_brad_

My Feedback: (4)

Hi all,

Around 20 years ago my late dad used to fly rc planes. He had a formula for mixing his own fuel which he found worked really well. I was too young at the time to care about or show any interest in the fuel mixture. Yeah, Icould kick myself today.....

Does anyone mix their own fuel? If so, what do you use to mix and where can you purchase the "ingredients".

Thanks for any advice,
Brad

Charlie P.

20% Castor oil, 80 % methanol. You can drop the castor for larger engines or swap for synthetic. Also, most folks would mix in 5% to 15% nitromethanol in place of like percentages ofthe methanol.

Castor oil you can get several places off the Internet (you want first press or pharmaceutical grade). No idea where you night find methanol or nitromethanol.

Charlie P.

Here's a potential source in Texas:

[email protected]

In 2006 he was selling 55 gallon drums of methanol at $110 -  you pick up.

Charlie P.

I found only one U.S. supplier on Alibaba.com:

Emergent Industrial Solutions.  http://www.emergentind.com/  They'd probably agree to ship you a tanker truckload reasonably. 

Hundreds of dealers in China.

Klotz sells Nitromethane.

http://www.klotzwarehouse.com/index.php?productID=8640

$18.00 per gallon and $42.00 haz mat fee.  Ouch.

I'd recommend buying glow fuel pre-mixed.

jetmech05

I looked into mixing my own fuel a few years back....I'd have to drive 10 hrs for the nitro...not to mention it was more expensive....
stick with a good quality glow fuel you'll be ok

MetallicaJunkie

i wouldnt fuss with mixing either...back then it was a common practice.... you can get quality fuel with nitromethane cheaper than you can blend your own.

mike109

G'day

I am in Australia and so my comments may not apply to you but here I can mix the same mixture as I can buy for about half the price as I can buy pre-mixed fuel.

My standard fuel, which I use in all my two and four stroke engines apart from a couple of older plain bearing engines, is as follows.

10% nitromethane, 5% castor oil, 15% synthetic oil (Klotz 200) and 70% methanol. You can increase or decrease the nitro content by substituting it for methanol. Anything from 0% to 40% will work. The more nitro you use, the more power you get but the more fuel you use and the more rust problems you create. The castor oil is there as insurance against rust and also against lean runs. It works better than synthetic oil at the limit but it does tend to gunk the engine up though at 5% the problem is very small and I like the insurance.

I buy the nitro and the two oils from my local hobby shop in 5 litre containers. The castor costs about A$50 for five litres, the Klotz about A$80 and the nitro about A$90. (At the present time the A$ and US$ are very close in value and a US gallon contains about 3.8 litres).

I buy methanol from a local fuel supplier. In 20 litre drums it costs about A$48.

If I buy the same fuel mixture from the local hobby shop it costs about A$49 for 4 litres and I can mix it for a bit more than half this price.

Most engines will run happily with very little or no nitromethane but it does add power, especially to four strokes, and it makes the tuning easier and idle better.

Have fun mixing your fuel.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I have gotten my alcohol and nitro from auto speed shops and go kart shops, sometimes I have even found it on the shelf at Hobby People, same with the Castor Oil. I like the klotz oil better though, it's blended. Unless you are going to mix up about 50 gallons it isn't worth the time. A lot of people just mix up FAI fuel, just 20% oil to 80% alcohol without any nitro at all. Some engines like it and some don't, ask a Moki user what they use.

Phoenixangel

Just for giggles last year I bought some alcohol race fuel (99.7% pure methanol) at the dirt track up the road for $ 3.00 a gallon.My total cost with shipping the oil was $9.00 a gallon. I just poured a quart of Klotz into one of my old wildcat jugs and filled the rest with race fuel. Every engine I have except the magnum .52 four stroke ran fine with tuning.

The idle was really awful to tune, very sensitive compared to what I am used to. I changed to the fox miracle plug and it got better, but still touchy. Less oil may have made it easier.

I did eventually get them to all run and idle fine, they all spool up slower in transition, less power on all engines. The Super Tigre .75 ringed engine did not mind the change near as much as my .46 engines.
As much as I do not really like to admit it,( I just don't like the fanboy stuff ) the O.S. .46 did really well compared to my mecoa and ST .46 engines. They all ran fine, it was just easier tuning and seemed stronger.

I think I could still be tuning today and never get the 4 stroke to idle on this stuff. I am sure its possible, I just couldn't do it. I tried for an hour to get it to run, it just kept flaming out during idle when I would remove the glow driver.

It can be done, but I like the wildcat fuel I buy with nitro better.

(*edit-the ONLY four stroke I have is the magnum, it is a 10 yr old freebie my uncle mailed to me when he found out I liked to fly. It was frozen solid and freed by a week long soaking in fuel.It runs fine on 15% nitro)

DMcQuinn

My Feedback: (13)

I can buy methanol and nitromethane locally (St. Louis MO), but have to mail-order the synthetic oil from http://www.morganfuel.com.

The alcohol and nitro come from a drag-boat enthusiast that buys it in bulk and resells it out of his shop. I think he told me he goes thru about 10 gallons of nitromethame in a quarter-mile boat run. He runs 97% nitro and 3% alcohol.

Phoenixangel

LUCKY !! If I could find nitro locally that would make it worth the effort.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Brad...there's a place right there in Syracuse where you can buy Methanol...I was thinking of making my own fuel last year.

I called Baum's Castorine here in Rome about oil (they have the oil's you might want ) and he gave me the name of an industrial supplier in Syr. for the Methanol, but I can't recall the name right off hand. (I could look it up if you're interested...but ya gotta buy a 55 gal drum, minimum )

Problem is the Nitro...

By the time I figured in all the costs, I figured it wasn't really cost effective, so...what I wound up doing was buying 2) 55 gal. drums (one for me and one for a local club ) of pre-mixed from Stan at S&W Hobby in Pennsylvania. it cost us less than 10 bucks a gallon for 15% Nitro / 18% oil (syn/castor blend )

http://www.s-whobby.com/
A friend and I drove down in a pick-up truck to get it. Stan met us in Scranton, so the drive wasn't too bad...
You might consider giving Stan a call...he's a cool guy, and easy to deal with. If you buy in bulk, you can get a better price.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah, that's what we do down here in south New Jersey. Our club, or one or two of the other area clubs always set up an excursion to S&W and pick up fuel for everyone that asks for it. I buy it by the case, four gallons to a case, usually get three or four cases, which lasts me pretty well through the season.

But, because we buy in "bulk", even by the case like that, it's much cheaper than by the gallon at the local hobby shop.. if we had one, that is. Both closed down last year, and the closest one is in Millville, about an hour drive away, and his fuel costs are probably like they are at most LHS's... that is not cheap!!

And, as said, Stan is a good guy.

CGr.

_brad_

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions.  I am originally from South Africa and these items were readily available back in the day which is why I have the interest now.

Proptop, thanks for the tips on Stan and supplier in Syr.  I can look them up and see if it worthwhile.  I will also chat to the guys at the field and perhaps do a fuel run with Stan.

Not too sure how much flying we will do with winter setting in, but at least it gives me time for research before the spring.

Happy flying everyone.

smithcreek

My Feedback: (25)

I'll second S&W. I ran a group buy for a 55 gallon drum the past two years now from him and it's excellent fuel. We had the drum shipped to Providence RI and this year even with shipping it still ended up costing $8.90/gallon for 15% nitro. One benefit is laughing at all the suckers who declined to get in on the group buy, who then had to pay $22/gallon at the local hobby store all season.

Sport_Pilot

Call or e-mail these people.

VP-Atlantic
Newark, DE
Phone: 302-368-1500
Fax: 302-368-1869
[email protected]

You will find suppliers at or near most auto race tracks or speed shops.

Their web site.

http://www.vpracingfuels.com/

You can also try Torco

http://torcoracefuel.net/dealers.html#NY

I found these by googling "Racing Fuel" I have bought nitro from VP in a single gallon plastic jug. methanol in a five gallon can. Not much cheaper but good for the engines that need a special diet.