While I agree that more fuel = more power it's not quite as simple as that. Nitro is actually a very poor fuel compared to methanol (it's heat energy is about half) but it's more than made up for because of the air/fuel ratio it needs. In other words, you need to pour a lot more nitro into the same volume of air for it to burn effectively. This is why the needle has to be opened more for any increase in nitro % in the fuel.

Actually, it is that simple. I never said nitro was the fuel. As far as opening the needle to see the benefits of nitro fuel, I do believe I stated that as well.


One of the limiting things for nitro is the compression it can handle before detonation. This ranges from 6.5:1 at a lean setting to 10:1 when rich. Methanol however can be run at about 17:1 but seeing that nitro is commonly used then compressions have been lowered to account for this. Which is why an OS sold in America is absolutely identical to one sold in Australia. It's also why some European engines (Rossi for instance) come with spare head shims.

As do many boat, DF and car engines.


By simply raising the compression on an Enya 60X I got an extra 19% more HP on the same zero nitro fuel (revs increased from 11.7K to 12.5K) but what I'm curious to find out is how much nitro would be needed to have the same affect.

You might have to try some nitro to get that answer

John