1ofmyfuns

I'm sure anything I say or ask here has been addressed countless times already, but I 'm thinking about making some ofmy own fuel up, and I've read a gillion different opinions on the subject so far, Iknow that from what I've seen that non-nitro fuel makes tuning a little trickier and of coarse we all know that there would also be a loss of power with a non nitro mix, but Iam thinking of getting the material together and doing some experimenting just for the fun of it and thinking I might come up with a mixer I'm happy with that will save me alittle $$$ on fuel whenI'm just running my buggyaround and dont really care about the extra power.

Anyone one else doing this withtheir cars, trucks, buggies....?

nitrosportsandrunner

its not gonna happen.
these motors are not like the one in a car, or a lawn mower. those have spark plugs which ignite the mixture(in combination with the compresion)
that being the source of the ignition allows for several different fuels to be used. not all will perform the same, but can still be used to cause combustion.

a nitro motor relys on compresion and the heat of the glow plug to ignite the fuel mixture. this requires a very specific mixture. its much easier to ignite a fuel with a high-voltage spark and compression than it is with compression and a small heat source.
the spark plug provide a sudden spike in heat in a split second.
a glow plug provides a steady amount of heat, that combined with the compresion of the nitro causes it to ignite. the correct fuel, and correct fuel/air mixture is critical to getting it to combust at the right time(if at all)

im not saying that other fuels "wont" run a nitro motor. but even if you find one that does, it will be very weak and may not allow the motor to rev very high.

1ofmyfuns

People have been running these model engines onMethanol and Castor oil for years without nitro, I knowmany of themwill run without nitro, I wasjust wondering if anyone herewas using a mixtureof Methanol and Castor for an inexpensive fuel for just palying around, I know the power will be down by not using Nitro but these motors will run on Methanol and castor alone or atleast the ones Ihad years ago would, my dad used to run someairplane engines on Denatured alcohol and castor mix, many years ago which is just Grain Alcohol with 4-5% Methanol added to make it undrinkable and poison, grain alcohol is not nearly as powerful as straight Methanol but people have used it in planes.

I've been building engines of every kind you can just about think of for 30+ years so Iam very aware of how internal combustion engines work.

With all that said, my question was weather or not anyone here on thisredcat thread has tried mixing there own fuel like a big majority of the old school aviation guys do, and some of them also run a fuel mix without any nitro in it at allor some with only 5, 10 or 15%.

As soon as Iget my stuff together I will be mixing some and Iwill post theresults of this SH .21 engine running on either nonitro or just a small amount, I just want to make up some less expemsive fuelto play around with, I'm not a power freak that thinks WOT is the only speed I need besides Stop, so anyway I will let you know what I figure out when Iget the time to do it,and it is very possible that without Nitro te buggie motors wont produce nearly enough power but I will see.

nitrosportsandrunner

i will admit i am no expert on nitros.
however, i do know that airplane nitro motors tune way easier than car nitro motors.
props dont put the kinda load that a land-drivetrain does.

1ofmyfuns

Iagree 100% and that may be why it wont work good at all.....that is why I was trying to find out if anyone else had actually tried it and if so what their results were, i thought the same thing about the difference in load the engines in the cars, truck, buggies, are under, and you are very right about this aspect of it, the planes are pulling a prop. and not gear boxes and Diffs and axle hub assemblies and then of coarse the wheels themselves.

Icould be just wasting my time with the no nitro idea but Ifigure I can at least reduce fuel cost be maybe running 10-15% possibly with the Nitro being the most expensive component to the fuel every little bit would help.

Thanks for the imput, maybe this summer when our closest drag strip is open I will go get some Methanol and play with all this a little just to satisfy my curiousity.

nitrosportsandrunner

just save alittle and buy a 1/5 gasser!
$1 of fuel gets you and hour of runtime!
the downside is that if anything breaks it cost more to fix, like $50 tires-$80 shocks ect.

1ofmyfuns

Idontneed one of the1/5th buggies myself, They are OK but I like the small scale stuff with the 1/8th being about as big as I personally want, it's just to big of a price tag when you step up to the 1/5 stuff for me, I could buy one tomorrow if I wanted it but I'm just not gonna spend that much on an RC car of any size, I aint into it that much.

But they are cool just the same, I'll just watch you guys play with the big ones and I'll stick with the 1/10 & 1/8stuff for now, I'd get one if I found a real good deal but Iwont ever pay the big bucks for any of them like Isaid earlier, there isnt any of them worth those many hundreds of dollars, I'm not a big mizer but I do havegrown kids and 6 grandkids coming up that I plan to get involved with RC andIhave to keep the cost down as Igo so I will be able to get them some stuff to start out with as they get old enough.

nitrosportsandrunner

you may want to try a brushless RTR.
initial cost with some lipos and a charger is a bit high, but then you never have to buy fuel.
i will be buying the earthquake 8e soon. close to your backdraft in many ways but lipo powered and it even comes with some(tho i have better ones already)
with brushless you do miss the sound of the motor. but you gain alot in ease of running and no cost for fuel.
and the lipos are only getting better runtimes and power.

1ofmyfuns

I may go with an electric some day for a monster truck or crawler, or if fuel just gets completely out of sight, but for me nothing is better than these little nitro screamers, I like an engine the best but I will have an electric down the road Iknow, and I will for sure be getting an electric plane.

I'm open to all of it and each type has it's pros and cons, it's all about ones likes, ability, and what one can afford to play with.

I plan to be doing this RC stuff for a long time so Ifigure I'll have several different vehicles in the future.

Truth be known I want one of all of them................! maybe even 2!

nitrosportsandrunner

electric is the way to go with planes IMO. especially for a beginner.
brushless RTF planes with lipo and 2.4ghz are coming down in price now as well.
my 1st 4ch is a dyanm "icanfly". not the prettiest plane, but i wanted a cheap starter 4ch...in case i ended up putting her into the ground on the 1st day.
it has a brushless motor, lipo, 4ch and 72mhz radio(works good tho)
best part is it was $130 shipped and it has held up very well. i can now fly it very well, and have been able to progress to some fancier planes. i still fly the dynam tho. might try putting a 5ch radio in it so i can make a bomb drop module.

1ofmyfuns

That would be cool, not real ones of coarse, but you could put an old hula hooop or something on the ground in an open space and then see if you can drop it into that area, that would be fun.