Methanol

[phil67]

Would methanol work in a glow engine, as we have a load of it at work for a project?

[dillwhacker]

Yes! Methanol is the main part of glow fuel...
It's the nitromethane and oil that is expensive.

[phil67]

Would I need to add anything to it?

[phil67]

so prob cheaper to buy it ready mixed then

[1chris]

20% Oil and some nitro if you want to, used to always mix it myself many years ago

[dillwhacker]

I still have a gallon of Nitro in my garage left over from 1995...
Tempted to pour it down the drain and chuck a match down the next drain !

Come to think of it...I've still got a gallon or 2 of 80% Hydrogen peroxide and a couple of gallons of ethanol / hydrazine mix lurking somewhere, from the days when we thought we could design our own liquid fuelled rocket motor.
Maybe just bung them all down some drains and see what (subsidence) happens ?

[electricsceadu]

mix the correct amount of oil with it and run with no nitro
but you may need to remove a shim from the cylindser head to increase the compression
rossi engines like no or low nitrol fuel

[skatefreak]

Yes.
You can defiantly mix your own fuel.
I have lots of cheap methanol as I use it to make bio diesel and am experimenting to try find a suitable oil that does not cost the earth to bring down the cost of flying.
Any suggestions floating around out there?
The model specific oils are good and will do the trick but do cost a fair bit and only make it marginally cheaper than buying straight (no nitro) fuel.
Bio diesel (methyl Easters) it would appear make a good oil substitute however methanol will not hold enough in suspension when its cold so at the moment its not an option (will only hold 8%).

Best regards

-Jvr

[Grumpy]

Two stroke motorcycle oil should work.

[dieselcarb]

if you have your own business or know some 1 who has set up a trade acount with model technics and buy some klots off em

[pchristy]

Two stroke motorcycle oil should work.

Not necessarily! Just because an oil dissolves in petrol doesn't mean it will dissolve in methanol. Castrol used to produce two grades of castor oil - Castrol "R" for petrol and "M" for methanol, and woe betide anyone who mixed them up!

Glow engines run quite hot in helis - hotter than in planks, where they are usually hanging out in the breeze. That's why we don't use castor oil in helis anymore. At high temperatures, it bakes onto the engine (inside as well as out!) as a varnish. This makes the engine run even hotter! It can also turn into lumps of coke in the silencer!

Oil for helis needs to be a very special blend, hence the price. Synthetics tend to only work well over a limited range of temperatures, so it is usual to use a blend of several synthetics in order to provide protection outside the normal operating range. Klotz is generally reckoned to be the best stuff you can get for our application, but even that is often blended with a bit of EDL to protect the engine in the odd lean run.

In any event, there's a lot more to heli fuel than simply bunging 20% castor into methanol, as in days of yore....