[Land-speed] Alky Burner

[Dave Dahlgren]

I have never had an alky engine that needed more than a gasoline one ever... 
The octane of methanol is 102 most any racing gas is 108 to 118.. Well to be 
correct there is no octane numbers over 100 after that they are referred to 
as performance numbers. Did you try 32? If not why not LOL... On a dyno 
sheet always ask for both corrected and uncorrected HP and torque and write 
down on the sheet the weather conditions baro air temp and relative 
humidity. That way you can verify any corrected numbers are accurate. Better 
yet bring your own weather station and get those numbers yourself in the 
dyno cell seconds after the pull and close the door behind you on the way to 
help preserve the conditions in there. Usually I leave the baro sensor and 
air temp sensor in the cell and dash in to get RH.. That being said I only 
bother with this if it is a shop I have never worked with and am concerned 
about having a dyno that is either a bit 'fast' or 'slow'. A quick look will 
tell you if it is necessary or if the numbers don't make sense.

Tell me about the cam for a 5 liter engine 605 is painfully light..on alky.. 
duration at 0.050 lobe separation lift rockers all that jazz.  What size 
butterflies in the injector and assume 18 degree heads as they are very 
common. Compression ratio is of some concern as well and if this is 
proprietary just send them straight to me and not the list..

Now if things are a bit dicey at speedweek and it is wednesday or later and 
you need a mph or two I would take the chance of adding a degree or two of 
advance because of the density altitude... But it is the last thin to try 
not the first..
Dave

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Bryant" <saltracer at awwwsome.com>
To: <drmayf at mayfco.com>; "'James Tone'" <gmc6power at earthlink.net>; 
<neil at dbelltech.com>
Cc: "'LSR'" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Radiator Catch Cans...


> PS: an update on my alcohol burner...we dynoed last Saturday and found 
> that
> we were running too much timing, I think Dave and suggested that we try 
> less
> we were running 39-40 BTDC. We retarded to 36 and picked up hp, then
> retarded to 34 and picked up again.
> This dyno gave us 605 hp @ 8500 and was still climbing. Less hp than our
> previous dyno on gasoline in 2002 (665 @ 7900), but I was forewarned that 
> it
> would likely read less than other dynos because the atmospheric 
> adjustments
> are made automatically,  but was brutally honest. "Proof of the Pudding"
> will come at the Lakes in May.
>
> We ran 37 BTDC on gasoline back in 2003. One thing that may have 
> contributed
> to the need for less timing was that we changed cams after our blowup @
> Speedweek. The cam is just a wee bit bigger and was installed straight up.
> The previous set up ran 4 degrees retarded. What do you think?
>
> Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/FCC