Hi Guys,

I have been mixing my own fuel for racing my YS powered Warbirds. I always bought my nitro from Klotz. This year he quit selling it. Do any of you know of a source for it?

Thanks, Terry

Terry,
You might trywww.hyperfuels.com

Right now they seem to be having tech problems with their website.

Also, you might try any speed shops in your area, if they don't have it they may be abledirect you to
drag racers that may part with a gallon or two.

Good luck Happy flying, Oscar
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Try to find a go kart shop in you'r area lots of them carry nitro and 2 cycle oils.

I ordered 4 quarts of nitro for $13.75USD per qt from FHS Oils ( www.fhsoils.com ) It's diluted to 80% with methanol (20%) to avoid hazmat fees.
I get castor from SIG for $23 a gallon. I don't use synthetics.

Torco Race Fuels sells just the nitromethane too:
http://stores.ebay.com/Torco-Race-Fu...id=p4340.l2563

S&W Fuel has it. www.s-whobby.com

Actually both nitro and methanol has the same fire hazard rating but methanol has a higher health hazard rating, so adding methanol only adds to the hazard. Its the quart size that gets rid of the haz mat fee.

+ torco

Thats where I'm going to get my next gallon of nitro. I have enough nitro in the mail to make about 6-7 gallons of fuel which will probably take me 2 years to burn up. Its nice to see Torco offers free shipping and their price is about $24 a gallon cheaper than what I got..

Does NitroEthane work in the same fashion as NitroMethane? They're about the same price per gallon from what I've seen...

i havent checked out NitroEthane so i cant say. how ever seeing how no one talked about it, ill bet theres a reason. i hope you know how to mix nitro. if you dont the worst that can happen is your % will be diff than you thought. safety: if methanol burns in daylight you cant see the flame. but water will put it out.

Don't start the "I don't recommend mixing your own" stuff again. It's not rocket science. I am well aware of the dangers these chemicals pose. Thanks for the concern, though.

i have only been mixing nitro for 3 short years. and yes you can mix it without a hydrometer, BUT you will NOT know what % you have. iam tired of pointing this out.

I don't understand why I should mix fuel by specific gravity. What is wrong with mixing by volume? The only reason that I can think of to use a hydrometer would be if I suspect that my nitromethane has been diluted and is not the advertised purity.

Almost all if not all fuel companies mix by volume. You could consider it an industry standard if you wanted to. Even if there is a 1-5% difference in what the advertised content is, that is not going to be of much hindrance on the performance of the engine. If you get your nitromethane from a reputable source, they aren't going to sell you 95% nitromethane and say its 100%. If you distrust the supplier, then find another supplier. In now way is it necessary to get that technical unless you're paranoid about having the mixture ratios being off a few percentage points.

A model engine isn't going to care if you feed it 12% nitro instead of 15%. The only noticeable difference will be the tuning.

moe7404 - you (and the rest of us) have beat this horse so badly its not only dead, but all of its limbs and head have fallen off. Just agree to disagree and move on. You mix your fuel your way and we'll mix it our way. OR if you question it that badly, why not call a few fuel companies and ask them what method they use to mix their fuel. Better yet, buy a gallon of 2 or 3 different brands of fuel and get out your hydrometer and test the nitro content. While you're at it, verify the methanol and oil content as well. I would be curious to see if 20% nitro is really 20% or if its 19% or 21%. I'm dying to know. (not really)

Klotz was closing out their nitro at Toledo this year for $35.00 a gallon.

<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: "Arial","sans-serif"">I have to wonder how Moe uses a hydrometer to mix fuel as the different types of oil have different specific weights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>Also it would be difficult to proportion three different liquids.</span></p>

True.....measuring the S/G of nitro in mixed fuel is nothing but unsliced baloney.....can't do it.
The only way nitro's S/G can be measured is before it is mixed with anything.
Not that any of us could do anything about it anyway.....
Well....I guess if the S/G of the nitro to be used is 99% of whatever it is supposed to be....1% could be added to make up the difference....but....the only thing that would do is to add to the expense.

This free program called home-brew buddy is by far the easyest and most accurate way to go.www.taa.org.au/content/view/16.rc

I can get 5 gallons of a 50/50 nitromethane/methanol mix from a local VP Fuels dealer for $90.  I can get 5g of methanol for about $35 bucks.  Is this a good price and in a form that will be easy to mix to the proper proportions for boat and plane fuel?  Will a local automotive dealer carry castor oil, or would i be better off trying to make a castor synthetic blend? Where can i source both the castor and synthetic oils?

My local hobby shop sells Morgan Fuel Cool Power 30% Heli fuel which is a full synthetic fuel mix with 23% oil.  The Morgan fuels guy told me that the higher oil content will likely shorten the life of the glow plug.  Is this true?  Woudl i be better off just buying the heli fuel or trying to go ahead and mix my own to get exactly what i want for my boat, 30% Nitro/18% Oil, and for my planes 15%nitro/18% oil?

Yes, those are very good prices.  For your fuel mix you would use 76.8 ounces of the 50/50 nitro and methanol, 23 ounces of oil, and fill the remainder with methanol.  That will cost you about $16.40 asuming you paid about $20 a gallon for the oil.  Be sure the oil has at least some castor and you should be fine.  I doubt the extra oil would hurt your plug, but it would hurt performance.</p>

is that 23 fl oz or 23 oz by weight?

Also, where do you get the oil? does it come blended already, or do i need to buy both synthetic and castor?  Do i need a defoaming agent?

Fluid Ounces.  You can buy your oil from Fox, Sig, or Morgans.  It is about $20 per gallon for castor oil, and a little more for synthetic.  If there is a go kart racing shop in your area you may be able to buy oil cheap from them.  I also recall VP sells oil but you might have to buy 5 gallons at a time.</p>

Not a thing, keep right on doing it, your fuel will be justfine. We've done it that way for years. My 32 year old Kraft .61 fired up on the second flip after 32 years in the box.
hook

+++1 for 1QwkSport

It's actually a bit more complicated than this.

Yes, I'd say it's a safe bet all companies mix by volume (it's the simplest way to do it, after all). But the numbers they put on the label - that's something else altogether. In many cases, it's percentage by weight. Sort of an accounting trick to sell fuel with less nitro and oil than similarly marked fuel from their competitors. There are still companies that sell fuel marked in volume percents - SIG is one that comes to mind. Cool Power and Byron, supposedly, sell fuel marked in weight percents. So 15% nitro fuel from Cool Power and Byron would be equivalent to, say, 11% nitro fuel from SIG. It's worse with the oil - when they say 18% oil they mean about 14% by volume.

All the old fuel formulas that people hand down (e.g. the 28% castor fuel people run in Fox Stunts, or the rule-of-thumb that says 20% oil is a safe amount to use in general, or the 10% nitro, 20% castor formula used in F2D Combat, or 80/20 "FAI" fuel used in F3D, F2A and F1C) are all based on mixtures by volume. A lot of "RC" fuel sold these days doesn't conform to this practice.

I don't know why anyone would want to mix using a hydrometer - would this be to match some commercial fuel? Why would one want to?

Iskandar