With it becoming easier to get has anyone tried ethanol? It has a higher BTU rating per lb.

Using search option with key word "Ethanol" lots of threads on methanol ,Ethanol ,E85 ,denatured ethanol gasoline, Nitro methane, Nitroeth ethane Yada Yada.......

balsaeater

Ethanol has been around for ages - it is also known as Methylated Spirits. As balsaeater suggested, there has been past threads on RCUniverse about this very subject. Many people have been using the ethanol fuel mixes & if you are an experimentor or tinkerer, I could not think of a better way to spend a balmy afternoon mucking around with engines & fuel

In fact, 2 days ago at the flying field, I was bench testing ethanol fuel (80% ethanol & 20% castor oil) in a Royal 46 (OS 46SF clone). It ran quite ok but I had some carb problems (unrelated to the fuel) so did not get any RPM figures. Fear not, I will try again soon [8D]

OS and TT now sell engines that run on ethanol. Perhaps they would run well on E85?

I thought it was known as booze?![)]

Methylated spirits is denatured ethanol alcohol. Methylated spirits contain 5 or 10% methanol to render the ethanol non-drinkable (and dangerous to your eyesight!). It is generally NOT suitable as an alcohol source for model engines. These model engines run very well on METHANOL (wood grain alcohol), oil and with or without nitromethane. After the Oklahoma City bombing of the federal building, and in many countries, nitromethane is more difficult to impossible to purchase as an individual. In some countries, it is actually illegal to possess nitromethane. I am fortunate enough to have 54-gallon barrels of highly purified methanol, 30-gallon and 5 gallon barrels and pails of nitromethane, LOTS of AA castor oil and Benol racing castor and many oils up to and including jet turbine oil for my extreme rpm trials. With hazmat fees running through the roof, it is just expensive to even have fuel sent to your home or commercial address any more. Overseas, you can get Castrol M, but unless you need barrels or a tanker full, it is extremely difficult to buy it in the U.S. The old fuel mixing dinosaur.

You can buy nitromethane in the US as an individual. You can by fertilizer as well. It was mostly fertilizer and diesel fuel in the Oklahoma bomb, though nitro was added to give it an extra kick.

Yes you can buy nitromethane still in the U.S. as an individual. I buy 30-gallon barrels and 5 gallon pails and I promise you, they (VP Racing and other companies) want to know what you are going to do with it. In my bag of degrees, I have a BS in chemistry and a lot of advanced organic and inorganic chemistry, so can buy it regularly. I also have a pesticide license to apply herbicides and insecticides to my fields. One reason higher compression engines are sold overseas is that many modelers simply do not have the access to nitromethane we have here in the states. Possibly except for contest and racing, we use far more than most engines require and we are lucky to have a good reliable idle and more top end power, and good throttle transition. I remember the times at the King Orange Internationals in Miami, and smelled the nitrobenzene people were using in their fuels, propylene oxide and just about any other edge they could get in racing events. The nitrobenzene is the smell you smell most in Kiwi shoe polish. A number of folks still use a few percent acetone for easier starting and a better idle when nitromethane is in short supply. And yes, you can still buy ammonium nitrate fertilizer. I'll bet you a donut to a hole in a donut it is now marked by at least manufacturer, if not individual lots. My son was going to use it to take up a few stumps. Filled the entire hole with it and the appropriate solvent and ignition method. Worked really great, but after he busted out ALL the windows on the back of his house, he thought a bulldozer might do better. :-) I am sorry about the high hazardous materials fees to ship fuels. It is kind of ironic that you can ship large amounts in quarts, but the same amount, or even less in gallon jugs, is so hazardous. The logic of that kind of escapes me. It is a great hobby or sport, take your pick, and I have met a lot of very nice people while flying a lot and crashing a little. :-)