Originally Posted by
BobH
The one thing about glow and ignition is that it produces more power than gas and ignition. If you don't need the power then its not a problem. But if you do.. keep it glow.
i've always wondered about that. Given the same displacement (say 70cc) and cycle (say four-stroke), wouldn't you get the same power? Yes, methanol has stoichiometric ratio of about 4 with air, vs 16 for gasoline. So you need to get a lot more methanol into the cylinder than gasoline. That's doable, though, and once they combust with a given volume of air, you get pretty much the same expansion, hence power. In fact, because alcohol has a higher flame speed, you can get a bit more (15-20 percent) more power with it. That's why top fuel dragsters run mostly nitro, with the balance methanol.
But I'm no expert ...