Street Tuna

It makes sense. Coming in at around $1 a litre, and having power producing properties well in excess of conventional gasoline based fuels, running a high performance LSX engine on Methanol (CH3OH) would seem to be the clear choice...however very few do it...particularly at a 'weekend racer' level. In fact using the factory management, we could find no one that had done it successfully....which is why we made it our business to make it happen

While there are good solid gains to be had running most any engine on Methanol, its the boosted engines like Gareths here that will show the most substantial results. A good 'nugget' for testing this Gen-TTR Intercooled Twin Turbo 346ci (5.7) LS1 has only pistons (JE) and rods (Eagle) as 'strengtheners'. Heads, head gaskets, head bolts (not studs) are all stock. Being a fan of the 'less is more' approach, and understanding that boost resistance or outright strength has little or nothing to do with alloy LS1 block failures (always a result of detonation), we intend to get the maximum from this engine, which should be somewhere around a nice comfortable 1000hp
With massive resistance to detonation, incredible in-cylinder intercooling and a general 'softness' on the engine due to its wide tuning spectrum, Methanol made the most sense to avoid the occurrence of 'head lifting' (detonation) and block damage (once more detonation) that can destroy an engine in milliseconds. While there are plenty out there that profess to be good tuners, part of the 'humbleness' of the job (and the self proclaimed beginners will learn this) is understanding that at the pointy end like this things can go wrong very fast for all sorts of reasons, so engineering in a buffer zone - in this case detonation resistant fuel - is a totally sensible concept

The catch is your engine will consume over twice the amount of Methanol than it will gasoline, so a serious fuel system is required to ensure adequate delivery up to the front of the engine. In this case we used 3 x Bosch 044 fuel pumps and a unique 'fuel manifold' arrangement that we designed in-house. It certainly gets some flow going, which in turn feeds into a set of our 'boost proof' fuel rails

Keeping with the 'big' fuel system theme is a set of Bosch Indy Methanol capable fuel injectors. Dwarfing the biggest high impedence petrol injectors normally used in LS1 engines (60lb/hour) these 160lb/hour injectors will enable Gareths engine to generate close to 1000hp at the crankshaft before they run out of delivery. We believe this to be a very achievable target for the little stock alloy block LS1

Allowing the factory LS1 computer to drive these massive low impedance fuel injectors are a pair of injector control modules (DW-ICM) that we designed in house to stop the 2 ohm Bosch Indy injectors from damaging the switched injector outputs in the PCM. We have wired this in such a way that swapping back to conventional LS1 injectors means nothing more complicated than joining up the bypass plug

The power and particularly the torque results of our conversion (on an Aussie Dyno Dynamics load dyno) are staggering. This was indeed a very very soft tune-up, with ignition timing figures nowhere near the peak possible values. Gently gently catch the monkey. The lower power and torque lines are 91 octane, the higher from running 100% Methanol
In an era where 700rwhp from an LS1 seems to be the streetable flavour of the month, this 650odd rwhp from an A4 might seem like a lot of work for little result. Look closer though and consider that at 3500rpm the alcohol burning twin turbo engine now generates over double the peak torque of an LS2 as found in your garden variety GTO. Average power between 3500 and 6500rpm comes in at 580rwhp. 850ft/lb of torque is there from 3800rpm. Translate those numbers to be somewhere near 700rwhp/900rwtq on a Dynojet
All of this at spot on 12psi boost pressure gives us massive scope for further improvements

Dragframe

iTrader: (14)

Interesting

firehawk123

nice work martin .good numbers to.

stevieturbo

Will all those alloy goodies be safe from the methanol ?

CamTom12

iTrader: (1)

good work, interesting conversion...

Street Tuna

Heres hoping so Stevie!
We do flush it after every 'session' so it sits there with unleaded gasoline in the system

Websy21

iTrader: (34)

wow, very interesting build there

TS6

iTrader: (41)

So you turned a street car into a race car for 700 RWHP? Have you seen what meth does to the oil?

Guys are making 1000+ on pump gas and meth injection, I guess I don't see the point in this project. You can't just drive around on meth, so you've severly limited the use of this vehicle.

njc.corp

i dont understand the point of this exercise?

pump gas is still better when u consider all the maintenice needed-

please explain to me the point of this exercise-

sr71

iTrader: (17)

while it's not for daily drivers, meth is fine for limited street use. when they turn the boost up, you will see the points.....more power, no lifted head or blown headgasket from detonation and a much cooler running engine. I've got the same thing up my sleeve for the next engine except with the compression adjusted to take full advantage of the methanol. imagine big boost on 11:1 compression with no detonation......

PLucas

iTrader: (1)

I think its a cool setup! Just wondering why you went with 3 inline boschs instead of one big inline pump?

98turbls1

iTrader: (17)

Most likely heat... Big inline fuel pumps are notorious for being obnoxiously loud and creating massive heat...

I think it's a great experiment... I really like things that are outside the box and this is one of those projects... Keep up the good work fellas...

Street Tuna

I wouldnt get too carried away with power numbers. Aussie ponies are different to the US ones. For example...this car with 500rwhp ran 10.2 @ 140mph last time out
Converters and A4s are notorious for killing the rear wheel readout, but the point is clear, the before and after numbers are there

BoostnTBSS

iTrader: (-1)

I congrats you on your setup!! Turbos and meth are made for eachother. i was going to run strait meth but on the street that is tough. so my set is E85 on the street and meth at the track =). look at all the fast turbo cars i dont know one which has had no head gaskets probs. and most of them run under 9-1 comp. i the thing going against meth is maint and not many classes allow it.

stevieturbo

I could give one reason.....and Tuna has already mentioned it.

Race gas might cost circa $30/40/50 per Gallon in Aus ( I know it would here in the UK )

Methanol might cost $5, at most, probably less....

So considering this is a mildly tuned car at present....if you wanted a cheap race fuel, methanol does have its good points.

CamTom12

iTrader: (1)

I think they mentioned it comes out to ~3.85 per gallon.... Not sure what current race-gas prices are in the US (been a while since I've played with it) but it's still a pretty interesting project. What are the major hazards to storing/running methanol over gasoline?

stevieturbo

Ummmmm its corrosive to aluminium and natural rubber, poisonous to humans ( skin contact should be avoided ), will ignite at a much lower temperature, and burns with an invisible flame......

Aside from that, its fine lol