El Buho

So back in the day, when I was having fun with McCoy, Cox, K&B, and Fox model airplane/boat engines, the fuel was called "model engine fuel" or "glow plug fuel". But now reading posts and advertisements, I see the term "nitro".

So is this the same thing, but with a new name??

Dreamin Hemi

You are correct sir!

Fuel technology has changed over the years. Many options as far as fuels go with different percentages offered.

El Buho

Thanks for the info I went back and looked at one of my old K&B fuel cans and on the back of the can they listed the 5 types of fuel that they sold at the time: 100, 500, 1000, Speed, and F.A.I. -There was also a vague discription of the intended use of each type i.e U-control, pylon, free flight, combat, but the use discriptions often overlaped and there was no indication of what % of ( I guess) nitro was in each type.

Thanks again!

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

We just like to call it nitro as then we get to feel like the Drag racers and impress everyone else! I wow the 4-wheel crowd when I say that I run 65% nitro and don't think anything of it while they think that they're pushing the edge with 30%! They pass when I ask them if they'd like to try a tankful.
I remember the cans of K&B fuel. Man, that was a looooong time ago! Kinda showing our age here.
I think that FAI fuel has no nitro in it so we really can't call that nitro, just methanol and oil. I don't know what the percentages were of the other ones. It seems like the boat racers used the 500.
Castor oil was the choice of the day back then for a lubricant, who heard of synthetics back then? Now you can get castor oil blended, synthetic or a mix of the two.

Hydro Junkie

I think the term nitro was adopted with the rise in popularity of the "weedeater" powered boats. Prior to that, many refered to the nitro motors as "gas" engines so a change of some sort had to be made to differentiate between the two.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

It's surprising how many people refer to gas boats when they've got nitro powered ones! "Model" fuel just seemed to make them sound more like toys. OK, you got me on that one as they are toys I guess but some of us take it a little more seriously..........

mfr02

Some interesting nitro stuff here -

El Buho

Yes, looking back "gas" was the term we used when refering to glow plug engines, but I didden't want to bring that term into my original question for fear it would confuse things.

Before the avalability of "weedeater" engines ( which is actually a two cycle gasoline engine I beleve) modelers had only these choices:
1. Glow plug.
2. Diesel (a weird little engine that relied on ulta high compression to ignite the fuel without a glow plug)
3. electric.
4. Co2 (air pressure canister powered the piston, or direct jet type exhaust from the canister)
5. Ram Jet (another strange engine that you had to "start" with a a high pressure air blast into the jet tube)
6. True very old school gasoline four cycle engines (that no one used anymore).

So given thouse types we just called them "gas" and everybody knew what we were talking about.