Optech
Key Veteran
Location: San Diego, CA.
My Posts This: Topic Forum | | Quote |
| "A" using racing fuel w/alcohol without mixing in nitro pre-mix.
|
PapaSal,
1) Be advised that the gaskets used in the Walbro carb used on the Zenoah won't be tolerant of much more that the 10% or so of ethanol alcohol already added to pump gas.
2) Also, the Walbro is not jetted for a lot of alcohol. Alcohol has a different BTU than gas. As such, you must flow much more alcohol than gasoline to sustain combustion. Thats why glow motors are such fuel hogs. If you start adding a bunch of alcohol to the gas you may find it hard to get a proper needle setting. There is a caveat to this though which I talk about below.
3) Oils that will mix with gas don't always also mix with alcohol and vice-verse. If you mix a bunch of alcohol with the gas you'll have to make sure the oil you also use will be compatible. At least for a tank of gas while you fly. You can always re-shake the fuel bottle before you fill the flight tank.
4) These Zenoah engines are not made to run on more than about 97Octane fuel. Higher octane than that will not get you anything and might actually decrease performance or damage the engine..... From what I understand.
There is a group over on RCUniverse that has had alot of success with what they call "Glow/gas" or something like that. Check in the "engine conversions" forum. Basically what they are doing is replacing the spark plug with a glow plug adapter and a glow plug and mixing 50% Gas and 50% Glow Fuel. They justify it because you get the nice engine running characteristics of a Walbro carbed engine without the weight and hassle of ignition components. I've only glanced over the threads and decided it not something I wanted to do so I don't know much more about it. I don't know what this does to the carb gaskets or if you have to change the needle jetting I talked about above.
Personally, if there is no significant performance gain then why do it? I like the economy and low cost of gas only. Without it all you've got is an over weight .50 nitro.
Mike
Viva La Airtronics! |
.
