Is there such a thing as a rc engine that runs on alcohol? My brother inlaw just won a monster gt with a .21 size engine and it was stated that it runs on alcohol. If this is the case can someone please explain. Does it work the same way as a nitro? Where do you get teh alcohol, how is power etc...

all nitro engines run on alcohol, thats the main ingredient in the fuel nitro engines run is alcohol or methanol.

I know that nitro fuel is partially alcohol but it was asked if it ran on alcohol or nitro and he said alcohol. Usually people refer to the fuel as nitro not alcohol. Just did not know if there was a engine that ran purely on alcohol.

Our engines can run solely on Methyl Alcohol, or Methanol is its combined name....

However!

You also need oil with that or it will burn up before it gets running. The old standard is castor oil, but now there are synthetics, and synthetics mixed with castor. A very common straight mix of fuel is 80% Alcohol (methanol) and 20% Oil.

Those are the two main compounds in our "nitro" engines.

Then you start adding your nitromethane percentage to it, but the OIL PERCENTAGE has to be maintained.

It is best you go to the fuel topic under RC Engines and read up carefully. Your fuel and needle tuning knowlege will determine the life of the engine dramatically. It can mean the difference between one tank of fuel or twenty gallons of fuel before needing service. It is that critical to understand.

some engines do, but not micro engines, like engines in NHRA (I think thats it) monster trucks run just alcohol, but in are micro engines they need oil to lube them so they mix alcohol with oil then they add nitro like jetpack said for more power and such.

There are two types of alcohol, methyl alcohol (methanol) and ethyl alcohol (ethanol). Drink methanol and you'll go blind first and then kill you. Drink ethanol and you'll get blind drunk because that's what's in alcoholic drinks .

Almost all glow engines use methanol but OS have just released a .55 that's designed to use ethanol (plus oil of course) straight from the service stations (E85) but has a special glowplug with a different thread. Many people have had good success using E85 in normal glow engines too. Power is down a little compared to methanol.

As jetpack indicated, our engines are not "nitro" engines. This is just a marketing ploy aimed at the newbies because it makes the engine sound powerful and it's almost totally confined to car engines.

NHRA runs nitromthane (80-90% nitro i think). but monster trucks and sprint cars run on alcohol

NHRA run max 85% nitromethane with minimum 15% methanol, monster trucks run on pure methanol, NHRA cars are still considered alcohol cars though (the first run to ever hit 300 MPH was running 15% nitro and 85% methanol)

maybe NHRA isn't the name of the monster truck thing (not sure what its called) my bad.

nah, NHRA stands fr national rot rod association, they're the governing body for all drag racing in the U.S and canada.

I am glad you bring up ingesting model engine fuels. As for drinking either, I say DONT.

Especially methanol, it is not lethal when you first drink it, it becomes letheal once the body processes it. Methanol is processed into the metabalyte that is exactly formaldahyde. Drink methanol, and your body will embalm itslef.

For anyone foolish enough to drink model fuel and think ethanol is the way to go for a buzz, just simply buy a 6pack. Model fuel will run you at least $25USD per gallon! Not to mention, the casteroil or whatever lubricant is in there is sure to make you do a serious number as well.

might i add jut for a fact that if you do ingest methanol, the counter treatment is to drink ethanol, aka whiskey, scotch, vodka, anything with a high alcohol content

Seriously???
What does that do? Cause the methanol to metabolize differently? How does it counteract the methanol?

It makes death less painful...


Anyway...I thought you were supposed to drink milk as the "antidote"?