Methanol vs Ethanol vs Propanol Injection
 

Hi All,

I just installed an alchohol-water injection system, and I have been doing some research online. I have seen a few people recommend "Heet", as a substitute for methanol in a pinch.

In my research, I found methanol, ethanol and propanol online. Propanol is much less expensive to buy than the other two and, I believe, is the main ingredient in Heet. It has the property of binding to water and is used as a fuel system "dryer".

My question is: Is there a reason why methanol is the alchohol of choise in water-alchohol injection systems? I know that methanol is the most simple and basic of the alchohols... Maybe less byproducts in combustion? If so, then why does propanol work? What about ethanol?

-George
2006 NC, Begi S3 Turbo at 10psi, 300+ rwhp.

Methanol might have a higher octane.

The yellow bottle is 99% methanol. The red bottle (iso-heet) is iso-propanol.

I also know that when propane is burned, it forms methane. So perhaps, when propanol is burned, it forms methanol?

From Wiki:


The MON of n-heptane and iso-octane are exactly 0 and 100, by definition. The following table lists octane ratings for various other fuels.[4][5][10]

Fuel RON MON AKI
hexadecane < -30
n-octane -10
n-heptane (MON 0 by definition) 0
diesel fuel 15–25
2-methylheptane 23
n-hexane 25
2-methylhexane 44
1-heptene 60
n-pentane 62
requirement for a typical two-stroke outboard engine[6] 69 65 67
1-pentene 84
n-butanol 87
n-butane 91
"regular" gasoline in US and Canada 91–92 82–83 87
"EuroSuper" or "EuroPremium" 95 85–86 90–91
cyclohexane 97
"premium" gasoline in US and Canada 97-98 88–89 93
"SuperPlus" in Germany and Great Britain 98 89–90 93–94
iso-octane (MON 100 by definition) 100
benzene 101
"BP Ultimate 102"[7] 102 93–94 97–98
t-butanol 103 91 97
ethane 108
propane 110
toluene 111 95 103
E85 gasoline 105
xylene 117
isopropanol 118 98 108
ethanol 129 102 116
methanol 133 105 119
methane 135 122 129
hydrogen* > 130 very low[8]

Propanol as in isopropyl alcohol? Isopropyl alcohol dissolves oil and toluene. Oil coats the cyl walls and toluene is an octane additive found in gas.

I'm out of my league, so can't comment on if there's real world implications here.

Hey Ben,

It's the ingredient in "Heet".

When people say to use Heet for methanol in a pinch, they are talking about the yellow bottle which is actually methanol. Not iso-propyl.

Yeah, but the red bottle is still used in the gas, so if it effs up toluene, why?

You can look up heat of vaporization for meth, eth, and propanol, but I believe meth's is highest, which means it will take the most heat from the intake charge. It's probably also the least expensive in bulk.

It dissolves substances such as toluene. It's been a long time since I was in college, but I remember that there was a fancy latin phrase for "like will dissolve like". Toluene is a primary anti-det agent/octane booster, especially in high octane/race fuel.

Ok, I think that I'm convinced. Methanol and 50% distilled water it is!

I use straight Heet and thats it. Its worked awesome and at 1.50 a bottle, its not break the bank expensive

That's just silly. A 1:1 ratio of heet:water will basically cut cost in half and work better.

I just run straight water...

It was about $50 for a 5 Gallon container of 99.8% methanol. Heet works out to be about twice as much as that, but will certanly do in a pinch.

lol how much does 55 gallons of 99.9% pure methanol cost you over the years. I bet i paid less than 1/4 of what you would over the time. And still have about 50 gallons of 50/50 to sell to others. At a price that beets the price of heet and everyone else and still doesnt gouge me. The peice of mind in knowing even if i drive the car like a bad ass for a full year i wont run out is pretty nice as well. Hell i sold the fuel at pure strenght to people before i went down to a half barrel and diluted it to 50%. Local shop wanted like 7 dollars a gallon and didnt have the shit on hand all the time so win win situation imo.

You sir got screwed i would sell to you for 3 dollars a gallon of my 50/50. That adds up to 15 dollars for the 5 gallons you bought if only you where local :(

Another thing about ethanol is that it has to be denatured somehow (usually an additive) in order to avoid the alcohol tax. That probably makes it more expensive than methanol.

I worked as a tech in a biology R&D lab way back when and we used ethanol to sanitize everything. It was all denatured with some kind of sulphur compound IIRC to avoid the tax, and to keep people from making punch with it. Supposedly consumption would cause nausea. Whenever it flashed off of a surface, it left a very fine, very light residue. 'Pure' alcohol does not do that.

IPA has less octane, and is basically the least of the alcohols for what a kit is gonna do for you. IF its all you can get, use it, but know that you will need to use more to get the same affect as methanol.