Top Fuel Dragster Fuel Pump Demo single cylinder

Thirdgen89GTA

Aka "That Focus RS Guy"
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Sep 19, 2010
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Bill
Nitromethane has one hell of a low stoich! :bigthumb:

Isn't it like 1.7:1?

I think I did the math for the 30% Nitro I used to run in my Nitro R/C cars and yeah, that stuff runs pretty rich.

That little 5cc engine in my RC car could drain a 150cc tank of fuel in 4 minutes doing WOT runs in a field.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
Isn't it like 1.7:1?

I think I did the math for the 30% Nitro I used to run in my Nitro R/C cars and yeah, that stuff runs pretty rich.

That little 5cc engine in my RC car could train a 150cc tank of fuel in 4 minutes doing WOT runs in a field.


You are exactly correct. 1.7:1 I used to do stoich calculations for R/C cars too. I wanted to maximize power output for the best accel.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
If I remember correctly, in certain conditions, nitromethane pretty much doesnt need any air to combust - or spark for that matter.

Also, very volatile and unpredictable in raw form. Its said that you could drop a drum of it and it might explode on impact of the ground, or it will do absolutely nothing.


Nitro does have a high oxygen content contained within the fuel itself, so it can burn without extra oxygen, from what I understand. However, the burn is nowhere near as efficient as when it also has the added oxygen from the atmosphere in the mix as well.

No fuel "needs" spark to burn, per se, as long as the compression is high enough. But IMO, having the air:fuel mixture ignite at a specific predefined time will be best for producing the most power without risking the powertrain. Diesels don't do it that way, but with such a volatile fuel as nitro I would think that the window of flash point would be narrow enough that auto-ignition would not be a viable way to accurately control the start of the flame-front.

I don't know about impactual shock forces would cause nitro to randomly explode or not. I could be wrong, but that sounds like a wives tale to me. I may have to google that one. haha

EDIT: I just looked it up on the Dow website and the Nitro MSDS. Nitro does not explode due to shock forces from dropping it while in drums during normal conditions. The test consisted of airplane drops of 55gal drums of nitro onto other drums of nitro from low altitude. No explosions or other Nitroglycerine-like effects there.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
:eek3: that's a lot!

At least you turbo guys know what fuel pump to buy when your current one maxes out :rofl:


One fuel pump... who has only one fuel pump? Haha, why have one fuel pump in your car when you can have two?



It is amazing to me that those motors don't hydro-lock

It just goes to show the sheer amount of airmass that those engines move in a given period of time to require that much fuel. Of course, the extremely low stoich point of nitro comes into the picture as well, too.
 
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