ORIGINAL: bruce88123


A "nitro-burning" engine and a "top fuel" engine are the same thing -- engines designed to burn nitromethane rather than gasoline.

if by Nitro-burning you mean a glow engine like used in the RC hobby, they are nothing alike. top fuel uses a valved system with spark ignition, and a wet sump system for lubrication.

...........Nitromethane is a little like gasoline that has been pre-mixed with nitrous oxide. The fuel comes with its own oxygen atoms to help it burn.

you don't mix nitrous with gas, it's part of the intake air to the system, injected as a liquid into the manifold as it expands to a gas it cools the air making it more dense and allows for a higher air/fuel mixture and significantly increases the burn rate, nitro retards the burn rate and provides O2 as it burns. nitrous is non flammable, nitro is very flammable

In other words, it promotes cumbustion

that they both do but in very different ways.

kc