mixing containers. Using home digital scales enables you to mix very accurately. eg you want to try using 19% oil instead of 20% oil, using scales and home brew buddy makes it easy, but using containers requires really good containers, ie expensive and hard to get. A good digital kitchen scales are cheep and easy to get.

rbbracken

I would like to mix my own but finding Nitro is tuff, what is the best out let. Also what would be a good mix for a Savage 25, I am thinking 30% nitro 15% Oil and 55% Methanol.

Any thought from you all

Thanks
Ron

iskandar taib

My Feedback: (5)

Yes, but do be aware that 20% oil by weight is a lot less than 20% oil by volume. This is because oil (PAGs and castor) have a s.g. of about 1 and methanol is more like 0.8. As long as you know this and compensate for it, there is no problem mixing by weight.

DesertHucker

Yes and by volume density changes to temprature.
So at what temprature is 1 litre of oil = litre of methanol?

iskandar taib

My Feedback: (5)

I don't think the two ever reach equal densities, at least, not while in the liquid state. As I said, the SG of methanol is around 0.8, oil is about 1. That's a BIG difference.