i think this is the best way to measure it, take a bottle of the fluid off of tower hobbies and watch it drain through a funnel and record its time, then try to get my silicone of the same quantity to drain in the same time meaning a similar viscosity.

If you personally do not consider 9 bucks a bottle for oil that cost less than 35 (a whole lot less in the bulk volumes were talking about) bucks a gallon not insulting, more power to ya bro. If you also like to piss away money this way I'd be more than happy to sell ya my old pickup for, say, $75k. Good deal, huh? What do you mean no, its only worth a couple grand?! <hint, this is an analogy... Just because companies get away with charging $9 bucks for a bottle does not mean we as consumers are not getting screwed. I also take exeption to your implication that I and anyone else who thinks that diff oil may be overpriced can't afford this hobby offensive. Rs, when people have an opinion different than yours, it's great to put your opinion in. It's very lame of you on the other hand to try to belittle people who don't agree with you. Unless your like 12, then we can overlook these kind of things. Have a nice day.

If you buy the fluid from Tower, you could just use the fluid instead of running tests on it. Chances are you would never finish the bottle, so finding a substitute would not be necessary.

Somebody's signature summed it up best when they said something along the lines of:
"If Wile E. Coyote could afford all of that ACME crap to catch/kill the roadrunner, why didn't he just buy dinner?"

In other words, why go off on a quest that will cost you more (both time and money) than just buying the fluid in the first place?

its only like $4.50 a bottle, if people cant afford that i just dont know what to say, how do you afford nitro fuel?

I think its a legitimate question. For instance, I would never pay several dollars for a few TINY tubes of 'Team Associated' lithium grease, when the same thing can be had in a quart size container at Auto Zone for the same price. If there were an alternate source for dif and/or shock oil, I for one would like to know about it!

This is what this thread is all about.

It's not a question of weather or not one can afford it. You can also be assured that I buy the brand of fuel I like from the person I found who gets it to me the cheapest. To do anything else is just throwing your money away, and just plain stupid. If I were Bill Gates I would still look for the best bang for the buck. Most people, in the United States at least, do not like to be or feel ripped off... The point of the thread is that someone feels that they are being ripped off (I agree with him) and is trying to get educated so he can stop that. If your opinion is that $4.50 for 30 cents worth of oil some color and a bottle is not a rip off, more power to ya. It's your opinion, and it's valid. But it has nothing to do with weather or not I or anyone else can afford anything. It's just that we would like to delve into the hobbies were are in deeper (this becomming a foreign idea to most hobbiest because of the lack of time and the rtr or arf stuff that has permiated lately) to gain a better understanding of how things work. At the same time give it to the "man" a little, and save a few bucks in the process.

even if u can buy silicon oil at 35 a gallon... what do u do with a gallon? and u still need different weights. so as i see it, u need a couple small bottles of different weights, or u need a couple gallons of a light and heavy weight fluids. wheres the advantage? i can barely use up a small bottle in a year of use, what would i do with a gallon?

1)MY whole intention of this post is not based on me saving money, I do know that it is cheaper to just buy it off of tower hobbies im trying something different, im trying to post something on this site other than "wich buggy should i buy", "what motor is the best", why wont my buggy start?". Does anyone agree with me that this post is more enjoyable to read than the same questions asked over and over?

2)I dont know how everyone cleans there buggys but i use denatured alcohol and simple green. I think the solution works good, i can find everything at a hardware store and its not that expensive to use. Whoever made the solution was thinking the same way i am trying to think. Right now i am looking on tower hobbies at car cleaner sprays and there isnt a can of it for under 6 bucks. What if no one thought of a solution for cleaning nitro cars and instead spent money on spray cans and just kept buying can after can, i would not have thought to mix simple green and denatured alcohol.

3)One of my friends dad makes his own nitro fuel, he has been into planes and helicopters for alot of years and has ALOT of knowledge on nitro engines. His son has a T-maxx and we occasionally run together, he always uses this blue fuel and i thought it was traxxas fuel until i asked him one day. After he told me they make their own fuel i could not beleive it, it was just as good if not beter than the hpi fuel i have been buying for years. He explained its not even hard to make the fuel they just ordered the chemicals in bulk and figured out the right ratio of everything until it was right. He was not thinking about saving money, he is a machinist at the power plant i work at and can afford everything it takes and has the time to expirement with it.

4)I am 20 years old, I have alot of free time, i have plenty of money. I have a week off at a time, most of my time off any friends i run with are at their jobs the week i am off and it gets boring running by myself so i look for things to do.

5) I think this forum would be alot more interesting if people tried things like this, even if they dont work as good it is still interesting. This forum seems more and more like a buying guide the more i read it and its not that interesting to me anymore.

Im going to buy two gallon jugs of the silicone one heavy and one light viscosity and try to match it to the bottles i buy off of tower hobbies, its going to cost 100 bucks about to do everything. Everything i have left over i will ship to anyone on here that wants it. PM me and i will send you some of the fluids i make as long as you tell me how they work compared to what you use.

I wish I had an RC when I lived in Payson. How's it running up there in the White Mts? Are the forests closed yet? You work in the new coal fired plant?

Anyway, I enjoy reading posts such as this, you never know when you are going to run across some little tidbit of info that will save you time and/or money. Later!

Good luck with the silicone. It's not hard to mix if you know the viscosity of the two oils. You can mix and get any value you want.
[link=http://www.gesilicones.com/gesilwizards/blending/fluid2.html?SMSESSION=NO]Link - Here is a calculator you can use.[/link]

I used to mix my own fuel too. That's not rocket science either and I would still do it if I had a suitable space to mix and store any bigger quantities of fuel.

I am also tired of all 'best engine...', 'best buggy...' threads. More crazy projects plz.

That is a perfect reason to start something like this up. This is one of just a very few threads I have read all the way through because it is something different. I too use my own mixture for cleaners, very similar to yours but it's Jungle Jake mixed with water and alcohol. $6 will make almost a gallon of my mix. It was very important when I was flying planes because I needed to clean a surface about 9x the size as my 1/10th scale.

I too like reading posts that just give some thought into things we don't normally worry about.

Here's some food for thought: Can you focus on driving when you're here?

The white mountains are booming with people from everywhere with money, housing developments are shooting up everywhere. Im not sure if the forests are closed yet but i can almost guarantee the white mountains are gonna be on fire on cnn again haha, And yea im at the new coal power plant the whole thing isnt new we just have 1 new unit so its 1/3rd bigger than it was.

Thats cool as hell i thought mixing nitro would be pretty complicated you should make a post on how you made it i would really be interested in that.

I think that would be a cool thread . I`d like to know how to make my own fuel just for something to do and try it out .

LOL, It's just a matter of mixing fluids just like when you make yourself a gin tonic or something. Anyone can do that.

Here's what I used for RC boat fuel. I ran 30 min heats 95% WOT with 3.5cc, 7.5cc and 15cc engines and never had a problem with breaking engines. A mix for long life... so it got more oil than car fuels. Mix by volume not weight.

12% ModelTechnics EDL synthetic oil
3% Castor Oil (Castrol M)
25% Nitro
60% Methanol


Add the oils to maybe 1/4 of the Methanol used, mix until oil is evenly 'disolved'
Add more Methanol and mix.
Add Nitro and mix.

Done.

where can you buy methonal and nitro?

That I do not know. Back in Sweden we used to buy Methanol from a local Speedway track. Nitro from Dragracers and oils in the hobby shop and gas station.

I guess similar places would work here too.