Thread: moth balls + gasoline

has anybody heard of mothballs in gasoline you take 1 mothball and add it to 1 gallon of gas it raises the octane level

In a word, yes.

Mothballs made out of Naphthalene will, but dissolving and reslidifing in your fuel-system could toss a monkey wrench in the system?

And not at a better cost then just reaching over to the next nozzle and buying already higher octane gas. For a say, say you buy 20 gallons of 85 test gas, but want 89 , that is a lot of mothballs, and not very consistent, some blends will get worst if the wrong combinations additives are added.

Mothball idea has been around for a long long time, also an old Drag-racing idea,,,,, but consistency wins races

Anyone here ever smell mothballs?

Yes, I like the smell of naphthalene mothballs.
And Shoer is right, they're not a good thing to put in your gas. First of all, if you can still find naphthalene mothballs, they're almost certainly not just pure naphthalene - they probably also contain some sort of binder or support, which might do any number of bad things depending on what it is. Also, have you ever seen naphthalene burn? Gasoline burns with a sooty flame, but naphthalene is so sooty that wisps of soot fall right out of the smoke a few inches above the burning naphthalene.
I'm not sure it's possible to raise the octane from 87 to 89 (or from 89 to 92 or 93) for less than 10 cents per gallon.* Gasolines vary in composition, so I don't even know whether to recommend TEL or TML in transportation gasoline. Heck, I'm not even sure which one they use in race gas these days! (TEL works best in gasolines with low aromatics content, and TML is actually better if the gas has alot of aromatics.)

*Just to verify this for myself, I did a quick calculation:
I think a gallon of xylene was about $12 here last I bought some, and Wikipedia says its (R+M)/2 octane is 117, which is pretty high. To make 89 octane fuel out of 87 octane gas, you'd need to end up with a mixture of 93.3333% 87-octane gas and 6.6666% xylene. So for a gallon of homebrew 89 octane, it'd be 0.933333gal x $3.45/gal + 0.066666gal x $12/gal = $4.02 per gallon for the homebrew versus $3.55/gal for the 89 octane gas from one nozzle over.

101 octane unleaded to 114 leaded. Gent at the bulk plant said they never add ethylene. Supposed to be all over west coast. 101 goes for $6.25 a gallon in Washington State.

Trick Racing Gasoline

Hobby Fuel? 70%Methanol 15%Nitromethane 15%Lubricants? This stuff makes two stokes run powerful and suprisingly cool. Works wonders in model cars to dirt bikes, why not chainsaws. Run it rich, sputtering rich.

running fuel over 95 octane in a stock or muffler modified stock saw will make it run worse. Don't even try the hobby fuel. If you must, make sure you flush the saw out with regular fuel. The methanol will eat the rubber in the carb, crank seals and the nitromethane will flake the paint from the inside of the crankcase, It isn't pretty.

Most saws don't have enough carb adjustment or fuel delivery capacity to run nitro and methanol without substantial modification to the carb and fuel systems.

Result is over reving the saw RPM towards 20,000 shortly before things come apart or meltdown. Like chopwood said nitro and methanol will eat at the insides of the saw surprisingly quickly too.

Also unless the saw is modified to run alternative fuel there is little to nothing to gain. Lots of cases high octane fuel makes for slower cut times. Though I have found that using high octane fuel permits more nitro to be added and that can gain a little time just by burning more though slightly less efficently.

Originally Posted by timberwolf

Most saws don't have enough carb adjustment or fuel delivery capacity to run nitro and methanol without substantial modification to the carb and fuel systems.

Result is over reving the saw RPM towards 20,000 shortly before things come apart or meltdown. Like chopwood said nitro and methanol will eat at the insides of the saw surprisingly quickly too.

Also unless the saw is modified to run alternative fuel there is little to nothing to gain. Lots of cases high octane fuel makes for slower cut times. Though I have found that using high octane fuel permits more nitro to be added and that can gain a little time just by burning more though slightly less efficently.

Hi All,

I have raced RC cars & boats for the last 16 years - in short, when nitro burns, it creates oxygen. This leads to a hotter burn, the more nitro in the mix, the hotter the burn, etc.
Heat up your gas burning donk, you will get extra revs, but at the cost of; you'll hammer the rings, burn the piston & sleeve, score the skirt, and eventually destroy your engine. Converting carbs to run super rich isn't easy (standard form can't do it) to run methanol - methanol has a lower flashpoint than petrol, i.e. petrol is higher on the volatility scale.
Best bet - my mates from KTM and Rotax tell me 100 octane fuel (petrol) 2T oil, or Rotax race blend, plus 5% methyl benzene. Any higher just means detonation, ignition timing retardation, ets., etc, all for less than 1% increase in power. seems hardly worth the trouble. just stick to the best petrol you can find, and a QUALITY oil, the rest is found on the carb needles!

Methyl benzene is more commonly known as toluene here in the States.

Originally Posted by ShoerFast

Anyone here ever smell mothballs?

How did you get the little legs spread apart ???

-Pat

Originally Posted by Patrick62

How did you get the little legs spread apart ???

-Pat

I was just asking,,,,, you must have tried? lol

Nitro-propane mixes readily with gas. It only has 70% the power adding quality that Nitro-methane has, but will not fall out of suspension with gasoline.

There are several other additives people use, but alot of them are skin absorbant carcinogenssp.

MEK and several eithers are popular, but seem to use as much oxygen as the provide to combust.

Use an oil that will mix with whatever power-adding agent you use or the fun is gone.

Fred

Originally Posted by Mr.

MEK and several eithers are popular, but seem to use as much oxygen as the provide to combust.


Fred

Fred,in case you didn' t know it MEK.methel ethel ketone is also a known cathanagenic.You guys that mix "rocket fuel" scare me to death and I'm fearless.

Yep, MEK is bad juju for your liver. If you read the MSDS on it, the acceptable PPM without a respirator is tiny. One safety guy told me once that if you can smell it in the air, you're over the limit and need a respirator. IIRC, it's not a filter respirator either, I'm talking external air source. That said, we used to use it to clean up after sealing antennas. Takes that 2 part aviation sealant off your hands in a hurry.

Ian

Originally Posted by Haywire Haywood

Yep, MEK is bad juju for your liver. Takes that 2 part aviation sealant off your hands in a hurry.

Fred