i sent my carb back to Patrick and had it converted to alcohol. also updated the entire fuel system to include a magnafuel prostar 500 pump, aeromotive 13202 regulator and installed a return. -10 from cell to the pump, -8 from pump to regulator, -8 to carb and a -10 return all per patricks instructions.

with no tuning yet, i picked up .005 in 60', .10 in et and 2mph. i had some fuel pressure issues going through the traps (dropped to 6psi, should be around 10-11) after talking to patrick, he advised me to move the regulator to within 6-8" from the carb. he builds something into the carb where i run a vac.line from the boost reference on the regulator to a port he installed into my baseplate. the vac. line was 36" long the way i had it. he advised the long line couldn't bleed off the vacuum quick enough so i needed to shorten it. he thinks there is a couple mph left when i get the fuel pressure back up to where it should be.

i love alcohol. the car cools down to 150 just on the return road. the car is also very consistant now. i dialed a 6.23 in the first round and never changed it. ran a 6.238, 6.239 and 6.241. the last few weeks there was .10 difference between morning time runs and the first round at 2:00pm. I lost in the third round due to my delay box taking a crap.(crossover quit working)i left before the the second bulb. it was an old digital delay thumbwheel style. replaced it with a new Biondo so we will see if i can go some rounds tomorrow.

mike

What is the cost difference vs race fuel?

i was paying $350 for a drum of torco 114 octane. now i'm paying $145 for a drum of alcohol and $8 for a bottle of top end lube. i'm using a little more fuel now but the consistancy and the quicker cool downs are well worth it.

the track was pretty bad today. 96* temps and very greasy. went to the 1/4's and went .008 red. the new delay box is great. my old box must have had some problems. i had a .990 delay in the old one with fairly consistant .008-..015 lights. with the new box i'm at 1.040 delay with very consistant .004-.010 lights.(except for the big red one):)

mike

Mike, there will be more and more weekend warriors doing this as time goes by.

Glad its working well!

Been running alky since last year. I love it. I just paid $175 for my last drum though?:mad:

how is the mantience of using alky? I have been thinking of going to it for my turbo set up. Ive heard it a pain. congrats on the new best.

how is the mantience of using alky? I have been thinking of going to it for my turbo set up. Ive heard it a pain. congrats on the new best.

Depends on who you ask. IMO, as long as everything in your fuel is alcohol compatable, there is not much maintenance involved. I use Klotz KL-100 additive. It's not their 100% synthetic alcohol additive, it's actually for 2-cycle engines and contains 20% castor oil, 80% synthetic. It's supposed to cut down on corrossiveness according to the local alky gurus. I always warm the engine up completely, every time I start it if possible. Before I leave it sitting for a week or two, I warm it up to 190-200 degress. Spray some wd-40 into the carb before shutting it off. I also turn off the fuel pump and let the bowls run out of fuel before shutting it off. Then I pull the breathers out of the valve covers to let any condensation evaporate.

A lot depends on the carb. If the carb is set up right, it will idle lean enough so you don't have problems warming the engine up, and it doesn't contaminate the oil(much). I've had one of Patrick's alcohol Dominators on my engine to test a little. It ran well, idled well, no problems. It was not any faster than my locally built alky Dominator though. Both carbs run well all around. I've not had the oil look milky at all. I do change it more often than when I ran race gas, but I'm not sure it is needed.

I found the same thing with the delay boxes. I run the dedenbear boxes and when I had the pushbutton manual number box it had less delay then when I put a digital box in. Now I'm much higher on the delay. I just raised it until it went green.