I was down to my last gallon of home brew so I mixed up 10 gallons of 81.25% methanol and 18.75% Omega pink oil. You might be wondering why the strange percentages...... It's simply because I can mix 24 oz of oil fast and easy with the measuring cup I have. If you mix 24 oz of oil to 104 oz of methanol, it makes a 128 oz gallon. Super simple.

It really feels good to know that I'm not at the mercy of the nitro suppliers, whatever their excuse for high nitro prices. I fiqure I have around $10 per gallon invested. My only local hobby shop wants $22 a gallon for 15% fuel, taxes included.

If you've never tried to mix your own, give it a shot. All of my engines run fine on 0%. OS .91 FS. Magnum .91 FS, Magnum .61 2s, and so on.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

If an engine needs nitro at all it's probably because it has a poorly designed combustion chamber/piston crown combo and/or your compression ratio is too high.

Bill

No... if an engine needs nitro then odds are that the compression ratio is too *low*, not too high.

A high compression ratio will cause pre-ignition when nitro is added to the fuel and will run better with low/no nitro.

The reason most US engines are designed for nitromethane is simply because it makes engines much easier to tune.

Using a no-nitro fuel has a number of benefits including a lower rate of fuel consumption, less corrosion of engine internals and lower price.

I've been brewing my own fuel for nearly 50 years now and can't believe how much money people pay for store-bought stuff.

i have allways mixed my own fuels for both satisfaction and savings but just the other day i had to buy 1 litre of mixed fuel for my sons r/c car engine. what happened was this new car engine would not start up very easily, would not run properly, would not idle, would run very hot when running, i really thought i had a bad engine so it went back to the store and the first thing the guy said was what fuel are you using ? i said a 20% oil mix of coolpower and castor 50 - 50 plus only 5% nitro in the total mix. he said straight away this is not the fuel to use in a high performance car engine [ Force 28 ] reason is they have an ABC piston / liner and the castor etc does not work, so he filled up the tank with some ready mixed car fuel and the darn engine started and run perfectly. i could not beleive it plus embarrassed dad with son looking right at me . so i,ve learnt my lesson in whats good for aircraft engines is not good for car engines.

I gave my son similar advice when he bought his first car with a Mach 28 engine. I told him to just use his plane fuel which is 80/20 all castor and it ran like a charm . As for what the shop owner told you, I wonder if he knows that ABC control line speed engines (which are far more powerful than car engines) use exactly the same fuel as we used in the car?

No engine needs nitro, even one with very low compression.

I have experimented using 5% fuel in several Saitos, they run super smooth on it, the LS needle needs leaned a little but thats about it. My conclusion is that the "Saitos need nitro" fad, is bunk. They may respond favorably to it up to a degree but certainly don't need it. The only Saito that doesn't run well on the 5% is the little .30, it requires idling a little faster on the 5%.

so please tell me why this particular engine would not run on a custom mix of 20% oil which was a 50-50 mix of coolpower and castor, 75% methanol and 5% nitro ? this normal mix works fine in all my aircraft engines but definetly not in this car engine .

Ran some of my home brew today. Ran as well as the 15% at the local hobbyshop. I'm probably down 500 or so rpm's since no nitro but with a OS .91 four stroke on a Twist .40, it's managable. Actually it's just sick, it hovers at about 1/3 throttle and at half throttle, it's pretty dang fast...... No need for full throttle.

hey ghostrider ? your hobby shop seems to have cheap fuel at $22 a gallon [ 5 litres ] i had to pay $15 for 1 litre [ 1/5 th of a gallon ] of ready mixed 16%. how long does 10 gallons last you ?

Look at the [link=http://www.airsailmodels.co.nz/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?page=3]retail prices[/link] being charged by some NZ shops.

Scary eh?

That's why I make my own fuel. Works out at about NZ$25 per US gal for 5% nitro.

Here 3.78 liters make 1 US gallon. A year ago fuel was literally $14 a gallon for 15%. When at $22 a gallon, I'm saving $12 a gallon by mixing my own. During the summer, I can use 2 gallons a week on good flying weeks but probably average 1 gallon a week most of the time.